| Title | : | The Cellar (The Cellar, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1492600970 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781492600978 |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 347 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2014 |
The Cellar (The Cellar, #1) Reviews
-
Good Evening, Flowers.
And welcome to my review. It will grab you... drag you.... throw you into a very non-cliche white van... rename you.... and turn you into my flower mwahaha! But don't you dare pollenate, because pollenating is for sluts.
He's a maaaaaniac, maaaaniac!
*dramatic pause*
Let me begin by saying that I am quite possibly the biggest crime show freak to ever exist in this world. When I'm not watching Ina Garten, you will find me cuddled under the blankets watching a Criminal Minds marathon or Law and Order: SVU. So when I find a book written from the POV of a kidnapped victim... you better believe I'll be all up on that chiznit. I was very excited to start this book, hoping for some mutilation (as one does), and expecting to be thrown into the most twisted and creepy episode of Criminal Minds.
Unfortunately, I was instead thrown into a Lifetime Movie written by an orangutan in dire need of a thesaurus who also works part-time as a florist.
Oh, The Cellar, where to begin.
For starters, I blame Summer's immature personality and idiotic thought process to be of blame for the *majority* of my distaste towards this book. I say *majority*, because while Summer played a big role, Lewis was basically a 12-year-old girl and Clover (*cackle cackle cackle*) was less of a, and I quote, "psychotic freak", and more of a mommy's boy in need of a hug.
But first, I would like to discuss everyone's favorite blue eyed blond haired brainless British broad - Summer.
Summer, summer, summer. You remind me why I am a winter person. I wish I could have empathized with you. If not for your limited vocabulary, embarrassingly childish thought process, awkward dialogue in what should have been "terrifying" situations, and overall personality, maybe we could have gotten along. Maybe.
Summer's way of expressing her emotions was often:
1. crying
2. crying
3. crying over Lewis
4. crying over being named a flower (god, doesn't he know she has allergies!!!!!)
5. prostitutes - don't ask
6. stupid jokes (as in - "Maybe he's polishing off his crazy of the year trophy")
7. taking showers
8. wishing she were with Lewis
9. yelling at Rose
10. calling clover a "psychotic freak!!!!" as if that will a. make a difference and b. do anything except deepen my hate for her
Ta da! Character rundown 101 FTW.
She sucked and I would have rather read from the POV of an intoxicated monkey.
Next up - My dear, dear, Clover.
Wait for it....
Wait for it........
Wait for it.............
HAHAHAHHA! HAHAHAH! Hahahahah! Hahah. Haha. Ha.
Whew. Needed to let that loose.
Oh Clover/Colin, you are the biggest disgrace of a psychopath I have ever had the displeasure of knowing.
1st off, let me say that his "reason" for being the murderer/rapist/flower enthusiast he is could quite possibly be the most cliche story I have ever encountered in my entire reading life. It's like Preston took the most stereotypical story possible and used it. Seriously. Daddy cheated on mommy with prostitute, mommy hates prostitutes, therefore son hates prostitutes, son kills prostitutes because mommy "tells" him too, mommy likes flowers, son likes flowers, son uses a lot of hairspray, son abducts "pure" girls and grows a family .
But hey! At least he has good hygiene.
What a wimpy psychopath. I swear, if he abducted me, I would tell him to kiss my pure white ass and mess up his hair.
Also - every time he said "Good Evening, Flowers" I facepalmed so hard and laughed so loud I'm pretty sure my neighbors heard me.
*deep breath*
Next up!
Summer's girlfriend - crap, sorry, boyfriend - Lewis.
Lewis! Lewis! Lewis! I think your panties are showing!
Jesus. Couldn't we at least have had the boyfriend be somewhat tolerable? Yes? No? Dammit.
I think Summer's abduction was the one thrilling thing that has happened to Lewis in a very very very long time. I mean, it must be boring being so handsome, so popular, and so sociable, am I right? Life is so dull when you're like, basically, the most sought after guy in school. Snore.
He cursed too much, he whined too much, and the only thing that weirded me out more than Clover's conversation with his flowers during meal times, was Lewis and Summer's dialogue during sex. Like, during. While he was... just, you get the picture.
"Do you want to stop?"
"No! I like being this close to you, and, anyway, I'll be okay after a few minutes."
Just give me a few minutes, and you know, you'll be done and this can be over with, finally. But I guess this was fun, sort of. God, I'm hungry. Do you want pizza?
Does this weird anyone else out? Ugh. I hate when authors write dialogue during sex. Just like.... no. Please. No.
Lewis was a pansy (lol flower puns) and he is the reason I think boys are weird.
The whole scenario Summer had to endure practically made me pee my pants. The designated meal times, the awkward small talk, and the obsessive cleanliness Clover so obviously possessed made me practically pray for someone to sh!t on the floor, just to see his reaction. I found myself laughing where I probably should have been crying (when Summer finally bitch slapped Clover in the end) and the only reason I enjoyed reading this book was the notion that I get to mock it when I'm done. I still can't get over the whole flower-renaming scheme. By far one of the most ridiculous/hilarious things I have ever encountered with a murder/psycho. I mean ever. And I've seen a man dress up corpses as old Hollywood film stars. And then have sex with them. But flowers? That takes the cake.
~
If you haven't gotten the gist yet, this book was most certainly not my cup of tea. I'm sorry if insulted any of you personally, but I did what had to be done shamelessly and without regret. This book's idiocy hit me on an emotional level, so I had to release the kraken. The kraken may be a blubbering idiot, but is nonetheless, a kraken.
Anyway - Happy August.
I am leaving The Cellar and I'm sure as hell never going back.
Good Evening, Flowers.
*sashays aways* -
So, so, so, so bad.
ETA: apparently Booklist recommended this to fans of LIVING DEAD GIRL? Oh hell no. That book was fantastic, and this one makes a mockery of the subject matter.
This is a ridiculous sham of a thriller (pervert bad! He has mommy issues! He must kill! He must keep all the pretty flowers/girls in his basement!) and has neither the intellectual nor the emotional capacity to explore the psychology of captor or captive, let alone make you feel anything for either. And the writing is awful. Truly awful.
#crankypants -
Por fin.
Por fin he podido leer un libro. Y me alegro de que no haya sido uno cualquiera. He conseguido leer El sótano prácticamente de una sentada, en cuestión de horas. La manera de narrar de Natasha Preston ha conseguido que la historia no se me hiciera cuesta arriba en ningún momento.
El hecho de que tengamos un ambiente asfixiante como lo puede ser un sótano con cuatro chicas y un secuestrador al que se le va bastante la cabeza puede parecer de primeras algo que cansa... pero Natasha lo sabe y por eso nos narra la historia que se desarrolla fuera (con Lewis, el novio de la protagonista, buscando por todos lados a su novia) y escenas de Clover (el secuestrador, que da, sin duda, los capítulos más interesantes y tenebrosos). Me ha gustado también el juego con el tiempo, porque no todas las escenas se desarrollan en el presente, y eso hace que quieras saber lo que está sucediendo ahora y que te enganche más y más.
Que la autora utilice una novela así, de misterio y que parece no aportar nada extraordinario al género, para hablarnos del papel de la mujer en la sociedad me parece increíble. Desde la mente de Llover podemos captar que la autora ha sabido perfectamente qué mostrar y cómo. Le ha dado una pensada, y el mensaje queda más que claro. Amazing.
No sé qué más comentar que no comente en mi canal de YouTube (
https://youtu.be/1kbP4dN41qc). Es una novela que he disfrutado muchísimo y que me ha devuelto las ganas de volver a leer después de más de tres meses de sequía. Eso significa que tiene algo, y ese algo, me ha gustado mucho <3 -
Okay I really need to get this out, so I just will.
WARNING-I WILL BE COMPLETELY DESTROYING AND TEARING APART THIS BOOK. PLEASE DON'T THINK I AM INSULTING YOU IF I SAY SOMETHING NEGATIVE.
Alrighty, shall we begin?
We are introduced to Summer (AKA a 16 year old girl who cries nonstop, is completely incapable of thinking logically and is very very very annoying).
To say the least I found Summer to be a very weak character. These are things she did throughout the novel.
1.cry
2.cry again
3.cry even though the cellar is flooding from her tears
4. Thinking of Lewis calling her "baby"
5. crying
SUMMER WAS A CRYBABY. Yes, I understand the circumstances, she is trapped in cellar. But come on, by her 152783637th time crying I was about to kill her. She just wouldn't stop. Literally, every 10 or so pages, SHE WAS AT IT AGAIN. CRYING. What could she have been doing with all the time she wasted crying?
1. Finding a way to GET OUT OF THE CELLAR.
2. MAKING ANY SORT OF WEAPON.
3. Anything but releasing her tear ducts.
Also one of my most hated cliches happened regarding Summer. She would say "I'm so unworthy of my godlike boyfriend and I'm not even pretty." Then, the book would describe her as having green eyes and a perfect face, and cascading beautiful locks of auburn hair. Come on Summer. Get some self esteem. The insecure hot girl gig is over and OVERUSED for that matter.
And the writing. Aw man, the writing.
I'm not saying I am a metaphoric and philosophical person, but the writing was awful. One line was used multiple times that just irked me so much.
"I saw him and I burst into flames."
I saw this, I think, 3 times. Why? WHY? WHHHYYY? First, how do you burst into flames? That would be another problem besides being trapped in a cellar. It was just so cliche. It used a very limited vocabulary and I was almost shocked when I heard a grown women wrote the book. I am so close to mailing her a copy of a Merriam Webster Thesarus. That is how atrocious it was. I was in physical pain because of the writing at times. I screamed multiple times and scared my whole family.
Okay, what else can I critique? Oh wait the plot!!!
Throughout the book I thought of scenarios in which the characters could escape. First, the most basic and easy one.
While the kidnapper(Colin/Clover) was in the cellar, poor boiling water on him. Simple. The girls all said they had access to a stove. They could just do this and he would at least be slowed down if not killed from burns.
Next, break a lamp and stab him with that. I know the girls were scared that Colin would fight back, but at least try. Honestly.
Last, (and my favorite) jump on his back and bite the jugular vein like a vampire.
Wow, this is getting very long. The last thing I hated was Colin. He was supposed to be a crazy psychopath. But, honestly he wasn't that frightening to me.
"Good evening flowers" that was his line. His "iconic" heart stopping line. I laughed. I laughed so hard. HE SOUNDS LIKE A GRANDMA GOING TO WATER HER GARDEN. And the author tried so desperately hard to be like Psycho, the movie. I decided to look the book up on wattpad( where it was originally released) and SHE EVEN CASTED COLIN AS THE ACTOR WHO PLAYS NORMAN BATES. She tried too hard with the "mommy hates prostitutes so I automatically became a prostitute hating person as well" card. I did some more research on the topic and learned from medicaldaily.com that you can't just become a psychopath because of your dad doing the dirty with some other ladies. Most people are just born with brain abnormalities that cause them to think that way.
Wow. Overall, unless you are looking for a book that will constantly make you scream in fury and frustration, I recommend something different. -
What I Liked
The best part about The Cellar is its potential. The premise is fascinating and the reason I picked up the book to read in the first place. Four pretty girls held captive in a basement, named after flowers. The thrill of a kidnapping and hopeful escape.
What I Didn't Like
The writing in this book simply isn't up to par. There is almost no descriptive language. At the end of The Cellar, I sat and stared at the last page, thinking, "What did Poppy even look like? For that matter, what did Summer or Lewis look like?" The only detailed description that stuck out in the entire book is of Clover. He is tall, dark, and has heavily-hairsprayed hair.
There is no real emotion to be found. A phrase I've been told by English professors at university is, "Show, don't tell." An example of this would be writing "My heart sank to my toes" instead of "I was scared." Natasha Preston is constantly telling instead of showing in The Cellar. There are never vivid emotions that Summer or Lewis seem to feel. Their emotions are written plainly on the page, which leaves every character vanilla and pretend.
Clover drives me insane. He is not ominous. He is not terrifying. The most disturbing scene in the entire book is when he watches a movie with Summer and softly strokes her hair the entire time, simply because this draws on every woman's fears. It seems like Preston Googled the characteristics of a murderous pyschopath and blandly painted them across Clover's character in broad strokes. Hatred of women, need for control, a strange relationship with his mother. I was never afraid of Clover. I was rarely creeped out by his presence in the novel. Even his violence and murders did not frighten me. They seemed entirely unrealistic .
I don't think I've read a book with such poor sentence structure since maybe Twilight. Maybe. The past and present tenses occasionally seem confused from sentence to sentence (even in the first paragraph of the book). The narrative is plain, undescriptive, and awkwardly worded. A brief example of clumsy sentence structure from page 54: "I literally couldn't think of one thing to say. Everything I thought of sounded lame in my head."
The mild cliffhanger at the end also does not work. At all. -
Have you ever been so engrossed in a book, so terrified by the words you were reading that you couldn't put it down, no matter how many feelings you were being hit with? The Cellar has me feeling just like this throughout the entire freaking book! I almost feel guilty saying I enjoyed this book, as it left me feeling so emotionally wrong. After the last page commenced I just sat there, staring off into space lost in my thoughts. The story the Preston composed has me feeling the entire rainbow of emotions, from hope to fear to burning hot anger.
The story starts off fast, not letting us get to know our main character, Summer all too well before she is snatched by a man she's never seen before, who calls himself Clover. She's thrust into a cellar, though it wasn't the type of cellar that I was expecting. Instead of a cold, dingy basement she's forced into a bright and cheery downstairs with 3 other girls, a cellar that smells strongly of lemon disinfectant and other cleaners. Their captor is a madman who's head isn't on quite straight.. more like on backwards. He's obsessed with cleanliness and keeping young girls clean and "pure". He goes on late night killing rampages, targeting prostitutes and any girl who dresses skimpy or acts less than ladylike. Though he always acts polite around the general populace, he has an angry side to him that made him terrifying, and oh so dangerous.
The most interesting part of the story for me was getting to know the other girls. Rose.. she got on my nerves at first but as the story progresses, I see why she is so different from the other girls. While Summer, who was renamed Lily during her 8 month stay in the cellar, desperately wanted to get out and return home, Rose seemed to have given up all hope of ever leaving.. she'd already been his captive for years. Hell, sometimes she seemed happy, like she genuinely cared for the monster who kept her imprisoned. After some back story it becomes clear that they'd originally been in a relationship, before he threw her int he cellar to be his forever.
Next we have Violet.. poor Violet. She's more feisty than the other girls, the only one that Lily could actually relate to. She wants nothing more than to escape the cellar, and this is what often gets her in trouble with Clover. She isn't afraid to challenge him.. but challenging a beast like him often comes with some pretty harsh consequences.
Then there was Poppy, who seemed defeated at times, but nowhere near as badly as Rose. I feel like if fear wouldn't have been holding her back so much, she might've planned an escape with Lily, but she was just too terrified. Though she willingly did his bidding, it was clear that she still had her head on straighter than Rose, and was still able to think for herself.
My blood boiled every time Clover walked into the room. He was so vile and nasty, so delusional in thinking that these girls were his family. Watching him unwind and spiral out of control as the authorities came closer and closer to discovering him and his nasty lifestyle terrified me. I started this book at 10pm and by 1am I was finished, stunned into silence. The intensity of this read wasn't something I was prepared for, so be sure you're ready for some pretty intense feels and a long sit when you pick up this one! -
Una gran decepción. Y no voy a marcar ningún spoiler, no lo necesita, es predecible.
Creo que el problema principal con este libro fue lo repetitivo que se me hizo. Todo el rato era: Buenos días, Flores; buenas noches, Flores.
La autora podía sacar provecho de la idea inicial, y hacer del secuestrador un buen personaje, pero lo llevó por mal rumbo. Muy mal desarrollado.
No me convenció lo que se explicó del pasado de Clover. Quedaron, a mi parecer, demasiados cabos sueltos. No dicen por qué ese nombre para sus flores, ni qué es lo que le lleva a secuestrarlas, porque el temita de "formar una familia perfecta" a mí no me convenció NADA.
Hubiera deseado que la autora aprovechara las páginas para contar bien la historia en lugar de ser tan repetitiva, tan redundante.
Y el final fue jodidamente abrupto. Claro, es normal que el novio sospeche del primer individuo que se encuentra por allí, y ¡BAM! qué casualidad que sí que era el secuestrador y su instinto no le falló. Según el noviecito, el tipo actúa extraño. ¿Disculpa? Si de buenas a primeras alguien sospecha de que es un secuestrador es porque es un mal personaje.
No sé si este es el primer libro que escribió la autora, porque tiene toda la pinta de serlo. Y si no lo es, no quisiera leer nada más de su autoría, la verdad. -
Almost as disturbing and heartbreaking as Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl, The Cellar tells a story of kidnapping, abuse, murder and mental illness. A gut-wrenching and emotionally affecting story of desperation and fear, but also hope and survival. It's a well-written, completely absorbing nail-biter of a book, and I'm really glad I decided to pick it up!
Told in three alternating voices, The Cellar kicks-off with the kidnapping of 16-year-old Summer Robinson. Taken by a stranger, forced to use a different name (Lily) and locked in a cellar of her mentally deranged kidnapper, Summer spends days after days, months after months, desperately clinging to hope that one day she'll escape or someone will find her, and she'll be able to see her beloved family and boyfriend again.
She's not alone in the cellar. There are three more girls living there with her. Some have been living there for much, much longer than others. They're all forced to participate in a sickening little show, pretending to be the kidnapper's family, following his bizarre rules and silently taking the physical and mental abuse when his extremely fragile mental health occasionally takes a dive off the proverbial cliff. The things these girls go through, the horrors they're subjected to, all the bloody murders they witness.. it's all painted breathtakingly vividly. These images really stay with you. They mess with your head and make you stop and consider your own safety. Should you really be walking around at night all by yourself? Is your neighborhood safe enough? Do you really know your neighbor?
The Cellar sports a powerful, suffocating atmosphere of dread and uncertainty. It's a book that not only makes you feel things (fear, compassion, anger, disgust), but also changes your perception and makes you wonder what would you do in a similar situation. How would you react to certain things? Would you be strong enough to live through all this?
I really loved the fact that the story was told in three alternating POVs: Summer's/Lily's, Lewis (Summer's boyfriend) and Collin's/Clover's (the kidnapper). I especially appreciated the short but very insightful glimpses into Clover's disturbed psyche. The chapters written in his point of view were quite enlightening, providing the reader with a pretty good idea of just how sick and unstable he was. The occasional flashbacks - particularly of the relationship with his mother and father - helped me understand his character a little better. And while I certainly had no sympathy for him, I definitely appreciated the insight into his past that the author provided.
Similarly, the chapters written in Lewis' point of view provided me with a different kind of insight - they helped me understand the relationship between Summer and Lewis, as well as Summer and her family members. Through his eyes, we got to witness the love, care and affection these people had for each other. Their dedication to one another was moving, but also completely heartbreaking, considering the horrible situation they found themselves in.
Summer herself was a great narrator. I found her very believable and carefully fleshed out. Her behavior seemed appropriate for the situation she was in, she wasn't trying to play the hero, she was scared, angry, desperate and slowly losing hope of being rescued. Her thoughts and feelings were easy to relate to. I felt really sorry for her.
The life in the cellar (if we can call it that) was nightmarish to say the least. Four girls imprisoned underground, forced to pretend to be someone they were not and follow a bizarre set of rules, like taking a shower twice a day, eating meals with their kidnapper and act as if they genuinely cared for him. And that's not even the most disturbing part. The really sickening part? Clover bringing girls from the street down to the cellar and stabbing them to death? Clover making the girls clean up after the murders, scrub the blood of the floors, bag the bodies? Clover forcing them to.. but wait, don't let me say too much, I do not want to spoil the best (or worst) parts for you. Some things you just need to discover and then digest on your own...
Overall, I thought this was a really good story. Well-plotted, full of suspense and intensity, emotional and gripping. I would've easily given it 5 stars if not for the fact that the ending itself fell a bit flat for me. Some aspects of it I really liked (the emotional and psychological aftermath), others disappointed me a bit. I guess I just needed a bit more in terms of Clover's punishment. I'd also love a chapter or two focusing on the other girls and what happened to them. Nevertheless, despite its minor shortcomings, The Cellar makes for a solid thriller that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy immensely. I'm looking forward to Natasha Preston's next books. -
I read this book in wattpad a few times ago....Yeah,and it sucked.
It still does.I thought to give it a chance again ,but :
I got disappointed.....again !!
P.s:The cover is cool !! -
Alrighty, I let this book suck me right in and I just kept turning the pages. It wasn't necessarily the writing, but more I just needed to know what was going to happen to these four girls locked up in the basement. Although I did find it a bit rushed in the end, I would definitely like to read something else by this author.
-
*Roses are red, Violets are blue, I regret reading this book and so will you!*
It’s like the author selected all of the clichés known to man, and blended them all together in one gawd-awful stereotypical smoothie. If you want to read something that has the same storyline but is properly executed read: “The Butterfly Garden” by Dot Hutchison. -
Una historia de secuestro y locura.
En esta novela nos encontramos con Summer, una chica de 16 años que tiene la mala suerte de cruzarse con Colin, un abogado que no está bien de la cabeza y que lleva una doble vida, la que todos conocen, en la que concurre al trabajo con regularidad y es un buen ciudadano, y la oculta, en la que se hace llamar Clover y es un sádico secuestrador y asesino de mujeres.
A lo largo del libro, la protagonista nos irá relatando lo que es vivir encerrada en un sótano a merced de un psicópata.
Gracias a que el libro está narrado desde distintos personajes, podremos conocer además, lo que ocurre fuera del sótano, con la búsqueda desesperada de Summer por parte de sus seres queridos y de la policía.
Por otro lado, el libro cuenta con varios flashback que nos “intentan explicar” las razones de la locura de Colin.
Le puse 3 ⭐️, porque si bien el libro se lee muy rápido y es entretenido, por partes se me hizo muy repetitivo y hubieron cosas que no me gustaron, como que todos fueran guapos/as, de ojos verdes o azules, no habían feos o gente normal en esta ciudad.!!
Me pareció todo muy agarrado de los pelos, bastante plano y sin descripciones, se nota mucho que es la primera novela de la autora. 😕
En fin, si van a leerlo, no vayan con las expectativas muy altas y van a poder disfrutarlo más ..!!
Saludos y que tengan buenas lecturas.!! 😄 -
16 year old summer is kidnapped and locked in a cellar by Clover with other girls, Rose, Poppy and Violet, his flowers, his family. In the meantime there is big search for summer and you follow Lewis her boyfriend sometimes. Mostly we follow Summer's point of view and sometime Clover/Colin.
Yeah I get that the book has its issues and somethings are not adding up. But I was so hooked on this book and this was definitely what I needed today on my way to get my wisdom tooth removed and after to keep my mind of the pain. It was just so exciting, creepy and just right amount of scary for me and for my enjoyment alone I give it 5 stars. -
I have essentially nothing to say. The Cellar is basically a boring romance disguised as a thriller. Lewis was a boring romantic interest. The writing lacks emotional depth, making it seem boring and annoying. The plot is driven by character stupidity and not much else. The emotions feel incredibly forced.
One more note: I hate the way rape is used as a plot device for a terrible romance. Summer's kidnapper rapes her, and it's not... analyzed in any way. It's just used to make circumstances more dire or something.
I can't review this any more beyond this. It's just an amateurish book. -
Ante todo ha sido una lectura ADICTIVA hasta el infinito.
Cierto es que no es la mejor novela del género y tiene sus fallos, pero sinceramente me han dado igual porque la he disfrutado muchísimo (si se puede llamar disfrutar a pasarlo mal mientras lo leía, pero espero que entendáis lo que quiero decir).
Si hay algo que me ha gustado es que la novela, aunque principalmente está narrada desde Summer, nuestra protagonista, también hay capítulos donde vemos el punto de vista del secuestrador, tanto en el presente como en el pasado, por lo que vemos sus motivaciones y el por qué hace esto, cosa muy interesante. Y también hay capítulos narrados por el novio de Sum, por lo que la novela se hace muy ágil a no tener solo la perspectiva de ella encerrada en el sótano.
Sí que hay cosillas que no me han convencido. Por ejemplo es un poco repetitivo en ciertos momentos, sobretodo con lo que ocurre en el sótano. O ciertas actitudes que he visto en los personajes tampoco me convencieron del todo. Aún así, ya os digo que no me molestaron por lo mucho que disfruté de la historia.
Si os apetece una historia que enganche, tenéis que leer esta novela. No me duró ni medio día. -
I was really looking forward to reading the tense psychological thriller that I thought was "The Cellar". Instead, this was a subpar books filled with too many things to be believed.
First, there was no valid reason offered by the author (via her characters) as to why the girls - two, or three, or all four could not team up to overpower Colin (Clover) and rescue themselves. A few times, a character would just tell Summer (aka Lily) people have tried to escape but fail, with tragic consequences. Oh well, hey - I guess if I were a kidnap victim knowing I'd eventually be subjected to repeated rapes, I'd give up just because "it's been tried, but didn't work". REALLY? I can understand fear having a grip on someone, making them afraid to even try, but the Flowers apparently don't have any brains. Mention is made of knitting clothes, and cutting up their food. So just where did these potential weapons (knitting needles and knives) disappear to? Did they teleport out of the cellar after single usage? What about the chair the girls sat on? If made out of wood (we're never told what materials the chairs are made of), couldn't you bash Colin over the head with it, or smash the chair to use a leg as a weapon? The kidnapped girls, including Summer were just too stupid to live.
Thus, bad character development is one of my harshest criticisms about this book, because in my view, they didn't do enough to help themselves - and this includes Summer. By the end of the novel, you got the sense a little bit of Stockholm Syndrome was creeping into her mentality. As horrible as the trauma the girls underwent, none of them were especially sympathetic because they were so pathetic.
Another major criticism I have of this novel is that it supposedly takes place in a small village (not city or even town, mind you) in England. Yet, Colin was apparently able to kill prostitutes and non-prostitutes alike for years without detection. Really? In a small town where Summer laments "nothing ever happens", multiple murders is not newsworthy? Even if it was exclusively prostitutes who were killed, the police would still do more than what was shown in the novel (which was nothing much at all) to solve and stop the murders. Then too, when word gets out that prostitutes are the target, wouldn't you think the ones who are still "in the business" take measures to defend themselves? Yet, towards the end of the novel, Colin kills yet another streetwalker who didn't have so much as a pen on her person for a weapon. Stupid lapses in logic like this just irk me.
The narrative switching from the past into the present and vice versa really didn't do much for me. It gave the reader a more better picture of why Colin did what he did and the genesis of his psychopathy, but these flashbacks were somewhat boring and started to be repetitive. Also, the flashbacks showing how Summer and Lewis went from friends to more truly didn't add anything at all to the story. After a while, I felt the flashbacks were nothing more than padding so this could be novel-length, rather than a novella. Seriously, if the flashbacks were eliminated, I don't feel too much of the book would have been missed.
Amazon doesn't allow for half stars, but I'm giving this 1.5. The book gets a half bump because of Lewis. I felt he was the only person with half a brain in the novel. To my mind, Summer's parents, brother and even the police came across as passive ancillary victims who didn't do much. Not only did I like Lewis for his proactivism, he just seemed like a great all-around boyfriend.
Finally, I had to question if the author was truly British (or English) until I read the "About the Author" section and found out Natasha Preston is indeed British! Well then, color me even more surprised at two things that occurred which aren't proper Britishisms:
First, the use of the phrase elementary school. My understanding is it's much more common in the UK to say primary school. Second, the proper phrase should be someone is "in hospital", and not "in the hospital". Thus, because the author herself is in fact British, I will assume it's the publisher putting in the American manner of speaking here, rather than the author flubbing what's common parlance in the UK.
Overall, this was a fairly subpar novel. The characters were badly developed, the plot too far-fetched, the writing plodding at times, and what should have been a dramatic rescue was fairly muted. I doubt I'll be reading anything else by this author. -
To be honest, the book had a very good potential at the beginning, in fact, that was the reason why I chose it ... But at one point it became too repetitive, even boring ... and the ending, too predictable.
It would have been great if, instead of repeating the scenes over and over again, the author would have worked harder with Clover. -
The cellar was a very well written and tense book. I really enjoyed it
-
“They were as pure as flowers.”
The Cellaris basically mindless, somewhat entertaining trash. I mean I didn't hate it but it was problematic and I probably won't remember it in a week.
TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual assault, and physical Assault. The book is fairly violent - there are no intensely graphic rape scenes - mostly implied. There is a lot of physical violence against women though.
This review will contain a few spoilers so I would not recommend going any further if you have not read the book.
I debated whether or not this should be two or three stars but it really does belong in the dreaded two star category imo. The plot was pretty problematic, the writting was medicore at best and there was way too much focus on a teen romance plot for my liking in a thriller novel. I expected a lot of editoral issues so I am not going to nit pick on that - there are many though. I don't have any experience with Wattpad but I really didn't expect anything mindblowing when I saw the book was originally posted there.
I want to first say that I keep seeing this compared to Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl and would like to say just because a young girl is kidnapped and raped doesn't not make it a similar book. They have almost nothing in common and honestly, it's an insult to Scott's brutal and heart wrenching novel. I'm not going to compare them in any way because they don't belong in the same category AT ALL.
I read this in a day so I guess I can say it got me to turn the pages, I did care enough to know what was going to happen to the girls in this story. ) We switch between perpectives through-out the story - Summer (the main girl), Lewis (the boyfriend) and Colin (the kidnapper). I usually wasn't too excited to be in either of the men's heads because it was kind of boring. I liked the girls that were in The Cellar well enough but almost none of them got developed and in this case it really hurt the story. I think half of why I kept reading was I waiting to hear all their stories, at least to some extent and what I did get what just how they were taken and there wasn't really anything to those little snipets. It was all the same pretty much.
I didn't like that rape got used as a plot device in this book. It had zero purpose, it was literally just to push the story of a teen romance and show how much harder it would be for them to move on with their relationship once she was found, now that something that horrible had happened to her. Yes, the author described her being upset but half of it was over the fact that her boyfriend would not want her anymore. I get that someone might feel that way but it's certainly not the ONLY thing they would think about. It just was very poorly done and not needed at all. There was a lot of hate for the character of Rose who had been there the longest and what bugged me about that is that we never get a pay off for what made her become who she is today. We just get a boring and half-assed explaination that she has been there too long and needed him now. I'm sorry, not good enough.
Now on the case of the romance between Summer/Lily and Lewis there was TOO much development. Why couldn't the author have cut that filler stuff in half and gave us more story of the girls. I'm sorry but no one goes into a thriller hoping for a bland romance plotline for the main event. Seriously? I liked Lewis fine, he was cute and he loved her and wouldn't give up on her - I get it. I don't need it drilled into my head every few pages though. I got it!
The villian was beyond cliche and had no interesting story and being in his head was just boring.
One of the more frustrating parts of the story was this over-the-top stupid side plot that involved Colin going out constantly and grabbing prositutes off the street so he could bring them back and kill them in front of the girls. I guess the author must've had a basic trope list beside when she was writing this one. Ugh.
Overall, the ending was NOT satisifying and focused yet again on the relationship aspect and not the real aftermaths of what happened. It was messy and rushed and just no. I can't recommend this book because it's just too sloppy and not interesting enough. -
Este libro es super creepy. La historia narra una desesperanza total, y uno de los mayores miedos de todas las mujeres cuando salimos a la calle.
Tenebroso, triste, y aunque es una novela ES SUMAMENTE REAL, que este tipo de cosas pasan y me duele el alma sabiendo que ocurren -
Kitaba çok büyük beklentiyle, korkarak başladım. Biraz sarsılmak, duygu karmaşası istedim. Ama ne korktum, ne gerildim, ne sinirlendim, ne de duygulandım. Bence çok güzel bir konu bulmuş, doğru işlenseymiş ciddi rahatsız eden, işkence çekerek okuyacağım bir gerilim kitabı olurmuş. Ama olamamış, kitap resmen arafta kalmış. Ne öldürüyor ne güldürüyor.
Summer, Lewis ve Clover’ın anlatımıyla yazılan kitapta, hiçbirinin duygusunu alamadım. Summer’ın korkusu, çaresizliği; Lewis’in çırpınışları, endişesi; Clover’ın psikopatlığı, acımasızlığı, zorbalığı... Hiçbiri bana geçmedi. Sanırım en büyük eksiği de buydu. Colin’in kızlara neden 4 çiçeğin ismini verdiğinden ve annesiyle geçmişlerinde yaşadıklarının bugünkü durumuna etkisinden hiç bahsedilmemişti. Summer’ın diğer kızlar ve kendisi için çırpınışı ya da iki benlik arasında kalışını daha duygusal anlatabilseydi, psikolojik gerilimin dibine vururdu.
Kendimi bu kadar sarsılmaya, etkilenmeye hazırlamışken, çiklit okur gibi okudum bitirdim kitabı. Tek bir sahnede çok etkilendim, tüylerim diken diken oldu, onu da zaten bekliyordum. -
3.5/5 :)
‘With every passing second, I started to give up hope. I was going to die.’ (Summer, 36)
This book was written in first person POV and switches between Summer, Clover, and Lewis’ perspective.
Summer is trapped in a cellar with the man who took her, and three other girls: Rose, Poppy, and Violet. His perfect flowers. His family. But flowers can't survive long cut off from the sun, and time is running out…
~complete quotes collection~
So basically this book is about a crazy psycho (aka Colin or Clover) who kidnapped Summer, 3 other girls, (well technically more than 3) and his story.
Not gonna go into the details but I thought Summer and Lewis’s story was really sweet. they are seriously so lucky to have each-other. (totally not jealous.)
The 4 flowers: Rose, Poppy, Violet, Lily (Summer)Violet: ‘ “I used to think living on the streets, scared, cold, and alone was the worst thing in the world.” She laughed humorlessly. “How wrong was I?” ’ (Summer, 157)
It seems that only Violet hasn’t been “brainwashed” completely. violet knows that Rose and Poppy has given up. but she hasn’t, she still wants to get out. she know that she needs to get out, and she knows summer would be on her side and they will figure something out.‘ “We need to stick together.” That wasn’t the first time Poppy had said that, and I started to wonder if she said it so much to try and convince herself. We stuck together and what would happen? We would magically appear back home? Realization slammed me in the chest. No. She wasn’t talking about escaping—she was talking about surviving. My heart dropped. I thought we were on the same page.’ (Summer, 242)
The other “flowers” were living on the streets, so after a while, they might think that living with this guy is not bad. Summer has Lewis, her family, and friends who love and care about her, so it won’t be as easy for her to simply forget and accept the reality. all of them know that it’s impossible to escape (or kill him,) so they probably already gave up ages ago. and unlike summer, they’re grown adults.‘ “So, Clover, what have you got planned for today?” Rose asked as if this was a normal situation. Like he was going to reply “bit of kidnapping, maybe a murder or two, the usual.” How could she even ask him things like that so casually? I wasn’t even sure if she was afraid of him anymore.’(108)
But i get Rose too. 3 years is a very LONG time. and after seeing so many get killed, she probably knew it would be the best if she just listened to him and followed the rules. also since she cut ties with her family long ago, she doesn’t really have anyone to worry about. Before he kidnapped her, she was Shannen. I think Shannen actually liked Clover. He was nice and caring, and even he thinks things could’ve worked out between them. so yeah… their story is kind of sad.‘Rose, Poppy, and Violet silently sat on the sofa and held hands while I stood stock still, like an idiot waiting to wake up.’(Summer, 59)
Summer is a really dynamic character and i’m glad she and Becca both grew as they experienced more. Their traumas will not disappear but i’m glad they overcame the difficulties. :)
Clover: Clover thinks that everything he does is good for the world/community. And personally, I thought that Clover is not always wrong. His ideas are correct, it’s just his action has gone way too far. just because youdon’t likehate them and some rip families apart, doesn’t mean you can just murder them. And the way he’s trying to create the “perfect” family was too much. almost psychopathic. but his intention is not like normal “bad guys” i guess. I wouldn’t even consider him a “bad guy,” because i kind of understood where he’s coming from. it’s just that kidnapping girls and making a “family” was not the best choice. and killing random girls (prostitutes) that he thinks are “unpure” is… cruel. yes he has his reason, but in my point of view (and hopefully a lot of other people’s), that’s just heartless. Clover is a guy with anger issues, OCD, and a broken family (that led him to killing prostitutes.) If he thinks those girls are ripping families apart, has he ever thought what he did to Summer’s family? It’s essentially the same thing…‘For a minute I sat in the parking lot and stroked the tulip’s delicate, silky petals. No man had tampered with them or damaged them. They were pure and innocent—something that wasn’t often found in this world of greed, disgrace, and self-gratification. The wrong people were protected while the innocent were left to be picked at like a lion’s prey. I wanted to stop that.’(Clover, 174)
Questions out of curiosity:
【 IN SHORT; This book has violence, and some sensitive topics, so not everyone will be able to read about it. And I usually think it’s confusing when a book switches from past to present, but for this book, I really liked the glimpse of their life in the past. Honestly, i think other than living there would be fine. Especially for those girls who cut ties with their family, that would be an actual, comfy home for them. (actually i don’t think i made it sound very nice…) This book really was addicting and I couldn’t put it down. One of its flaws is that I feel like the ending happened too fast. They got rescued too fast. Not that it’s a bad thing but I feel like there weren’t enough details. But overall still a good book. This was the first
Natasha Preston book i’ve read, look forward to her other books! 】:)‘Loneliness was like a terminal disease. With every passing day you faded just that little bit more. I had felt as if I were dying.’ (Clover, 172)
just another rant :)
08/20/20 -
The Cellar. Oh god, where do I begin.
This book has some of the poorest writing I have ever been in contact with. And I read Twilight. I learned in 6th grade writing to vary sentence structure and show not tell, but apparently this author never learned that.
Summer is one of the most flimsy YA protagonists I have ever come across. She dealt with most of her problems by crying, taking a shower, crying, taking a shower, and crying. Granted, she didn't have many options, but for eight months? If I read the words "sick bastard" one more time, I would have pitched myself into the void. She had next to no character development and recovered much too quickly for somebody who was kidnapped, abused, raped, and forced to witness multiple murders. A quick google search on PTSD symptoms could have been very beneficial.
I felt like Colin/Clover's character should have scared me a lot more than he did. This may have just been the fault of the horrendous writing, of course. But I never found his killings (and there were plenty to assess) or his "build-a-family" mentality particularly off-putting. I feel like the author brushed over his grotesque fascination with these girls and focused more on the unexplained mood swings. Also, for somebody who raped four times a week, the author mentioned only two incidents, both of which were barely given a paragraph of recognition.
Lewis. I don't even care enough about his character to address it. Forget it.
Also, forget all the other flowers and their inability to realize that this guy has supplied them with knives, pots and pans, etc. to prepare food, all of which can be easily used to kill. "Gee how do we kill this guy?" Asks Violet as she chops vegetables with an eight inch kitchen knife.
I picked up this book because I read the summary on the back and thought that the concept held potential to be one of the creepiest things I've read. All I got was one-dimensional characters, the barest string of a plot, and the same five adjectives used two thousand times. Seriously, I'll never be able to hear the word "psycho" again without shuddering and having war flashbacks. -
Oh my gosh!!!!!! Words where are you?! Get yourself together Brittany! Okay, I really enjoyed this! I have seen so many people who hate it and thought the book was awful. Did it have something's wrong with it? Yes. Like the ending... Summer, lily whatever she ended up wanting to be called, all she talked about was how she couldn't wait to get out to see Lewis, but when she finally gets to see him she is scared of him like??? All you talked about through the book was how you want to see him and all the things you loved about him soooo, wheres the love at? I can get that she had been locked away for 7 months in a cellar, but all the way up till then that's all she talked about. She never truly became in grossed in clovers mind games, so shouldn't she have been the easiest to fall out of it? I don't even know, but I do have to say it was a very good book. It was a thousand times better than awake or even the cabin and I even really liked the cabin. Is it a book that I can say I love ummm no. But is it something I recommend giving a try well yes.
Over all really enjoyed! -
Cliché: secuestro adolescentes
La historia es buena, pero también un poco previsible, aún asi ha estado bien ver cómo crece la locura de Clover día tras día. Y cómo Lewis nunca se rinde. Las cuatro flores te contagian su angustia y sufres con ellas. -
I really liked this book and I wanted to give it at least four stars but there were a few things I couldn't get over...
Am I the only one that found it confusing and weird that physical descriptions weren't given? It barely touched on who was who and briefly went over what their hair color was, even the main character had limited description. It was harder to imagine and connect with these characters and sometimes I got them all confused because I had no face to stick with a name.
Why would he stab them in the stomach? Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've learned watching and reading war related stories...that's a very unreliable way to kill someone and it isn't as fast as the author seems to think. I've heard people can survive for days with a wound to the abdomen if they aren't hit in the right spot. I don't think his tiny pocket knife would cause the massive internal damage that would kill a full grown woman in a matter of seconds...just by randomly stabbing her once in the gut.
(I feel so dirty and disturbed writing that, ugh...moving on)
Why did he suddenly break his pattern of kidnapping homeless women to grab Summer/Lily? I thought serial killers/kidnappers usually stuck to a pattern once it was established. It seems odd for him to go from snagging homeless women no one "cares" about to a teenage girl with a family he knows will go looking for her.
I also find it a tad odd that he manged to kill a bunch of prostitutes and not a single one of them had a pimp, child, family member, or boyfriend/husband who went looking for or reported them missing.
How did the police manage to get him alive? I'm flabbergasted how they heroically rushed in just in the nick of time and subdued an insane man bent on murder, who overpowers four women working together (as it had been mentioned in the past) and manages to pacify and remove him with no issues. I know normal cops in Britain don't generally carry guns but considering this is a serial killer, I'm pretty sure they all had some kind of weapon or special unit go in to snag him.
I really wanted more details about his downfall. What made him go crazy? What did they ask him? Not a general brush over by Summer's dad, "Oh yeah they saw him with a bunch of tampons", excuse.
The book had promise but it also has massive holes in the plot...it needs to be re-polished and refined a little bit and I think it would be an amazing book. Maybe if there's a second book (as I see this is Cellar #1) the author will have a more confident and polished writing style. -
This was an okay story, but the main character came across as stupid at times.
Summer was not a very bright girl in this story. She was told repeatedly to accept a lift, to not walk alone at night, and to be careful, and she totally ignored everyone. It was like she was asking to be abducted. When she was then kidnapped, she asked totally stupid questions about things, when it was obvious what the answer was! It seemed to take way too long for her to get a clue!
The storyline in this was okay, but it did drag a bit. I felt quite sorry for Lewis, and what Clover (the abductor) was doing to the girls and to other girls was pretty awful. Clover seemed awfully resilient to blows to the head as well, you’d think that 4 girls between them would have been able to take on one man.
The ending to this was okay, but I was very annoyed about one thing.
6 out of 10. -
Her name is Summer. She’s fifteen and in love with her boyfriend Lewis and annoyed by her brother and doesn’t like scary movies. But the man who abducts her from the park near her house calls her Lily, and when he locks her in the basement apartment below his house, the three other young women who are already there - Poppy, Rose, and Violet - call her Lily too.
Life in the cellar is a grotesque parody of domestic life. Their captor, who calls himself Clover, is pleasant and attentive, complimenting their cooking and supplying them with books and DVDs - unless he detects disobedience or is in a bad mood, in which case he erupts into hideous violence. The narrative alternates between Summer’s, Clover’s, and Lewis’s point of view, although there is little difference in tone between the three. Given the harrowing subject matter, the book is curiously flat and repetitive. Best for fans of realistic horror like Living Dead Girl and Stolen. —Paula Willey for Booklist Online -
De los peores libros que he leído, lo cual fue una gran decepción por las ganas que le tenía y lo bien que se hablaba de él. Aburrido, repetitivo, sin sentido, exagerado y todo muy abrupto e incoherente al final. Personajes mal construidos, historia muy mal desarrollada y carente de sentido.
-
Loved, loved, loved this book. Every woman and girls nightmare. Had be gripping the pages from beginning to end.
