Review: "Deadstream" by Mar Romasco-Moore

Quick Summary

Type: Novel

Genre: Thriller

Back Cover: "Rear Window meets The Ring in this sinister YA thriller, in which a teen girl witnesses the livestreamed murder of a popular online streamer by a paranormal entity . . . and could be its next victim.

After surviving a car accident that claimed the life of her best friend, Teresa is now terrified to leave the safety of her bedroom. Since then, her only solace and window to the outside world has been the online community she found through streaming.

But one night, the safe world Teresa created starts to break down. A shadowy figure appears in the background of her favorite's streamer's video, and his behavior mysteriously changes over the next few days before he dies in front of thousands of viewers. Teresa finds herself at the center of a life-and-death investigation as the world tries to figure out what or who this figure could be . . . especially as it begins appearing in the other people's streams, compelling them to "open the door" and let it in—including Teresa’s own. In order to save herself and the rest of the internet from this relentless entity, Teresa must venture outside of the mental and physical walls she’s created. But will she be able to conquer her fears before anyone else loses their life?

Read Time: 2 days

Rating: 4 stars

Review

As with a lot of YA horrors, I found myself enjoying most of the book until just about the very end. I don't know what it is about YA horrors that have such strong stories until the end, but once again I found myself a little disappointed when I put it down. I just didn't feel like the ending was right for the story that led up to it.

With that being said, there was a lot of good in this book. I thought the author's depiction of PTSD and anxiety was quite good. There were also several moments when the tension was strong enough to illicit a physical reaction in me as I read, to the point where there was one time when I had to put the book down and take a little break before picking it back up (it was also after this that I decided it would be smart not to read any of this book late at night). Finally, I found that the obstacles Teresa faced were realistic (given the supernatural premise) and that the actions she took made sense with the story and who she was as a character.

Overall, despite the somewhat disappointing ending, this was a very enjoyable book, and I'm not going to let my misgivings about the climax take away from a story I had a lot of fun reading.