Dread Locks by Neal Shusterman

Genre: Fantasy,
Rating: 4/5
Pages: 164

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot. It seems all I can do these days is think, playing the events over and over again in my mind until I’m numb. I see all the ways it could have turned out differently. How the nightmare could have been avoided, and the deaths–all the deaths–would never have happened.” -Parker Baer

Summary

At fifteen, Parker Baer is completely bored. Why? Because he has everything he could ever wish for in his perfect life. But, suddenly, a girl named Tara comes from out of nowhere and Parker finds her sleeping in his bed and things start to become well...interesting. She’s gorgeous with golden curls that seem almost alive. But she doesn’t share her looks so easily, she keeps her mysterious eyes hidden behind sunglasses, but that’s not all what is so unusual about her... She lives on her own in a house full of live-like statues. While Parker watched intrigued, Tara picks students at the high school to befriend and soon they are wrapped around her little finger, but not in the way Parker is.
As Tara’s new friends begin developing strange habits, such as drinking gallons of milk and eating dirt, only Parker realizes something is wrong. Except, Tara has introduced him to some of his own cravings...will Parker be able to resist and stop her destructive game in time or will he yield to the new cravings Tara has exposed him to?

Why Read It?

Dread Locks isn’t exactly a mystery, but it’s definitely a puzzle that you get to put together. Take some time to just think about it after you’ve read a couple of chapters and you won’t want to put down until you have a better understanding of Tara and her stunning looks and peculiar habits.

My Thoughts

I rated Dread Locks a three and a half. Why? Because It was a fairly good book, it just wasn’t something that I went totally crazy for. Don’t get me wrong because I loved it! And I hope I do get around to reading it again in awhile but for now I got to many other books to read. Of course, if I had all the time in the world I would read books I’ve read over and over again, unfortunately I don’t have that time... If only I were immortal... Yeah, that’s why I want to live forever so I can read books for eternity!
I found this book randomly on a book shelf in the library when I was suppose to meet a friend there but she came about fifteen minutes late. Anyway, I sat down and began reading it and I just didn’t want to put it down after the first two pages. I thought about forcing my friend to wait fifteen minutes extra while I read because I had waited for her, but I just wanted to get on with our day.
I have to say, yes it does get slow, and the action is mostly at a uniform motion (when an object is not speeding up or slowing down), in other words it’s a bit of a slow paced book and the action doesn’t speed up until close to the end (I’m squeezing physics into this! How smart is that!).
Unfortunately, I found it difficult to relate to the characters which are always important in a book. However, sometimes it’s nice to be able to relate to them because it pulls you out of your own little world. Now, I’m not saying that this book sucks because of the characters or that the characters are unreal or just plain shallow, because truth is the characters are awesome just not people that you might have in your life...
I’m really trying NOT to give anything away about the book, because as I said it’s a puzzle that you’ve got to solve on your own. So check it out! It’s from the Dark Fusion Series...which are these titles all by Neal Shusterman...

1. Dread Locks (Book 1)
2. Red Rider’s Hood (Book 2) (I have not read this book)
3. Duckling Ugly (Book 3) (I have not read this book)

Important: I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the way I rate books is very personal to me. That’s probably something to keep in mind.