Fun, clever and perfectly spooky. I adored the illustrations especially. Can't wait to read more from this author.

DNF 

I tried reading this book but just couldn’t get into though I did think the brief illustrations in the book were really interesting.

Jennifer Strange has a great hook to draw you into reading it: a young woman comes into previously unknown powers and is left with her older sister while her dad searches for a magical artifact. Female Supernatural? Gimme! But I feel that the book went off the rails after the first chapter, with introducing several new characters that were given plot-heavy hooks that were ultimately never explained. Even at the end, I cannot tell you why so-and-so was given top billing or why the book happened as it did. 
However, the illustrations are top-notch! So check those out I guess.

When I initially asked for this book to review, I thought it was going to be comic book based upon the cover.
Needless to say I wasn't disappointed since there were some illustrations within the book as well as the text.

This was an very haunting story about family relationships, and the creepy dark underworld of ghosts, monsters and demons.

I loved the sisters', Jennifer and Liz, relationship- it was tenuous at first, but they soon realized that they were both experiencing the same weird powers, so they knew that they needed to help each other out.

Cat Scully wasted no time in showing how horrifying this world can be with the many creepy demons and how death is not far behind once you have encountered one of the dark creatures. It was an quick-paced plot, so I was always ready to read the next chapter. I also loved the illustrations, and the dad's journal pages.

I would definitely list this as higher YA because of the violence but super interested in where the next book is headed.

Scary enough to read with the lights on, sweet enough that you can resist finding fav characters. I loved getting to know the Strange sisters, the Blackwells, and Jennifer’s dad. With worldbuilding through illustrations and journal entries, I dare you to find a more immersive read this fall. Fans of Supernatural and Buffy wil love Jennifer Strange!

Stars: 2/5

Thank you to the publishers for a free ARC of this story in exchange for an honest opinion.

I finally finished this book. It took me so long. Admittedly, that wasn't all because of the book.

I wanted to like this story. I held out. I had hope. The beginning was slow. I was 50% finished and the story was hardly off the ground... felt like I was still being introduced to everything.

As an unedited proof, there were a number of grammar mistakes which annoyed me and every second paragraph had text telling me it was an uncorrected proof and not for sale, which I understand why it's there, but it's distracting.

Then there's the characters. The only person I liked was Liz. Every character was temperamental. One minute they were wired enough to punch a wall the next SECOND they were being coddled. One minute they were mad at a friend and the next they were upset (tears brimming upset) when the same friend didn't help them. The whole story and the writing is cliche. I could not stand Jacks. Also her name is Jennifer, why is she Jacks? What on earth happened to certain characters it's like they just stopped existing.

I liked the illustrations. Very unique and the art is lovely. I liked the diary entries and the idea for this. It's definitely there. I just found myself groaning every two pages because of a character's words, thoughts and actions. 

The story was all over the place and overly cliche. This is also classed as horror? It's not. Honestly it's a cheesy paranormal story. 

I'm sorry I really admire authors, they put so much effort into these stories but it's my honest opinion and kudos to you, Cat Scully, but not for me, thank you.

WARNINGS: death, stabbing, demons, disturbing illustrations (honestly more disturbing than scary but I liked them)

RECOMMEND: To young 12+ readers who like paranormal and cheesy stories. It's not scary.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of Jennifer Strange in exchange for an honest review!

I don't feel entirely too comfortable pointing out any of the issues in Jennifer Strange until I read an updated finished copy because the author has already mentioned that they listened to the Netgalley feedback & updated their book based on that feedback. So, what I might have to say might no longer be in the book. Who knows. This rating is based solely on the story & not if I vibed with the writing or whatnot.

Anywho, I will say that I love love Cat Scully's artwork in Jennifer Strange; very cute & added a lot of extra umph to the story & we love extra umph in this house. Also, I'm always a sucker for a YA-horror story that has a character fighting ghosts & demons & that's that on that. The premise is GREAT. The characters, unfortunately, fell a bit flat for me, but I did like the concept of Jennifer & her sister bonding throughout the story.

This was a barn burner of a story.  Jennifer Strange is left with her older sister by her dad right after she discovered she has supernatural powers.  She doesn't know how they work or what's going on at all except she's now being attacked by ghosts and demons.   We find out as she does as everything unfolds.  There's a lot of potential here.  I'd like to see some more well-rounded world building in future books.

I DNF'd this book about 30% through. Right at the start of the book there was tons of action, but it literally didn't make any sense. I was just way too confused to enjoy the story. The illustrations were also really difficult to read on the eARC.

This isn't a graphic novel, but an illustrated YA horror. Netgalley tricked me is all and why this took so long for me to finish. Got this free for review.

Something about this seemed VERY familiar, but I couldn't really put my finger on it.

There were a lot of aspects about this I enjoyed, the setting for one (Savannah, GA - I could really envision it and feel those muggy summer days) and the sisterly bond for two, but man I didn't like Marcus. Even by the end I didn't feel he was redeemed more so excused. Eh.

The lore was interesting and I love me some demons, but at times it didn't follow its own rules.

My biggest complaint is the pacing. It felt very rushed and I know you're supposed to drop the reader into it, but I think this dropped us a little too far along into the timeline. I don't know. It was OK overall. Not sure if this is going to be a series, but is read the next one I think.

I agree with other reviews that going in, I expected a graphic novel, or at least for it to be heavily illustrated. I loved the horror aspects, but it was a bit hard to get into and stay interested as it felt fairly flat overall.

Jennifer Strange should have been classified as a ya novel instead of a graphic novel. I think that would help many of the reviews. We went into this book expecting a graphic novel, but instead got a book with occasionally a photo & journal entries. The story itself was decent.

I requested this book thinking it was a graphic novel.
I don't know if because of that, but I was a little disappointed with the story and it took me a long time to adapt to the plot.
It is a YA book with supernatural content. I recommend it for people who like these elements and who don't expect just a book with a few images.

* Digital version of the book received by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review *

At last, a truly scary horror book.
The publisher’s blurb says; Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Strange is the Sparrow, cursed with the ability to give ghosts and demonic spirits a body-a flesh and blood anchor in the mortal world with the touch of her hand. When a ghost attacks her high school and awakens her powers, her father dumps her unceremoniously in the care of her estranged older sister Liz.
Well, that was enough to grab my interest but honestly if I had seen it was a YA book I probably would have skipped it. So glad I never noticed!
The book starts like a hot rod with a shiny new Engine! Zero to sixty in 2.4 seconds...It has everything you could want in a ghost or horror story. Demon possessions, magic spells, thousands of the lost dead in Savannah, and the unbreakable bond of two sisters.
I loved this book! It was fun to read and Cat Scully, who has the best name ever, by the way, kept the pace fast and the story moving with few to no stumbles. You will not believe this is her first novel. You can tell she read a lot of Horror books and watched scary movies as a kid because she wrote a true horror story!
 
I received this book free from Haverville House Publishing, and Netgalley for my honest, unbiased review.

This book is basically Supernatural if the brothers weren’t so close. And if they kept to hunting demons. And if it were a less likable story. What did I mean by that statement? I mean that the book’s got all the makings of something I would highly highly enjoy! But it falls terribly flat. And then I ended up not liking it. Like I have so many notes on my Kindle about this book but if I had to write down everything this post would be super long.

Jennifer moans on and on about Savannah, Georgia and how she doesn’t like it. And that it’s too hot. She breathes, and it’s too hot. She walks, and it’s too hot. And it’s too much for me. She was just an unlikable character – which made me sad because I did want to like this book a lot. She goes on about how her dad didn’t tell her anything (okay, sure, that’s fair. I can’t blame her for that) – but the dad didn’t leave any contact number? She’s underage and he’s her legal guardian? Or don’t they have other relatives who might know about this? Did the main character maybe mention this and I didn’t pay enough attention? Maybe.

The dad’s journal plays a big role in the book. My issue is that it’s probably touted as this know-all, be-all type of a thing – which can be written well – sometimes. The main character here is too fixated on the journal – but maybe that’s because her dad suddenly left her by her sister with just the journal and no questions answered.

Another thing – regarding the dad, and his leaving. Jennifer has a phone – and most probably access to the Internet. Why don’t we see her searching stuff up that show up in the journal – different types of supernatural entities. She’s a teen with access to the Internet!! Why wouldn’t she research it?

A lot of things were confusing throughout the book? To me it felt like there should’ve been a lot more – both character and plotwise – because they needed a lot of work. But I can tell you that I didn’t like any of the characters. I didn’t feel much for any of them, sad as that is to say. And it’s not that I didn’t want to like them! I did, I did try to like them, they just didn’t hold any interest for me. I think the one character I did sort of like was Marcus, but then his character development was so confusing I don’t even know if he had one?

Also, I know this isn’t a final copy, I know how arcs aren’t properly formatted, that’s all fine and well. I’m used to arcs not being a 100% formatted. But this book could’ve been a little better formatted imo?

 

Did anyone ever contact the school to excuse her from classes?

A great idea that faltered in the execution. There is no grasp of pacing or characterization. It reads like a rough draft...the author writes in circles, simultaneously providing too much and too little exposition. I'm very disappointed, because this was one of my most anticipated books of the year.

After reading Adam Cesare's excellent Clown in a Cornfield earlier this year, I decided I absolutely had to check out more YA horror. Enter Cat Scully's Jennifer Strange, which crossed my radar thanks to a few mentions by Christopher Golden, along with blurbs from him, Bracken MacLeod, and James A. Moore, all fine gents in their own rights and authors of some really good books, as well. 

Scully takes us to Savannah, Georgia where Jennifer has just been dumped on her older sister's doorsteps by their father, who's run off to do some research for his work. What Liz doesn't know is that Jennifer has special abilities, was recently attacked by a ghost, and that their nerdy, bookish, AWOL father is actually a ghost hunter. With a touch of her hand, Jennifer can give ghosts and demons a body, allowing them to operate more concretely in the world of the living. After being attacked during her first day at her new school, and again later that night, it appears there's some twisted manipulations happening in the underworld and the sisters have to find out why, and how to stop it. 

Jennifer Strange carries with it a lot of familiar ingredients, oftentimes feeling a bit like a CW drama. There's a dash of Supernatural, a pinch of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and even a little bit of Harry Potter-like elements for good measure. I've enjoyed each of these individual components over the years, but having them all mixed together left me with a bit of an odd taste.

Tonally, the book is a bit all over the map for the YA demo. It's sweary as hell, which I appreciated because it helped lend a sense of authenticity to our high school and college aged protags, and skews it toward the upper age range for YA lit. Young adults certainly know their colorful four-letter words and the Strange sisters let 'em fly with regularity, and more power to them! Scully conjures up some nice mental imagery of the various nasties the girls have to face (I loved her description of the Banshee!), but doesn't get too carried away. If anything, as a YA book with a pair of girls in their mid- to late-teens, she probably could have pushed the envelope a bit further and gotten edgier with her descriptions and plotting, and really bloodied things up. The illustrations and journal entries accompanying many of the book's chapters, though, looked to me as if they're skewing toward a much younger crowd and came off as more cartoony than the otherwise largely safe-playing prose they're servicing. The 13- and 14-year-old readers might dig the art, but older YA audiences might find themselves wanting more mature renderings of the characters and monsters. 

At times, Jennifer Strange feels like it's trying too hard to appeal to the YA demo as a whole, putting enough foul language in to appeal to the late-teens crowd, while striving to look more innocent for the middle schoolers. It's a mixed bag that doesn't always work, and even with my limited exposure to YA material I couldn't quite figure out which age range this book was intended for. It tries hard to appeal to all YA readers, but thinking back to the type of horror I was reading at 16 or 17 I likely would have found this book too kid friendly to satisfy way back when.

Ultimately, at 41 now, I'm not the target demographic for this book, but I did enjoy it and found it to be a quick, breezy read. I suspect younger readers and horror newbies will find a lot to appreciate here, though, and when my kids come of age I suspect Scully's debut could be a good starting point for them to get into horror. In fact, I'm hopeful that Jennifer Strange can act as a gateway drug into the larger realms of the horror genre for all those many younger readers who latch onto it early. While Mommy and Daddy are reading Ania Ahlborn, the kiddos can enjoy some Cat Scully when they're done with their homework. If things go well, those kids will be asking the most important question among readers, "What horror book should I read next?" while they patiently wait for their next Strange adventure.

Jennifer Strange was just the book I needed, although I didn't realize it when I started off. 
Jennifer starts off sounding like most teenagers, but quickly takes you down the rabbit hole with her. You feel it when she's scared by what's going on around her. When she gets angry (which is quite often, reminding you of another pair of supernatural hunters...) you understand it, even if you think her actions are over the top. 

The story itself had me confused at first because of the way the book is described, but once I got things sorted out, it was compelling. The only complaint that I had was towards the 3/4 mark I felt things  became a bit rushed. It felt as though there should have been more to the story that was left out.  

The ending though... that was amazing. Absolutely, stunning and unexpected. I loved seeing Jennifer come into her own, even when facing off against something much bigger than she had expected. And the outcome didn't feel  like many hero stories where the 'good guy wins, even if he's facing insurmountable odds, just because the hero has to win." It felt very real.  

I honestly cannot wait to see more from this author, and I hope that Jennifer Strange gets a second book.

This is a fun YA horror story and I can totally see a series with this! It had all kinds of vibes: spooky, demons, ghosts, 'magical' powers, sibling bonds, etc. And what's even more fun is that this novel has incredible illustrations throughout and even handwritten journal entries. I would consider this 80% novel/20% graphic novel if that makes sense.

I totally flew through this story and I think anyone could do the same! There were some wild action scenes, emotional sisterly bonding scenes, and some intense family secrets and past that come to haunt the present.

I am definitely looking forward to more in this series (fingers crossed!) and recommend this to any YA horror fan! 3.5 stars and rounded up for NetGalley!

Review for Jennifer Strange by Cat Scully
3.5/5 stars
It took me a while to warm up to the writing style. The prose sections were clunky and sometimes felt like a slog to get through. For example, When it came to her first encounter with a demon, I couldn't really feel the tension. However, the imagery was done really well as it was successful in eliciting fear and worked really well with the theme of the book. At the beginning of the book, the main character felt like a stereotype. However, as the book goes on she began to feel more three-dimensional. It was interesting to watch her character grow, and I found myself starting to like her. Even though it was presented as a graphic novel, it really isn't. It's more of a mixture between prose and graphic novelisation, which is an interesting mix of genres that kept me curious. Overall, this was an enjoyable genre-bending read even though it could've been improved in certain areas.