Choker by Elizabeth Woods
pages: 233
released: January 2011
publisher: Simon & Schuster
cover love: ♥♥♥♥♥
Sixteen-year-old Cara Lange has been a loner ever since she moved away from her best and only friend, Zoe, years ago. She eats lunch with the other girls from the track team, but they’re not really her friends. Mostly she spends her time watching Ethan Gray from a distance, wishing he would finally notice her, and avoiding the popular girls who call her “Choker” after a humiliating incident in the cafeteria. Then one day Cara comes home to find Zoe waiting for her. Zoe’s on the run from problems at home, and Cara agrees to help her hide. With her best friend back, Cara’s life changes overnight. Zoe gives her a new look and new confidence, and next thing she knows, she’s getting invited to parties and flirting with Ethan. Best of all, she has her BFF there to confide in. But just as quickly as Cara’s life came together, it starts to unravel. A girl goes missing in her town, and everyone is a suspect—including Ethan. Worse still, Zoe starts behaving strangely, and Cara begins to wonder what exactly her friend does all day when she’s at school. You’re supposed to trust your best friend no matter what, but what if she turns into a total stranger? (From Goodreads)
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 10/19/2011 ON BOOKSLIKESTARS.NET
Review:
Choker is a short, psychological mystery about Cara Lange, a social outcast who is constantly teased and humiliated by the popular girls at school. But one day, she comes home from school, to find her long lost best friend, Zoe waiting for her. Now everything is about to change.
As soon as Zoe is introduced, the creep-factor turns up to level 10 . Cara is happy that she has her old BFF back, at first. She’s the only person she feels connected to, that she can be her true self around. She hides her in her room, afraid the police will come and take her away for the “bad thing” she did back home. Then she starts to become frightened of Zoe’s dreadful appearance, her apathetic attitude and the disappearance of the girls who tormented her at school. This wasn’t a book I was really engaged in, it just didn’t pull me in the way I wanted it to. I thought I had everything figured out when I was halfway through the book and I ended up being right. Even so, I still thought the plot was a bit interesting and the ending was pretty twisted. I thought the author did an excellent job with Zoe’s character, I was really skeeved out by her but Cara and Ethan needed some more work.
Overall, Choker had its tension building moments but it could have been a lot better. I couldn’t find any info on the author. No website, no facebook, no twitter, no bio. Nothing. Which makes my experience with Choker even creepier.
2
