REVIEW: Scream Site

Review: Scream Site
Author: Justina Ireland

Sabrina Sebastian dreams of being an investigative reporter. Right now she's a reporter for her school's paper, The Mount Clare High School Weekly, but she has her eyes set on a internship at the Daily Sun. A real reporting job! She wants to write an exciting story that will get her noticed. She decides to look into rumors surrounding a horror website, Scream Site. The site is sponsoring a contest to award a big prize to the maker of the video with the most likes and shares at the end of the year. But, rumors are circulating that girls who have posted popular videos to the site are disappearing. Sabrina starts researching the site and the rumors and discovers the stories might just be true. The whole thing might just revolve around the sponsors of Scream Site, a closed amusement park and a Scream Site user, Shady99. When she starts looking deeper into the disappearances, she starts receiving threats. Her perfect news story might just be a bit more dangerous than she thought!

The premise for this story makes for a great YA horror story. Horror video site gone horribly wrong. And for the first 2/3 of the book, I was completely engrossed in the plot. But....the ending fell flat for me. I felt the ending was rushed and a bit too convenient....a "safe'' ending? While it is important to remember the audience a book is written for, I think the end for this one was a bit too childish.....like an old Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys ending. Too soft. I was waiting for a horrific finish......and I didn't get it.

But, I enjoyed the story up to that point. My son, who is a YouTube fanatic, would like this book. I think he would have the same comments about the ending that I did though.

I liked this book enough to read more by this author. The story was engaging and interesting. My only problem with it was the ending. I wanted more of a Scream from Scream Site. Justina Ireland has written several other YA books including Dread Nation and Vengeance Bound. Dread Nation sound so interesting! A zombie story set back in the Civil War era....definitely added to my TBR list!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Capstone via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**