Skeleton Creek By Patrick Carmen Review #20

Author: Patrick Carmen
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pages: 144
Rating:
Strange things are happening in Skeleton Creek . . . and Ryan and Sarah are trying to get to the heart of it. But after an eerie accident leaves Ryan housebound and forbidden to see Sarah, their investigation takes two tracks: Ryan records everything in his journal, while Sarah uses her videocam to search things out. . .and then email the clips for Ryan to see. In a new, groundbreaking format, the story is broken into two parts -- Ryan's text in the book, and Sarah's videos on a special website, with links and passwords given throughout the book.
This is such a intriguing way to do a book. I think this is a more incredible idea then Cathy's book series, even though these are two completing different stories/ideas. I love how in Cathy's key you're given evidence and in this book, Skeleton Creek, you're given a password to a site and you watch videos. So the male protagonist point of view is told in journal format, and then the female protagonist point of view is told by video format. Though in this book it is actually in Journal format *you even have notebook paper and pen format* whereas in the Cathy series it's sort of in Journal format. But both books are good. Though this was fast paced and I was able to finish in 2 hours, I think what kept me reading wasn't the journal entries but the videos. My favorite character was Sarah and I wish they had more videos of her. I think if they ever did make Skeleton Creek into a movie, without having the whole journal thing, it would be a good movie. Though the videos that are for the book did have some creepy moments and even made me shiver and jump. It was well played. I think Patrick Carmen did a well job creating this book and coming up with a incredible way of book writing. He did a excellent job of getting into the character's mind and writing them out. The dialog and writing was fabulous. The only thing I hated about it, was I think sometimes the journal entries got a little boring and I would only keep reading so I could watch a video. But other then that, it was well done. I'm also currently reading the sequel Ghost in the machine. Also the books look like a journal notebook and says: Ryan's Journal. Anyways until next time.