Makinsey Hamblin, Guest Writer
August 31, 2017
The Cellar by Natasha Preston is a young adult novel about a teen named Summer who is kidnapped. The story is told from the point of view of Summer, her boyfriend Louis, and her kidnapper Colin. After Summer is taken by Colin, he puts her in his cellar, where Summer, now renamed Lily by Colin/Clover, discovers that she is only one in a long line of girls and women he has taken captive.
The Cellar is specially designed to hold four girls, and Clover dictates every fact of life for them, even down to when they bathe, what they wear, and what they eat. Summer/Lily is introduced to her four co-captives whom Clover calls Poppy, Rose and Violet. The other girls are all runaways and have been held by Clover for any time from from months to years.
As time goes on, Summer learns just how violent and volatile Clover can be and finds that escape may be nearly impossible. How many have to die before Clover is discovered, and will those that live ever be okay again?
The Cellar is a truly fascinating book, and the fact that Natasha Preston tells the story from multiple perspectives is genius. The book is dark, but it’s never especially grisly, and I couldn’t put it down. The detail Preston puts into describing the idiosyncrasies of Clover and all of the backstory about why he is how he is provided a depth to the story that had me even further enthralled.
I also liked that she included Louis’s perspective because it told more of what was going on in the search for Summer. However, at times I felt that Preston focused too much on Louis, and oftentimes, she added unnecessary and uninteresting conflict for Louis that detracted from the rest of the story.
I give The Cellar 4 out of 5 stars and recommend this book to those that enjoy true crime and dark novels.
