Nori's Closet: Pitch Green by the Brothers Washburn TOUR

I received this one as an ARC from the publisher. And I am so glad to be on board with the tour! Below is my review, an interview with the authors, and an awesome giveaway!

Review:

This was a fun, quick, mystery! I’m not used to YA mysteries actually surprising me with the way they end, and this one definitely surprised me!

It’s about Camm and Cal, two best friends/next door neighbors who live in the middle of nowhere. They actually live in the desert, and it was really cool getting a different kind of setting for this book too. The book begins with a scary scene when the two are kids, trick-or-treating. Cal’s little brother goes missing. And because the Brothers Washburn go into the point of view of the villain, readers know that he was attacked –and most likely eaten.

Then, it’s seven years later. Cal is now a popular football player and Camm is kind of a brain. They’re thankfully still best friends becaue if it weren’t for Camm, Cal would have been another victim of whatever/whoever got his brother. Unfortunately, another kid does go missing. And while the local police have dismissed the case of Cal’s brother a long time ago, and seem to think nothing of the house he went missing in front of, Camm can’t get over her feeling that the creepy, abandoned mansion has something to do with it.

Then enters the FBI, who really seem to love Camm. They invite her to be an unpaid intern/helper. And this finally allows her the opportunity to go inside the mansion. One go around is not enough though, especially considering it was cut short by some angry townspeople, and Camm breaks back in with Cal to do some real investigating.

Camm and Cal come across some terrifying things in this house, things that link a whole lot of murders together. Between research at the library, interviewing witnesses, meeting with the FBI, school, and dealing with Cal’s need for revenge, Camm has a lot cut out for her. This book is jam-packed with action. There’s secret passageways to discover, skeletons to find, some really interesting town history that dates back to World War II, and plenty of narrow escapes! There’s deaths, kidnappings, and a lot of secrets in their town.

There’s a terrifying moment where the bad guy starts targeting Camm. There’s some creepy supernatural elements too that made everything even more creepy. There’s just a pinch of romantic tension between the two friends. But what will really have readers staying up late at night is the mystery. I needed to know what would happen!

I really enjoyed how realistic Camm and Cal were. Though, I kind of kept mixing them up because their names are so similar. I love how Cal was such a guy. He was hungry all the time and always thinking about hooking up with Camm. The authors were not afraid to throw in some guy humor about farts and vomit, and it gave everything a good sense of humor. I was hoping for them to get together the whole time too.

I liked the desert setting. I haven’t read a lot of YA books that have taken place in the desert. I also really enjoyed reading the mystery. I was definitely put off course. I kept thinking the bad guy would end up being a werewolf, but I was so out of the ballpark on this one. And I love being surprised with stuff like this! There are still some things I’d like to know, but I have a feeling they will be addressed in later installments.

There was one thing I didn’t quite understand: all of the gun usage. Is it normal for two teens to be so knowledgeable of firearms? No one even seemed upset when Camm blasted through her house. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a very urban environment and I’m not used to teens knowing so much about guns and being allowed to use weapons. Though, I liked that both Camm and Cal wanted to take action into their own hands. They were both so brave and really just wanted to save their town from more heartache. Maybe if they were in some kind of club or in families that liked to hunt or something, it would have made more sense.

Overall, this was such a fun read. This book had great characters, a great mystery, and so much nonstop action! It was hard to put down. Between the missing children, the points of view shifts to the attacker, and all of the mystery behind the supernatural mansion, there was never a dull moment. I give this one a 8/10.

The Authors (Andy and Berk):

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Goodreads
Blog

Interview:

Were there any scary stories/urban legends that particularly inspired this story?

From the time we were old enough to sleep over night at a friend’s house or have a friend sleep over at our house, an important part of the sleep-over ritual was the late-night telling of scary stories, and there was no better scary-story teller than our own mother. Scary stories have always been a Washburn Family specialty, and from the time we were little, a family favorite was The Green Rat. Variations of this twenty-minute story have been told to family, friends and complete strangers in many different settings over the years and were the basis for Pitch Green. The general outline for the book came together one evening in November of 2010. We were attending a writer’s seminar in Manhattan and as we rode the subway from one end-of-the-line stop across town to the opposite end-of-the-line stop, and back again, we mapped out the basic elements we would need to expand the childhood story into a full-length novel. Andy wrote the first rough draft, and then Berk took it over to edit and expand the tale. In writing the first book, the ground work was laid for the sequels and prequels in that horror series.

And what are some of your favorite scary stories/legends?

In addition to The Green Rat, there were other family favorites too, like Anna (about a nobleman’s beautiful, young wife, who eats human flesh) and the Fungus Man (about, well, a fungus man) and many others. Glorious and wonderful were the stories of our childhood.

What are your top three favorite YA books right now?

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer

And what top 3 YA books would you recommend to fans of your book?

The Maze Runner series by James Dashner

The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

The Lightning Thief series by Rick Riordan

Who was your favorite character to write? Why?

Andy said the Guardian because he enjoyed thinking like a predator.

Berk said Camm because it was fun thinking of ways to make her smarter and tougher.

And was it hard writing in the perspective of the attacker?