The Creeping by Alexandra Sirowy

Book Summery (Via Goodreads):
Twelve years ago Stella and Jeanie vanished while picking strawberries. Stella returned minutes later, with no memory of what happened. Jeanie was never seen or heard from again.
Now Stella is seventeen, and she's over it. She's the lucky one who survived, and sure, the case is still cloaked in mystery—and it's her small town's ugly legacy—but Stella is focused on the coming summer. She's got a great best friend, a hookup with an irresistibly crooked smile, and two months of beach days stretching out before her.
Then along comes a corpse, a little girl who washes up in an ancient cemetery after a mudslide, and who has red hair just like Jeanie did. Suddenly memories of that haunting day begin to return, and when Stella discovers that other red-headed girls have gone missing as well, she begins to suspect that something sinister is at work.
And before the summer ends, Stella will learn the hard way that if you hunt for monsters, you will find them. 

Book Review:
This seemed like such a promising book for Halloween. Unfortunately, The Creeping didn't live up to my expectations. I'm very much a character person and I didn't connect to any of these characters. The main character, Stella, is a selfish, vapid person. I couldn't stand her. Her best friend, Zoey, is even worse. Between the two of them, I almost DNF'd this book. Stella's character "progression" felt forced and fake. The pacing was slow. By page 200, I was ready to give up. Finally, there was development regarding the big "mystery," but it was almost too little, too late. Overall, this was a disappointing story that could have been told in half of the page count.

Cover Art Commentary:
I really like this cover. The ombre effect is neat. I also love how the title seems like it's "creeping" itself. Too bad the story didn't live up to the cover!

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