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Title: The Witch's Daughter (The Blair Witch Files, Case File 1) by Cade Merrill, Carol Ellis ISBN: 0-553-49362-0 Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers Pub. Date: 25 July, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.64 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Heather's younger cousin investigates the Blair Witch.
Comment: After his older cousin, Heather Donahue, who was like a sister to him, dissapeared not far from his home in Burkittsville, MD, Cade Merill decided to try and find out what could have happened to her. So he gathers information and evidence and from that sets up a website he calls the Blair Witch Files. He encourages people who visit the site to email him if they have an info on the Blair Witch. Now seventeen, Cade has gathered extensive info on supernatural happenings that could have been caused by the Blair Witch. This book is "written" by Cade and tells about a teenage boy name Justin who emailed Cade with his story. Justin's grandfather Harper had lived in an orphanage as a young boy. Along with his friends he tormented an orphan girl named Lee. The girl dissapeared near Burkittsville for a year before showing up at another orphange. After that, all her tormenters began to die mysteriously over the years, and now only Harper is left. He insists that Lee is still sixteen, the age she was when she dissapeared, and that she is pure evil and out to get him. Justin's research leads him to discover that Lee kept a diary that claimed she lived with the Blair Witch for a year, adopted as her daughter and endowed with supernatural powers and a thirst for revenge. This series has a "Blair Witch Project" meets "Fear Street" premise, so if you like either of those, you'd probably like this book.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Page Turner
Comment: I bought this book at a dollar store and once I started reading it, I could hardly put it down. Cade Merrill is a talented writer. He makes you feel sympathy for the young Lee Irwin as he describes her life growing up in an abusive boys' orphanage. She eventually becomes The Blair Witch's chosen daughter then she gets her revenge! I felt the storyline was great but I feel the scene where the Witch takes Lee under her wing in the woods should have been drawn out more. There wasn't enough to show why Lee decided to follow in her "mother's" footsteps other than just seeking revenge. But Merrill did a fine job of making the conclusion unpredictable with plenty of suspense. I highly recommend this book. But if you read it at night, do so at you're own risk...
Rating: 2
Summary: So-so.
Comment: When he was a child, Harper Kemp and the other orphan boys tortured poor Lee Irwin, leaving her miserable life in ruins. As the years went by, the boys grew up and died in bizarre "accidents", and a regretful Harper Kemp finds himself an old man, traped in a failing body hooked to hospital machinery.
The only hope is that grandson Justin Petit will find Lee Irwin before she finds Harper.
Let's start with the first weak link in the chain. Justin Petit is a two-dimensional, atypical horror hero. The Freddie Prince, Jr. of prose, Justin's a great fella, he simply lacks depth. He and his grandfather have no past relationship. His sole motivation for believing the tale is "It'll make him feel better." Yeah, sure. And as for Harper, all he does is rant and rave. "Get me out of here! She's coming!" I desperately needed some form of connection between these two!
The story takes an early twist when Justin meets a pretty young nurse named Leslie Wolf, but her intentions are painfully obvious and I often felt like smacking Justin upside the noggin! Things are slow with a few scares that have nothing to do with the plot, but the story almost picks up when the diary of Lee Irwin is found. Her capture by Rustin Parr, an important figure in Blair Witch lore, should be a wonderful obervation and descent into insanity, but the serial killer is reduced to a Leatherface-style redneck hobbling around at the bidding of a ghostly woman - the Blair Witch. Suspense is forgotten. Nothing new is explored. The opportunity is wasted.
The novel jumps back and forth between Lee and Harper in the past and Justin and Leslie in the present. It's nice, but could've used a little structuring so a form of contrast would come out of the developing plot lines. Instead, one plot develops for 30 pages, then another goes on for a while, then back to another. Ellis (* see note at bottom) doesn't even give me cliffhangers to build interest.
Lee Irwin's story is a tragic one and would've made a better novel on its own. It still suffers from bad writing, but the character is interesting. Following her parents' death by salmonella, Lee (Louise at the time) is dumped on her widowed aunt who, in turn, forces Lee to dress as a male and dumps her at the Oakbridge Home for Boys. Here's where trouble begins between Lee, Harper, and the other kids.
The scenes in the Orphanage are tense, but from cruelty rather than fear. The boys are brutal, completely lacking in remorse. This leaves them as cardboard characters with no differences beyond their names. Why couldn't some be her friends and some her enemies? All revenge stories need the person who didn't want to perform the crime but was forced into it. Where is he? We need him here!
What gets me is that Lee is the most sympathetic character. Harper never once does anything to make up for what he did to her. And Justin doesn't have anything interesting enough happen to him. I wish they would have kept Lee as a tormented soul rather than make her totally evil in the end. Yeah, she should be out for revenge, but the reader should still sympathize with her. Instead, she becomes the unlikely bad guy. A great twist would involve Justin realizing his grandfather is to blame, so he takes Lee's side. It would've wrapped things up nicely.
All in all, the whole thing feels rushed. A bit of polishing here and there, a bit more depth to the characters, and this could've been as good as the second book in the series, the unforgettable DARK ROOM. Speaking of DARK ROOM, why not make Cade Merril the hero and drop all this Justin Petit nonsense?
(* Note: each of these books were done by a different writer. For the identity of each guest writer -- in this case, Carol Ellis -- check out the first name on the acknowledgements page.)
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Title: Blood Nightmare (The Blair Witch Files, Case File 4) by Cade Merrill, Marc Cerasini ISBN: 0553493655 Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers Pub. Date: 12 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: The Death Card (The Blair Witch Files, Case File 5) by Cade Merrill, JoAnn Egan Neil ISBN: 0553493663 Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers Pub. Date: 13 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: The Blair Witch Project: A Dossier by D.A. Stern ISBN: 0451199669 Publisher: Onyx Books Pub. Date: 06 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Blair Witch Chronicles by Jen Van Meter, Tommy Lee Edwards ISBN: 192999804X Publisher: Oni Press Pub. Date: 06 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Blair Witch: The Secret Confession of Rustin Parr by D.A. Stern ISBN: 0743411536 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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