In this ghost story, McCann (the Wake trilogy) delivers an atmospheric but unsatisfying tale of smalltown horror. Kendall Fletcher, a soccer player with obsessive-compulsive disorder who dreams of performing on Broadway, is determined to escape her tiny hometown of Cryer's Cross, Mont., by getting into Juilliard. When her best friend, Nico, is the second student to vanish mysteriously in recent months, it throws Kendall's ordered life into disarray. Soon, enigmatic daydreams and clues lead her to believe that Nico is the latest victim of a supernatural mystery, and she may be the next target. A handsome but surly newcomer, Jacián, may be the key to surviving whatever is preying on the teens of Cryer's Cross. While the remote, rural setting is laden with potential (the one-room high school has only 24 students) and the constant whirring of Kendall's OCD-afflicted mind adds an interesting dimension, the elements never completely gel. McMann handles the buildup of the story's tension well, but her resolution feels quick and easy, and even bloody final revelations can't mitigate a premise that's far more silly than spooky. Ages 14–up. (Feb.)
Cryer's Cross
Narrated by Julia Whelan
Lisa McMannUnabridged — 5 hours, 27 minutes
Cryer's Cross
Narrated by Julia Whelan
Lisa McMannUnabridged — 5 hours, 27 minutes
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Overview
But when Cryer's Cross is rocked by unspeakable tragedy, Kendall shoves her dreams aside and focuses on just one goal: help find her missing friends. Even if it means spending time with the one boy she shouldn't get close to... the one boy who makes her question everything she feels for Nico.
Determined to help and to stay true to the boy she's always loved, Kendall keeps up the search--and stumbles upon some frightening local history. She knows she can't stop digging, but Kendall is about to find out just how far the townspeople will go to keep their secrets buried.... “Cryer's Cross is an eerie, gripping, totally addictive, breathtaking whirl of a book with an ending that left me haunted for days. Lisa McMann has done it again-this book is unputdownable!” --Alyson Noël, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Immortals series. "A brilliant, engaging, scary piece of fiction. Every word had me sliding closer to the edge of my seat and gripping the cover tighter and tighter. There are books in the world that make you question your reality and the things that go bump in the night--this is one of them." --Heather Brewer, New York Times bestselling author of the Chronicles of Vladmir Tod series
Editorial Reviews
"A brilliant, engaging, scary piece of fiction. Every word had me sliding closer to the edge of my seat and gripping the cover tighter and tighter. There are books in the world that make you question your reality and the things that go bump in the night—this is one of them." —Heather Brewer, New York Times bestselling author of The Chronicles of Vladmir Tod
“Cryer's Cross is an eerie, gripping, totally addictive, breathtaking whirl of a book with an ending that left me haunted for days. Lisa McMann has done it again—this book is unputdownable!”
—Alyson Noël, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of THE IMMORTALS series.
"Cryer's Cross is creepy, mysterious, and completely absorbing. The intimacy of McMann's small town setting makes this novel especially gripping—and foreboding. Kendall is an excellent protagonist, and her struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder not only add a whole new fascinating dimension to the story, but the way McMann uses it to uncover a vital clue to the mystery of disappearances in Cryer's Cross is brilliant. Cryer's Cross is peppered with snatches of narrative from the force behind the disappearances, which gives the story extra urgency and suspense, so by the final chapters, you'll hardly be able to keep still. Tragic, emotional, sometimes humorous, and full of tension, Cryer's Cross is one stand-out novel and possibly Lisa McMann's best book yet."
—The Compulsive Reader (thecompulsivereader.com)
"This book was so, so, so good! [It's] creepy, addicting and the tension builds page by page. I also love the fact that the story concept is completely original! There isn't a werewolf or a vampire to be found in this book :) Go get it! You won't be disappointed!"
—Jennifer, latebloomeronline.com
"Wow. Just wow. It was absolutely haunting.
I have never read anything that focused around OCD. It was interesting to be in the mind of someone who has it and to know what they are feeling and thinking. Having to obsess over such things must be extremely stressful and [McMann] portrays that beautifully.
I think the story was fantastic. It was very well put together. It was so creepy! Adding the OCD issue made it even more intriguing. I swear at some points of the books I really had goosebumps."
—Missy @ tworeadersreviews.blogspot.com
"Lisa McMann, the bestselling author of the Wake trilogy, brings us another exciting thriller with CRYER'S CROSS. As always, she grabs a hold of her readers in the first paragraph and propels them through the pages with trepidation, curiosity and foreboding. Scattered between chapters are short, cryptic messages from an unknown source, adding to the mystery and suspense. In this story, McMann tackles the complications of OCD, and she does so with grace and empathy; one can't help but feel Kendall's frustrations as she attempts to deal with her difficult and confusing disorder. Kendall, of course, is the book's most fascinating character, though others add intrigue as well, including the dark and sullen new boy at school.
CRYER'S CROSS is an exciting page-turner of a thriller that fans will not want to see end, leaving them impatiently waiting for McMann's next book. "
—teenreads.com
Gr 7 Up—There's a secret in the small Montana community of Cryer's Cross that is killing teens. Tiffany disappears first and after hunting everywhere for her, the community regroups and moves on. Kendall is stunned when her best friend, Nico, goes missing without a trace at the beginning of the next school year. After Nico's disappearance, Kendall recalls that he grew more and more distant in the days before he vanished. Kendall discovers that Nico and Tiffany both sat at the same desk before they disappeared, and now she begins to hear voices coming from that desk. Kendall suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and begins to think that the condition is finally making her go crazy. But the lure of the voices is too strong and Kendall follows them until she uncovers a lot more than she bargained for. Latino newcomers to town are suspected in the disappearances in this close knit community and Kendall doesn't know whom to trust. Julia Whelan reads Lisa McMann's thriller (Simon Pulse, 2011) that combines mystery, ghosts, and romance in a straightforward yet easygoing manner that nicely offsets the building tension as the mystery unfolds. For fans of the supernatural and vampire stories.—Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
High-school junior Kendall Fletcher begins to have real trouble with her obsessive-compulsive disorder after a freshman girl disappears without a trace from her tiny, rural town. When her boyfriend Nico goes missing next, Kendall's OCD symptoms worsen, and she starts to fall apart completely. She begins to hear Nico's voice calling for help and discovers messages scrawled in what used to be his desk. Readers know from the beginning that Kendall isn't crazy, because several chapters, including the very first one, are preceded by italicized passages titled "WE" that reveal the presence of a supernatural entity in Cryer's Cross. But what exactly is it? What town secrets does it conceal? And will Kendall succumb to it, as Nico did? Fans of supernatural thrillers will enjoy this one despite the fact that the resolution is too sudden and the "WE" passages are much more bewildering than scary. The present-tense narration gives the story a sense of immediacy, and the budding romance between Kendall and sexy newcomer Jacián boosts its teen appeal. (Supernatural thriller. 14-18)
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170435067 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Simon & Schuster |
| Publication date: | 02/08/2011 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
Read an Excerpt
Cryer’s Cross
Everything changes when Tiffany Quinn disappears.
Of the 212 residents of Cryer’s Cross, Montana, 178 join Sheriff Greenwood in a search that lasts several days from sunup to after dark. School is closed, all the students taking part, searching roads and farms, trudging through pastures of cattle and horses, through sections of newly planted potatoes, barley, wheat. Up to the foothills and back along the woods. They travel in groups of two or three, some nervous, some crying, some resolute. Shouting to the other groups now and then so nobody else goes missing—cell phones aren’t much good out here. Cryer’s Cross is a dead spot.
After five days there is still no trace of Tiffany Quinn. She is gone, impossibly. Impossibly, because to imagine that there has been foul play here in the humble town of Cryer’s Cross is laughable, and to imagine that sweet ninth-grade bookworm running away, going off on her own . . . It’s all so impossible.
But gone she is.
Still, they search.
Kendall Fletcher flinches and casts regular glances behind her out of habit. Scared about the younger girl’s disappearance, true, but also unsettled by this shake-up in her schedule. The final week of her junior year canceled—everything left unfinished, open ended. Her whole routine is off.
She walks the hundreds of acres of her parents’ farm and beyond into the woods, wearily counting her steps through the potatoes and grain fields and trees. Counting, always counting something.
Her best friend, Nico Cruz, walks next to her.
Boyfriend, he’d say.
But boyfriend means commitment, and commitments that she can’t keep tend to make Kendall feel prickly. “Come on,” she says. “Let’s run.”
She takes off through the field, and Nico follows. They pass an imaginary soccer ball between the rows, occasionally yelling out “Tiffany!” Once, after they cross over to Nico’s family’s land, they see a big brown lump where the barley field meets the gravel road, but it’s not Tiffany. Just a road-killed deer.
She’s not here. She’s not anywhere.
They take a break under a tree at the edge of the farm as rain starts to fall. Kendall stares and counts the drops as they hit the gray dirt, faster and faster.
Nico talks, but Kendall isn’t listening. She needs to get to a hundred drops before she can allow herself to stop.
Eventually the search ends. Nothing more can be done locally except by professionals now. It’s prime planting season. Farmers have chores, and students do too. Plus jobs, if they work in town or for one of the farmers or ranchers. Life has to go on.
It’s a long, hot summer full of hard work for Kendall. For everyone. After a month or two, people stop talking about Tiffany Quinn.
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