Trust & Obey

If you recall from my book review of Natasha Preston’s The Lost, I mentioned that I would like to read another one of her works. It would be nice to have a better idea of Preston’s style and skill as a writer. So, before I cast the final judgment, I decided to read The Cellar last week and I have some thoughts.

To give you a brief idea of what this book holds, The Cellar tells the tale of Summer who is kidnapped by a psycho self-titled “Clover.” Clover desires to have four girls constantly at his disposal and he names each of them after flowers. After being abducted, Summer, now known as Lily, must find a way to escape. If she doesn’t she may just spend the rest of her life trapped in the cellar with Rose, Poppy, and Violet.

So, I reached chapter seventeen, and halfway through I was just done. Clover- the captor- pretty much rapes the girls and I just couldn’t do it. When it comes to thrillers/horror books, I am fine with violence of pretty much any kind. It can make me a bit uneasy from time to time but it can add to the suspense. Despite this, I cannot read about people being sexually assaulted/raped all for entertainment purposes. I can handle this type of thing for biographies or academic reasons but not entertainment. It’s already so disturbing that I would like to avoid hearing about it unless there is a greater purpose.

On top of all of that, we get a look into Summer and her boyfriend, Lewis’, first time having sex and she’s supposed to be fifteen or so. Why on earth is this a thing?! Why can’t our society accept that *maybe* saving yourself for marriage could be a good thing? I will tell you, as a virgin, keeping my virginity has been awesome. It makes relationships far less messy and you actually want to get married. Why would a man want to put a ring on your finger if you already are pretty much married without the title? A large part of marriage- not all of it- is the fact that you seal it with sex. If you already have done it with that person and possibly others it’s no longer as special. The romance and excitement sort of die. Not to mention, saying to men you won’t be participating in premarital sex really weeds out the weirdos.

As a whole, I really didn’t love the plot of this book. I got some Hitchcock’s “Psycho” vibes. This is a spoiler so if you’re interested in this book, skip this paragraph. Clover- really named Colin- is obsessed with his deceased mother and making her happy. He mentions over and over how horrible prostitutes are and how things were never the same since his father got involved with one. It ripped his family apart. This is clearly something that would rock a child’s world. Although, I think handing it over to a psychopath almost taints the hardship that adultery brings upon a family. This tragic situation seems to be Colin’s motivation and what brings him and his mother close. Colin’s maternal obsession brings on the nostalgia of Norman Bates and his adoration of his mother. I have seen this enough times that this doesn’t feel very original and all I can think of is Norman and Ed Gein an infamous serial killer.

I kinda wanted to hear from Summer solely, not Clover and her boyfriend. I thought it would be more fun to be in the dark with her and not have a birdseye view. To me, what makes a book or movie creepier is when you don’t have tons of pieces to the puzzle. You’re stumbling around with the protagonist, which causes me to be more empathetic. Also, for me personally, it was just really heavy.

We are constantly going through a will Summer escape or will she give up? Because of this, I didn’t really root for her, I was thinking more: “C’mon Summer, get yourself together and escape or die trying!!!!” I always love the courageous protagonist because it keeps the plot rolling and who can’t cheer for the fearless hero? Perhaps Preston wanted this to be more realistic? I’m not sure.

At the end of the day, The Cellar was a total dud for me. I made it pretty much halfway through and it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Besides the stress of sexual assault looming over us, I felt it wasn’t super original. Obviously, I didn’t finish it so maybe the ending was phenomenal and would make the whole thing worth it. I would not recommend it to anyone, particularly teenagers, unless you’re deep into the horror genre. In that case, this probably isn’t all that new to you. I would say adults could read this I just don’t think it would be most adults’ cup of tea simply due to it clearly being targeted to teenagers. Even though I thoroughly delight in suspense, Preston’s style is far to dark and mature for my taste.