THE STALKER CHRONICLES by Carley Moore
Publication Date: March 27th 2012 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR
Rating: 
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Summary: Sophomore Cammie Bliss has long been labeled a stalker by her peers, but when a cute new boy named Toby arrives at her small town high school, Cammie has a chance to be “normal.” Trouble is, she can’t really help herself and she’s up to her old tricks of “intense observation and following” pretty quick. Making things worse, her younger brother is dating one of the most popular girls in the school, her parents have separated, and her dad has begun to watch their house most nights. Cammie has simply got to figure out why she behaves the way she does, and end it once and for all.
Book Review Overview:
- Humorous narrator but not hahaha funny
- Relatable up to a certain point
- Novel lacked tension which made it anti-climactic
One thing that I learned when reading THE STALKER CHRONICLES by Carley Moore is that while Cammie Bliss is a stalker, I am not. I am only a creeper. What’s the difference? A creeper is someone who obsesses over their crush from afar by constantly checking out their Facebook page. A stalker is someone who actually follows their crush around taking pictures discreetly – or not so discreetly – and following them home.
Cammie Bliss is quite a humorous narrator, but she never actually made me laugh out loud. She could not have been more true about certain things, and I couldn’t help but relate to some of her tendencies. Hey, it’s perfectly normal to obsess over a boy if you have a crush. But Cammie takes it a little way too far, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit of distaste towards her. How can she not know that some things are just not socially acceptable? I’m a bit shocked that no one has filed a restraining order against her, because some things that she has done are just crazy.
I thought that THE STALKER CHRONICLES by Carley Moore lacked tension, and I think it’s partly due to the way the novel was organized. Every few chapters or so, Cammie flashes back and explains to the reader certain events that led to her reputation as a stalker. I guess it fits with the narrative, but the constant flashback also disrupted the flow of the story.
Yes, there’s romance in THE STALKER CHRONICLES but it isn’t about how girl meets boy. The novel is a coming-of-age story in which Cammie has to learn how to be a better person, i.e. quit stalking her crushes. Another reason why the story felt anti-climactic is because it didn’t feel like there was a slow progression with Cammie’s development. I feel like she didn’t really learn her lesson after a sudden epiphany. The story was resolved too quickly.
In a way, I guess the book is a more realistic romance because THE STALKER CHRONICLES by Carley Moore isn’t an epic love story. I wouldn’t even say that the characters end up falling for each other at the end of the book because it isn’t like that. It starts out as a crush. This is high school. A happily ever after does not have to mean love and marriage. But while the romance is realistic, I also felt like the fact that the characters weren’t madly in love with each other made me lose a bit of interest. Cammie and Toby are cute, but their story isn’t going to make me melt into a puddle. It didn’t really matter to me if they ended up together or not.
THE STALKER CHRONICLES by Carley Moore will appeal more to younger teens. The premise is entertaining, but it fails in execution so I would recommend that you Borrow It.
About the Author
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Find the Author
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Carley Moore grew up in Jamestown, a small city in upstate New York. The cold weather and gray days there made her a good listener, a music lover, and a writer for life.
