Review: Wickedpedia by Chris Van Etten

Title: Wickedpedia

Series: Point Horror #123

Author: Chris Van Etten

Genre: YA, horror, mystery

Publication date: June 24, 2014

Published by: Scholastic Inc.

Source: e-ARC from publishers via Netgalley

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Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository

Synopsis:

It's the return of Point Horror for the Internet generation! Don't open the door. Don't answer your phone. And whatever you do, DON'T turn on your computer...

Cole and Gavin love playing practical jokes through Wikipedia. They edit key articles and watch their classmates crash and burn giving oral reports on historical figures like Genghis Khan, the first female astronaut on Jupiter. So after the star soccer player steals Cole's girlfriend, the boys take their revenge by creating a Wikipedia page for him, an entry full of outlandish information including details about his bizarre death on the soccer field.

It's all in good fun, until the soccer player is killed in a freak accident... just as Cole and Gavin predicted. The uneasy boys vow to leave Wikipedia alone but someone continues to edit articles about classmates dying in gruesome ways... and those entries start to come true as well.

To his horror, Cole soon discovers that someone has created a Wikipedia page for him, and included a date of death. He has one week to figure out who's behind the murders, or else he's set to meet a pretty grisly end.

My rating: ★★★★☆
R.L Stine was one of the first authors who really got me into reading when I was in middle school. Till this day I absolutely LOVE the Fear Street series! But besides his Fear Street books, I've also read some of his other books, including a couple of Point Horror ones. So this is what prompted me to request this book. I like Point Horror :) I like horror, period! The concept of Wickedpedia really intrigued me and it definitely sounded like something I might love. And I was right! It was pretty awesome!

So, we have Cole and his best buddy Gavin just going about their lives... well, actually, Cole is still dealing with the break up with his ex-girlfriend Winnie. And I don't even think "dealing" is the right word! He is very upset that she dumped him for the jock Josh. So much so that he decides he wants to expose to Winnie the real Josh... In order to do this he goes on Wikipedia and tweaks some pages by adding the most ridiculous information ever! I'm talking breakfast cereal ridiculous! Honestly, it was the funniest thing ever and I could not believe Josh fell for it. But I didn't say he was very bright, now did I? ;) Anyway, this leads to that and Cole is more upset than ever, deciding to take the Wikipedia thing a couple steps further. As revenge, he (with the help of Gavin, of course) makes some fake Wikipedia pages for Winnie and Josh and a couple other people stating a couple things about them including some fake deaths. But then things get weird when people start dying just as Cole had written on their Wiki page! Dun, dun, DUN! Cole tries to delete the pages, but that doesn't seem to stop the killer. And said killer doesn't stop there either... he actually then goes after Cole as well! What started out as Cole's harmless prank against Josh turns into a race to save his own life... Will Cole be able to catch the killer before he claims another life? *cue more suspenseful music*

I really liked Cole... most of the time. I mean, he is really easy to relate to, but at the same time I can totally see why Winnie dumped him for someone else: he is CLINGY! Good gods dude, give the girl some breathing room! And Gavin, oh my gods I LOVED him! I think out of all the character he was my favorite! He is just a lot of fun and such a funny kid! The girl Lila, or whatever her name was, I thought was interesting and quirky. Josh was a jerk-face and I didn't really care for Winnie all that much.

The killer... I actually figured out who it was way before Cole put the pieces together. I've honestly become too good at playing the guessing game... R.L. Stine has taught me well ;) Anyway, I was very surprised to find out I was right and I almost started to cry because I didn't want the killer to be this person! I certainly could not wait to figure out what their motive was... and boy was it twisted!

Speaking of twisted, this book is actually quite gory... Just throwing that out there in case you're not into that sort of stuff. Me, I actually used to not be able to handle it, but I'm a horror junkie so I sucked it up and now don't really mind it. Call me morbid, but I actually really liked it... Muahahaha! ;) Well, I should admit that yesterday I was watching Supernatural and these two people started eating each other (episode: My Bloody Valentine) and it was kinda graphic so I started cringing, big time! So yeah, I'm not totally evil and sometimes can not handle it completely ;) But I really don't mind it as long as it doesn't go too over the top.

One thing that really threw me off about this book was the ending. It was very abrupt! I mean, we get to the climax, you know, the final big fight scene with the Bad Guy, and then... no resolution. I kept clicking the button on my Kindle to take me to the next page 'cause I was sure there was more--there had to be more! But... nothing. It just stopped there and I was left over here scratching my head going, "Um, what?" Some people would call this an open ending, but this open ending was WAY too open!

But besides that weird (read: sort of disappointing) ending, it was a great read! It had an interesting concept that I've never read about before (yay!), plenty of suspense and mystery to keep you hooked, and witty writing to lighten things up (at least a little bit). If you are a horror fan like myself, I highly recommend this one!

Be warned, the book's blurb is kind of misleading since things didn't actually happen like how it sates. That is why I included a little bit (because I was trying to avoid spoilers!) of a run down on what really happened.

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! :)