Hell Week by Rosemary Clement-Moore
Aug. 13th, 2013 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Maggie Quinn is determined to make her mark as a journalist. The only problem? The Ranger Report does not take freshman on staff.
Rules are rules. But when has that ever stopped Maggie?
After facing hellfire, infiltrating sorority rush should be easy. It’s no Woodward and Bernstein, but going undercover as the Phantom Pledge will allow her to write her expose. Then she can make a stealth exit before initiation. But when she finds a group of girls who are way more than “sisterhood”, all her instincts say there’s something rotten on Greek Row. And when Hell Week rolls around, there may be no turning back.
If there is such a thing as a sorority from hell, you can bet that Maggie Quinn will be the one to stumble into it.
It’s several months after PROM NIGHTS FROM HELL and Maggie’s stayed in Avalon to study journalism at Bedivere University. She’s writing an investigative piece for the town newspaper on what really happens when you try to pledge one of the university sororities to try and win a place on the university newspaper. The plan is to stop the story before she pledges but Sigma Alpha Xi (the most selective sorority on campus) is interested in her. Its alumni have a reputation for success but Maggie suspects that something more supernatural is involved because something is blocking her dream abilities.
The closer Maggie gets to Hell Week (the final week of activities before the girls pledge to their sorority) the more she senses an evil at the heart of Sigma Alpha Xi and she’ll need the help of Justin and Lisa if she’s got any hope of defeating it …
Rosemary Clement-Moore’s YA fantasy sequel shares the same great first person voice but the plot feels overstretched and drags in places while the decision to keep Maggie in the home town she was initially so keen to escape feels like a missed opportunity. At the same time, the relationships in this are more tenuous, with Justin and Lisa both being kept at a distance until the final third and I found myself really missing their presence. It’s an okay read, but doesn’t match the enjoyability of the first book.
I think my biggest disappointment was Maggie’s decision not to go to Syracuse. The ostensible reason for this (her mother’s pregnancy) felt a little contrived to me and while there are good reasons for keeping the small town locale I found it all rather hokey.
The plot wanders from event to event and although I liked the idea of something suppressing Maggie’s dream ability, the explanation for her failure to try and find out why and what it was stretched credibility. I also really missed Justin and Lisa, both of whom are kept away for artificial reasons – this was especially disappointing because I was hoping to see more of the impact of Lisa’s actions from the first book on her friendship with Maggie.
Maggie’s great first person voice kept my flipping the pages but while this book is an okay read, it’s not as good as the first. I will definitely however check out Clement-Moore’s other work.
The Verdict:
Rosemary Clement-Moore’s YA fantasy sequel shares the same great first person voice but the plot feels overstretched and drags in places while the decision to keep Maggie in the home town she was initially so keen to escape feels like a missed opportunity. At the same time, the relationships in this are more tenuous, with Justin and Lisa both being kept at a distance until the final third and I found myself really missing their presence. It’s an okay read, but doesn’t match the enjoyability of the first book.
Maggie Quinn is determined to make her mark as a journalist. The only problem? The Ranger Report does not take freshman on staff.
Rules are rules. But when has that ever stopped Maggie?
After facing hellfire, infiltrating sorority rush should be easy. It’s no Woodward and Bernstein, but going undercover as the Phantom Pledge will allow her to write her expose. Then she can make a stealth exit before initiation. But when she finds a group of girls who are way more than “sisterhood”, all her instincts say there’s something rotten on Greek Row. And when Hell Week rolls around, there may be no turning back.
If there is such a thing as a sorority from hell, you can bet that Maggie Quinn will be the one to stumble into it.
It’s several months after PROM NIGHTS FROM HELL and Maggie’s stayed in Avalon to study journalism at Bedivere University. She’s writing an investigative piece for the town newspaper on what really happens when you try to pledge one of the university sororities to try and win a place on the university newspaper. The plan is to stop the story before she pledges but Sigma Alpha Xi (the most selective sorority on campus) is interested in her. Its alumni have a reputation for success but Maggie suspects that something more supernatural is involved because something is blocking her dream abilities.
The closer Maggie gets to Hell Week (the final week of activities before the girls pledge to their sorority) the more she senses an evil at the heart of Sigma Alpha Xi and she’ll need the help of Justin and Lisa if she’s got any hope of defeating it …
Rosemary Clement-Moore’s YA fantasy sequel shares the same great first person voice but the plot feels overstretched and drags in places while the decision to keep Maggie in the home town she was initially so keen to escape feels like a missed opportunity. At the same time, the relationships in this are more tenuous, with Justin and Lisa both being kept at a distance until the final third and I found myself really missing their presence. It’s an okay read, but doesn’t match the enjoyability of the first book.
I think my biggest disappointment was Maggie’s decision not to go to Syracuse. The ostensible reason for this (her mother’s pregnancy) felt a little contrived to me and while there are good reasons for keeping the small town locale I found it all rather hokey.
The plot wanders from event to event and although I liked the idea of something suppressing Maggie’s dream ability, the explanation for her failure to try and find out why and what it was stretched credibility. I also really missed Justin and Lisa, both of whom are kept away for artificial reasons – this was especially disappointing because I was hoping to see more of the impact of Lisa’s actions from the first book on her friendship with Maggie.
Maggie’s great first person voice kept my flipping the pages but while this book is an okay read, it’s not as good as the first. I will definitely however check out Clement-Moore’s other work.
The Verdict:
Rosemary Clement-Moore’s YA fantasy sequel shares the same great first person voice but the plot feels overstretched and drags in places while the decision to keep Maggie in the home town she was initially so keen to escape feels like a missed opportunity. At the same time, the relationships in this are more tenuous, with Justin and Lisa both being kept at a distance until the final third and I found myself really missing their presence. It’s an okay read, but doesn’t match the enjoyability of the first book.
