This weeks challenge is about Horror Books. For this weeks post I chose The Merciless (The Merciless #1) by Danielle Vega. This is by far one of the best horror books that I have ever read! It kept me guessing on what was going to happen and that ending OMG. To top it off its a series that I could not put down. However, I still need to read the last book. Let us know what books you read off of this weeks topic in the comments below and make sure to join us next week!
About the Book:
Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned
Brooklyn Stevens sits in a pool of her own blood, tied up and gagged. No one outside of these dank basement walls knows she’s here. No one can hear her scream.
Sofia Flores knows she shouldn’t have gotten involved. When she befriended Riley, Grace, and Alexis on her first day at school, she admired them, with their perfect hair and their good-girl ways. They said they wanted to save Brooklyn. They wanted to help her. Sofia didn’t realize they believed Brooklyn was possessed.
Now, Riley and the girls are performing an exorcism on Brooklyn—but their idea of an exorcism is closer to torture than salvation. All Sofia wants is to get out of this house. But there is no way out. Sofia can’t go against the other girls . . . unless she wants to be next. . . .
In this chilling debut, Danielle Vega delivers blood-curdling suspense and terror on every page. By the shockingly twisted end, readers will be faced with the most haunting question of all: Is there evil in all of us?
About the Author: Danielle Vega spent her childhood hiding under the covers while her mother retold tales from the pages of Stephen King novels. As an adult, she can count on one hand the number of times in her life she's been truly afraid. Danielle has won numerous awards for her fiction and nonfiction, including a 2009 Pushcart Prize nomination for her short story "Drive." She lives in Brooklyn. Follow her on Twitter @dvegabooks
Publisher: Razorbill
Recommended Age: Young Adult
Goodreads | Amazon
C H A P T E R S I X
“I still don’t understand why it would bleed so much.” Mom wraps up the chicken we just had for dinner in tinfoil while I fill the sink with soapy water and start the dishes. I shrug, staring at a folded dishtowel next to the sink. It’s red and white with a picture of a rooster on it. “It was a really big zit,” I say. I cleaned the blood from my face and covered the piercing with a Band-Aid before my mom saw it, but I’ve had to change the Band-Aid twice since she’s been home. Already the new one is red with blood.
Mom puts the chicken in the fridge, frowning as she closes the door. Our phone rings, and Mom leans over the counter and picks it up. “Flores residence,” she answers. A tinny-sounding voice echoes from the other end of the receiver, and Mom smiles. “One moment. It’s your friend Riley,” she says, handing me the phone. “She says she has a homework question. Just don’t take too long.”
I slip out the back door with the phone and curl up in the wooden chair on our patio. Our backyard stretches forever, without any streetlights or nearby houses to break it up. It’s unnerving, like being walled in on all sides with empty space. Insects buzz restlessly, like white noise. I tuck my legs beneath me.
“Riley?” I say into the phone.
“Sof? I saw you with Brooklyn!” My stomach twists, but Riley continues talking before I can worry about whether she changed her mind about the spying. “Why didn’t you tell me? What did you find out?”
“Nothing, really. She took me with her to get a tattoo.” I run a finger along the edge of the bandage on my forehead but decide to keep the details of my piercing to myself.
“That’s it?” Riley sounds disappointed. I lower my hand, quiet for a second as I try to work out what I want to say.
“What did you expect me to find?” My voice comes out sharper than I intend, but I don’t apologize for it. Riley said she was trying to help Brooklyn, but it sounds like she just wanted her to screw up.
“She skinned a cat and left it outside our school.” Riley’s voice has an edge to it. “Or did you forget?”
I press my lips together to keep myself from arguing. Riley thinks Brooklyn skinned that cat. Tattoos and cigarettes aren’t in the same league as animal mutilation.
Riley clears her throat.
“Are you okay, Sof? She didn’t hurt you, did she? Or manipulate you in some way?” The concern in Riley’s voice is real, and suddenly I feel terrible. Riley’s been a real friend to me since I got here, not Brooklyn. I exhale and shake my head, pulling at a piece of loose skin near my fingernail.
“No, it was nothing like that. She was . . .” Cool. The word pops into my head uninvited. “She was weird,” I finish instead.
As the word leaves my mouth I realize it’s just as true. Brooklyn was cool, but I get what Riley means— something about her did feel off. I think of her slender fingers on Santos’s needles, her wolfish grin, and how she persuaded me so effortlessly to get a piercing. She made it too easy to be bad.
“Maybe I’ll find something better tomorrow,” I mumble. There’s a beat of silence. I clear my throat. “How are things between you and Josh?”
“Oh, didn’t you hear? We’re all better now,” Riley says. “He sent flowers to my class third period. Roses.”
“Wow. That’s great.”
“Listen,” Riley says before I can continue. “I just want to say I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable when I asked you to hang out with Brooklyn.”
“Riley, you didn’t,” I insist. “Really.”
“It’s just that I think she really needs help. I have this feeling like she’s standing on the edge of a cliff and she’s about to go over. Like she’ll fall if we don’t help her.”
I run my thumb over a cuticle in slow circles. I try to picture Brooklyn at the edge of a cliff, her combat boots sending rocks off the edge, but it just doesn’t fit with the girl I hung out with this afternoon. Brooklyn was having fun, not crying out for help. “You really think it’s that bad?”
“I really do. Did she tell you she’s having a party tomorrow?”
“She didn’t mention it.”
“Well, I heard some kids talking about it at school. It’s supposed to be intense. You should go.”
I run my tongue over my lips, which are dry now from the cold creeping over the yard. The last party I went to was in a house in the woods, next to the train tracks that ran through town. A bunch of football players stood just inside the door, loudly rating every girl who walked past, and every time a train rolled through, the whole house shook and everyone took a shot.
When I don’t answer right away, Riley starts to plead. “Come on, Sofia! There’s a reason I picked you for this. Some people have evil inside them, but that’s what God is for, to fix them when they can’t fix themselves. We can still fix Brooklyn.”
The insects in the yard have gone still, but wind sweeps over the grass and pounds against the windows. I shiver and pull my arms around my chest. Grandmother used to pray for people in her neighborhood when she thought they needed strength. This isn’t any different, I guess. Riley’s just a little more active with her faith. Grams would probably like her.
“Sof? Are you still there?”
“Yeah,” I say. “I’ll do it. Promise.”
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FTC Guidelines: In accordance with FTC guidelines regarding endorsements and testimonials for bloggers, I would like my readers to know that many of the books I review are provided to me for free by the publisher or author of the book in exchange for an honest review. If am compensated for any reviews on this site I will state that post has been sponsored.
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