Article written by: Ryleigh McMillan
The Cellar by Natasha Preston is one of my favorite books of all time.
The chapters themselves are extremely short and make the book easy to read. Along with that, the different perspectives of the characters add more suspense to the already very suspenseful book.
A Quick Summary
The Cellar by Natasha Preston follows Summer, a stereotypical teenage girl in the UK, who decides to go out on the town with her friends to the clubs. When she arrives, she discovers that one of her friends ran off, and has to go find her. While Summer searches for her friend in a field, she gets kidnapped by a man. The book follows her and 3 other abducted girls in, well, a cellar (see what she did there?).
The chapters set in Summer’s point of view follow her attempts and failures at an escape, while she tries to understand her capture and the girls she is forced to live with. In subsequent chapters from different perspectives, we are introduced to Clover, who is the one who kidnapped the girls and locked them down in his cellar. As you read, we find that he’s had a hard life.
As the book continues, there are a few chapters from the perspective of Lewis, Summer’s long-term boyfriend, though they don’t add much to the story other than a perspective of what the people closest to her are going through.
Below is a completely honest review of the book from my perspective. If you plan to read the book, or are currently reading it, and don’t want spoilers, I would skip past this. Or, if you don’t care and want to hear what I think, go ahead and read on, little bookworm.
An Honest Review
I personally LOVE Natasha Preston, and I’ve read many of her books in the past, The Cellar being the first book I’ve read from her. As a person who finds it really hard to sit down and read sometimes, the short chapters in this book make it really easy to read in one sitting.
Of course, a good book comes with a few criticisms. I personally feel that the more graphic scenes of the book either didn’t need to be added, or if they did need to be added, they should’ve had less detail to them. This book is targeted towards young adults, so graphic details should not need to be put in.
From my point of view, I feel as though the way Summer was written was a bit too stereotypical. She was written like how a Millennial on TikTok sees a “Gen Z” kid; annoying. She’s written as a popular girl obsessed with her boyfriend, which is fair enough; however, I feel like that was just a very weird detail.
Overall, the book was really enjoyable, and I would highly recommend it to everyone. If you like a realistic thriller that makes you feel the adrenaline of survival, then this book is definitely for you.
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