Towering by Alex Flinn

(From Goodreads)
Rachel is trapped in a tower, held hostage by a woman she’s always called Mama. Her golden hair is growing rapidly, and to pass the time, she watches the snow fall and sings songs from her childhood, hoping someone, anyone, will hear her.

Wyatt needs time to reflect or, better yet, forget about what happened to his best friend, Tyler. That’s why he’s been shipped off to the Adirondacks in the dead of winter to live with the oldest lady in town. Either that, or no one he knows ever wants to see him again.

Dani disappeared seventeen years ago without a trace, but she left behind a journal that’s never been read, not even by her overbearing mother…until now. 


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Funny story: On my 16th birthday I went to the library to leisurely browse and run my fingers on the spines of books. I bumped into a girl that I had spent last summer volunteering at the library with and we got talking about Doctor Who, Sherlock, and the like. Then she started recommending me more books than I could hold (literally!). The books took up a whole shelf on my TARDIS bookshelf. 

One of those books was Towering:

(my blurb)
Wyatt goes to live with a lady he barely knows, in order to escape his messed up life. He finds the diary of the lady's dead daughter. A mystery starts to unfold before him. Then, he begins to hear strange singing noises that no one else notices. Something bizarre is happening in this small town.

Rachel lives in a tower in the woods, in order to be safe from the people who had killed her mother. She is cared for by another woman, whom she calls Mama, even though she knows she is not. Rachel starts to sense a change coming. Something is about to happen.

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When I noticed that this book was written my Alex Flinn, I was skeptical. I enjoyed the last book of hers I read (Beastly), but it wasn't AMAZING and the movie adaption kind of sucked.

My expectation for Towering from reading the back: "This is going to be a sappy love story."

"Today, I woke knowing something would happen. Something would be different. I opened my window. I was a long way down. Still, I wanted to leave the window open, to smell the world outside. I would plaay my harp and sing my songs, and the animal, at least, would hear me.

I sang the saddest song I knew, about a girl in love with a poor boy but unable to marry him.

I know where I'm going;

And I know who's going with me.

I know who I love;

But the dear knows who I'll marry.

As I sang, I had once again that strange feeling, the feeling of being listened to, not by birds or squirrels or even deer. I rushed to the window to look. I saw something, or someone, moving. It was walking closer to me, struggling where there was no path, holding on to trees to keep its balance, but still coming closer. Perhaps it was the man I had dreamed of."


Halfway through the book I began to wonder why they had put that especially lovey part on the back cover. Then, it finally started getting sappy. I don't like it when there's some strange, magical connection between a couple, and then all of a sudden they're deeply in love and feel like they'd die without each other. It's unreal.

I mean, sure, love can be magical, but I think it's necessary for a relationship to have a foundation other than "I knew he was the one".

Overall I liked the beginning of the book, but the ending was predictable and the romance dripped with sticky, unrealistic love.


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3 Stars

Ages 14+