Newbies Horror Book Review

This is a Moore’s first Young Adult novel.  Unfortunately it is confusing as all get out because of countless references to events never fully explained.  This is because the events are detailed in his non-Young Adult novel POSSESSIONS.  Those who read this one first will be inundated with countless references to things they don’t know about.


Brittany Corin has been sent away to school by her brother.  Withing a week of being a Newbie and the scorn of the school, she gets wrapped up in a rash of missing students.  This gets tied into the rivalry between the Schoolies and the Townies.  Very quickly she is catapulted into a growing horror complete with sacrifices, the occult and horrible monsters.


Mr. Moore usually is a pretty good writer but I am not sure what happened here.  Ignoring all of the references to a previous book, there is still plenty of bad writing.  Most is in the form of inconsistencies in descriptions.  For example, there is a wooden platform in the story.  It is first described as, “It was a sturdy structure but not much to look at.”  A few minutes later in the plot it is described as, “and the platform was rickety to begin with.”  I’m not really sure what the author was thinking or if it is an editorial mistake.


Despite its obvious flaws this is still an entertaining book (if annoying) even if you haven’t read Possessions.  The action is fast and the plot moves quickly.  Fun it is but literature it ain’t.