Book Review: Choker by Elizabeth Woods

AUTHOR: Elizabeth Woods
PUBLISHER:Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
PAGES: 233
STAND ALONE/SERIES: Stand alone
SOURCE: bought
OUTLINE:
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?

THOUGHTS
(The blacked out parts are spoilers)

In a YA world of witches, vamps, and weres it's nice to get the ghostly, mystery every once in awhile. I'll admit I read this book back in 2011 when it came out as a debut for this author, and I remember the end tripped me out. I guess when I look back on all the clues it makes since, but seeing as how I'm not a detective I was blinded by the story itself.

When Cara's family moved to a new place her parents thought everything would be okay, little did they know that some friends are hard to get away from.

Besides the fact that it wasn't paranormal it really didn't stick out all that much to me. The ending was probably the best part about it. The mean girls were pretty much the cliche of what  mean girls are. They laugh at people, call them names that pretty much stick with the poor soul, and  in Cara's case it was choker. After that Cara comes home to find Zoe there. I mean is it a coincidence she's shows up right after that happens. My guess probably not. I wasn't really a fan of Caras's love interest Ethan either, he was the generic love interest type. All in all I guess he fit with Cara though because she was pretty plain as well. The only character I found interesting at all was Zoe, and needless to say she was just a figment of Cara's imagination. So as much as I wanted to like the book I couldn't...just liking the ending and one character, who wasn't real...isn't going to cut it.