The Cellar- Review

Meredith Willis is suspicious of Adrien, the new guy next door. When she dares to sneak a look into the windows of his house, she sees something in the cellar that makes her believe that Adrien might be more than just a creep—he may be an actual monster.

But her sister, Heather, doesn’t share Meredith’s repulsion. Heather believes Adrien is the only guy who really understands her. In fact, she may be falling in love with him. When Adrien and Heather are cast as the leads in the school production of Romeo and Juliet, to Heather, it feels like fate. To Meredith, it feels like a bad omen. But if she tries to tear the couple apart, she could end up in the last place she’d ever want to be: the cellar. Can Meredith convince her sister that she’s dating the living dead before it’s too late for both of them?

My thoughts:

I was initially thrilled to find the galley for this book on Netgalley. For anyone who is a blogger, Netgalley is the next best thing to sliced bread. (or a fresh kidney, zombie horde!) I liked the interplay between the sisters, Heather and Meredith. The death of their father haunts the whole family, but is hardest on Heather, as it was her fault because she was playing with her cell phone and caused the accident that killed him. She sinks further into depression and only snaps out of it when she meets Adrien, the new charismatic guy that just moved in next door.

Meredith is also haunted by her father's death, and feels guilt because of an optical problem that made Heather have to drive on that fateful day. She meets the new guy Adrien and gets the creeps. Out of the corner of her eye, she keeps seeing weird things whenever Adrien is around.

Things are not as they would seem and as Meredith comes closer to the truth about why Adrien and his mother are there, the more she and her family are in danger. This is the part that kind of pushed the scale to a 3 out of 5.

Zombies. I love them or I wouldn't have this blog, right? I think if you are going to put a zombie as a bad guy with sentient thought, there has to be some layering going on to make it believable. I found the "classic villan" flavor of bad guy to be a little disappointing in this scenario. I did not altogether find Heather's reaction to Adrien believable either.

While the interplay between the sisters was good and the plot tension flowed, I wanted to see a bit more depth to the zombie family's motives and inner thoughts beyond the munching sounds of the neighbor being fileted.