My work has been steadily interrupted by "The Harrowing" - the debut novel by Alexandra Sokoloff - for the last two days.In a word: "wow".
In several: The book tells the story of five students alone in a creepy old dormitory on the Baird campus over a four-day Thanksgiving weekend. Sounds like pretty standard fare, right? Wrong. This is the first book I've read in a long time, that I just couldn't put down. Sokoloff keeps the story tight and the pace lightning fast. Beyond that, on a personal level I had such a bonding with the characters that I found myself biting my nails with worry over what would happen to them.
I'm loathe to go into too much detail for fear of giving anything away. "The Harrowing" is a top notch example of what a horror/suspense novel can be, and should be. Absolutely fantastic.
Rated 5 out of 5
(Originally reviewed in "The Daily Cave" on September 27th, 2007)
