The Evil Within by Nancy Holder

Released: June 10th 2010
Publisher: Penguin/Razor Bill
Copy Provided by: Library
# of Pages: 310
Summary: Goodreads

In this sequel to New York Times bestselling author Nancy Holder’s Possessions, Lindsay finds out that she, too, is possessed, and must return to creepy Marlwood Academy in order to rid herself of the spirit. Lindsay’s afraid of what the spirit is telling her to do—kill Mandy! But the secrets of Marlwood go much deeper than Lindsay thought. Sometimes the girls who seem like enemies are actually on your side. And the voices you trust the most—the voices that come from within—are the ones that want you dead.

How many of you out there like ghost stories - seriously creepy, unsettling ghost stories? If you do, this book is the one for you. Marlwood is the school of nightmares. Broken down buildings, tangled woods, black lake, eerie fog, everything in fact that can be found in the best ghost stories. The mean girls in this tale are seriously nasty - full of their own importance and sense of entitlement. Add in some seriously demented and vengeful spirits and you have a recipe for terror. I haven't decided yet which are worse the living girls or the dead ones!

Mandy, chief mean girl, has a brother who was only spoken of in the first book and in this one he is introduced in the flesh, so to speak. If you thought she was bad, wait 'til you meet Miles. He gives me serious shivers. Lindsay has a crush on Troy, who says he's going to break up with Mandy, but never seems to quite get around to it. Is he really as nice as he seems or is there more to him than meets the eye?

Ms. Holder has taken the very relevant themes of bullying and popularity in schools and has given them an amazingly dark and scary twist. What happens when pranks go wrong? People die - only in this story, very few people seem even remotely sorry about it. This is the second in what appears to be a series ( no 3 comes out Spring 2011) and I would recommend reading the first one 'Possessions' before tackling this one - it will just make more sense if you do. You'll love the gothic feel to this very modern ghost story.