Book Review: Lying Season by Karina Halle

Lying Season (Experiments in Terror #4)

Karina Halle

Review of Dead Sky Morning (Experiments in Terror #3)


Publication Date: December 13th 2011

Publisher: Metal Blonde Books

Pages:

Genre: Horror, Paranormal

Ama­teur ghost-hunter Perry Palomino has bat­tled ghosts, fought off skin­walk­ers and skirted the fine line between life and death. But can she sur­vive bunk­ing down in Seat­tle for a week with her partner (and man she secretly loves) Dex and his perfect girl­friend, Jennifer? And can she do so while being tor­mented by a mali­cious spirit from Dex’s increas­ingly shady past? With love and life in the bal­ance, Perry must dis­cover the truth among the lies or risk los­ing every­thing she's ever cared about.

I was happy to discover that Lying Season increased in enjoy-ability the second time around. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that I knew what I was getting into. While Dead Sky Morning focuses almost completely on the supernatural happenings and the horror side of Experiments in Terror, Lying Season is all about the characters. Yes there are bone chilling moments, but much less of them compared to the amount of character growth.

Lying Season is aptly named for it is full of lies being revealed. We learn the identity of Anonymous, we learn Dex's past and we learn the where the lines seem to be. In this book we follow the journey of Perry figuring out where she stands with Dex and growing up in general. As always I can't get over how much I can connect with Perry. Her paranormal troubles aside, I see myself reacting in similar ways, and yes making the same mistakes, that she does. Though I will admit she has more of a temper than I do. I really like the places this book takes her.

For Dex, this book is another one that enlightens more of his character. He is the thickest onion in the whole world. As we uncover more and more layers, we are enlightened to why he is the way he is, and especially by the end we really do realize he is just a man, just human, just as scared.

Though lacking in the amount of creepy moments and ghost hunting out of focus, this is really an enjoyable book. Halle has a way with creating such realistic characters that easily shape themselves in my mind.

The ending had me cheering for Perry. Go Her. She deserves to be as pissed as she is and I'm proud of her for cutting it off. I feel like, if it had happened before this book, she would have just strung herself along some more and let Dex play his wilbble wobble game. Now she has shown him that she won't just be there while he keeps his "safety", he has to man up.

Of course she's not a saint in all of this. Dex is going to be absolutely livid when he hears that Perry messed with his medication, which was a stupid idea (though I understand why she did it). She also constantly talks about Dex telling her his secrets when she doesn't open up to him. Of course, we as readers are inside her mind and know everything, but Dex has no idea, except for what he can guess.

I do mourn the "finishing" of the show for now. I really like that portion of the books and missed having that be a focus of this book and now it seems as if next book won't have much of it either. However it seems we are promised to have some scary things in store for next book (which I can read now that I've finished rereading/reviewing the first four!)

Fans of Experiments in Terror, keep on reading. There are scary parts in this book, but mostly you get to learn a whole lot about Dex, Perry, Shownet and even a little bit about Creepy Clown Lady. This series is far from slowing down, it just keeps up the good quality.

4.5 Bookmarks