Book Spotlight: FOUR HOUSES by Tori Scott (a FREE YA Short Story!)

Posted by rachelha in Reviews / 2 Comments

Free rocks, doesn’t it? Fat-free. Buy one, get one free. Basically throw the word “free” into a sentence and I’m a happy girl. So I had to make sure everyone knew about this awesome opportunity to get a free YA short story. And it’s not just free . . . it freaking rocks!

Four_Houses_Cover
FOUR HOUSES is about a young girl faced with four choices who must make a decision that will forever haunt her.

Here is a quick excerpt:

The door in front of me is the ugliest shade of plum I’ve ever seen. It’s a prune Grandma would eat, a raisin on its last leg, a swollen bruise in the most inconvenient of places.

The waiting is the worst part, wondering who will open the door. But this time the waiting is killing me, tearing me down piece by piece and devouring me with its insatiable jaws.

I bite my lip and raise my hand to knock.

I LOVED this story! From the very beginning, I was filled with questions and felt like a detective searching for clues. Why is this girl in front of this house? What happened to bring her here? Is this going to completely freak me out? (I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to scary things, but I shouldn’t have worried. It had just the perfect amount of chill enducing prose).

Scott completely threw me into her story world in the middle of the action, and her vivid writing kept me there.
 
Each chapter of this short story got better and better. Once I realized the unique story structure she was using, I couldn’t read fast enough. I needed to get to the end to figure everything out. And I wasn’t disappointed.
 
I’m not normally one to read short stories to be completely honest. Writing them myself scares the snot out of me and I haven’t really been tempted to read many either. I did pick up Zombies vs. Unicorns from the library and flipped through a few, but besides one or two I mostly just admired the artwork with my kids. This story made me think that I missed out on not reading more. And can you really ask for more from the stories you read then that it makes you hungry for more?
 
The structure of FOUR HOUSES is brilliant, the pacing superb, the writing spectacular. And can we talk about the freaking cover? The picture is the perfect choice to capture the feeling and mood of this piece. And it’s gorgeous.

You have to check this story out. Not only because it is free, but because Tori Scott is about to break into the young adult world with a fierceness and you want to be able to say you read this story now. Tori signed with uber-agent Laurie McLean this summer for her YA Paranormal THE COLLECTOR. In full disclosure, I happen to be one of Tori’s critique partners–which means I can tell you, this book will knock your socks off.

To get YOUR free copy of FOUR HOUSES, all you have to do is add the book to your “To-Read” list on Goodreads or offer to review it on your blog. Check out all the details at Tori Scott’s Blog. 
 
Offer is good until August 1, 2011, so don’t wait too long!