Dark Ride - Caroline Green - 4*

Dark Ride

Caroline Green

****

No Spoilers

Dark Ride is about a girl, Bel, who moves to this small town, Slumpton. She is not happy with the move and in typical young teenage fashion she takes it out on her mother. When she runs away from their arguments, she comes across this boy, when he disappears in his place is produced a small blue ticket. From then she finds the abandoned fairground and grows to know the mysterious boy, Luka, and comes to terms with her own life, as well as helping his and a few others along the way. 

I picked this book up in the library today. It is not that long and I wanted to have a nice, quick read. Well, this was certainly better than I thought. I liked the concept. I love fairgrounds and abandoned carnivals and think there is something quite sinister and yet magical about them. I liked the fact that it was a little seaside town, at times I could really picture parts, because I live in a small seaside town off the South East of England, so I can get most of her humour and the ways she wrote some of the scenes.

I liked Luka. He was a sweet, troubled boy, and very likable, you could feel for him and his plight. Bel, she was your average fourteen year old, worrying about things, trying to fit in and now struggling this big move to this small town. When they meet it is an awkward moment, and I can imagine that happening to me, actually probably even now! The two characters were very likable, but I do feel that their 'relationship' was very forward and very rushed, because the story did span over... a week, maybe two? But I know that it is a younger teenage novel and this is to be expected. It was still sweet and as I said earlier, a nice, simple read. Easy going and quick to finish.

Caroline's writing has a nice style, she uses metaphors and similes quite well, which I myself have a love for. She writes with a sense of humour and this was an added touch to direct you away from what would have been quite a sensitive subject. I liked the paranormal element, even though it was not really 'paranormal' more likely 'supernatural'. I liked the twist at the end and it made me think of all those old mystery novels you read when you're really young and then feel like you can piece together all the distant crimes and murders. Or was that just me?

I will give this book a four out of five stars, solely because it was so simple and fun to read, but it did go all too fast. I would have loved to see more of Luka's past, I wanted to see more interactions with the two of them and just some more sweetness and love. Caroline's writing is stylish and simple, yet very effective. I would recommend this book for a quick and simple read, just for  bit of fun on a tea or coffee break, or when you need to just escape reality for a bit, like I did.