BOOK TOUR REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn

Posted by Carrie

Charm & Strange

by Stephanie Kuehn

YA Contemporary/Mystery

Release Date: June 11, 2013

Book Description

When you’ve been kept caged in the dark, it’s impossible to see the forest for the trees. It’s impossible to see anything, really. Not without bars . . .

Andrew Winston Winters is at war with himself.

He’s part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost.

He’s part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable.
Over the course of one night, while stuck at a party deep in the New England woods, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present.

Before the sun rises, he’ll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths—that choosing to live can mean so much more than not dying.

MY THOUGHTS: 4 OUT OF 5 FLEURS DE LIS

Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn

Well, I must say this book is definitely not what I expected, though I felt the synopsis was rather vague so I wasn’t too sure what to expect anyway. Drew/Win is a solitary boy who’s attending boarding school. His story is told in rotating chapters, of the present time and the summer he was 10 years old when his life changed forever. The story was not an action filled one, but something kept the pages turning for me and I finished the book in one sitting, at 1:30 A.M.

It’s extremely difficult to write this review without giving too much of the book away, but I’ll just say this is something I believe readers will either love or hate with not much middle ground. The way the story builds will mean the twist at the end will either piss you off or sadly shock you.

I’m having a very hard time figuring out what else to say about Charm & Strange without spoiling it, so I’ll just say that this book will definitely affect you, in one way or another, and it’s very much worth a read.

View all my reviews

About the Author

Stephanie Kuehn is a YA writer who grew up in Berkeley, California, which is a quirky sort of a place with a ton of wonderful bookstores. Her very first job was working in one of those bookstores, and she’s been a freakishly avid reader for as long as she can remember.

Stephanie’s other passions include mental health advocacy, social justice, and sports of all kinds. She’s currently living in Northern California with her family and their wild menagerie of pets.

www.stephaniekuehn.com | twitter.com/stephkuehn

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