Title: The Presence
Author: Eve Bunting
Genre: Supernatural
Date Published: 2003
Heeeeeeey. So. The Presence. Boy oh boy. Where to start? Well I suppose with a condensed version of a long-winded tale comprised of me reminiscing about my days as a middle-school student. Seventh grade was the year for English class. I had this mad awesome English teacher (besides the fact that she was a die-hard Twilight fan) who had the guts to audition for American Idol dressed as a MONSTER. Not that that's out of the ordinary for American Idol contestants but... ya catch my drift.
Here's the list of units of study that I can recall from 6th grade to the present year of 10th grade English classes:
6th Grade--Um. Lots of ELA review... we wrote book reports and I wrote mine on The Secret Garden.
8th Grade--Meh. We did a unit on Science Fiction... and read this horrible atrocity of a novel, The Giver by Lois Lowry. We also studied Historical Fiction (OH YEAH OH YEAH) and I wrote a book report on Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. We also studied the play, "Twelve Angry Men" by... zzzzzzzzzzzzz..... sorry I fell asleep in the middle of typing about that one. It's by Reginald Rose.
9th Grade--AKA the "Gag Me with a Spoon" year. There was the I-couldn't-care-less-about-this-ancient-gobbledygook mythology unit; the watching-paint-dry-would-be-more-intriguing-than-reading-these-books John Steinbeck unit; and the no-comment-at-this-time-because-I-am-busy-preparing-my-much-anticipated-grave Romeo and Juliet unit.
LOL y'all need to watch this if you haven't seen it before:
10th Grade--So far, ehhh. We had to read A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines which I found completely overrated. Then came Victor Hugo's Les Miserables that made me cry at the end... tears of joy because it was finally over of course!
Followed by the deeply moving Night by Elie Wiesel. And now, it's Lord of the Flies by William Golding... all I can say is, "Piggy!".
7th Grade--DA HORROR UNIT YO. Okay, so we had to read some works by Poe, and yeah, I really wasn't all that impressed by them. The raven squawked "nevermore". Gotcha. BUT we did read a rather chilling tale by Neal Shusterman called "Black Box" that was well-written and an excellent example of dramatic irony. And the reason I'm tying in this whole 7th grade English thing is because during the horror unit, one of my friends was reading this book with a creepyish cover. Guess what the slim volume was? THAT'S RIGHT. My old friend The Presence by none other than Eve Bunting. And it looked quite interesting, and I mentally added it to my to-read list where it remained 'til the day I cracked it open a week or so ago, ladies and gentlemen.
IT ALL MAKES SENSE TO ME NOW.
...
Bet you weren't expecting that twist ending to my story, eh?
...I sincerely apologize for going on that little tangent folks. I figured this post would be kinda bland if I didn't spice it up with tidbits of my past...
'KAY.
So back to le review...
The Presence involved seventeen-year-old Catherine who goes to stay with her grandmother in California while her parents are away on holiday in Europe for Christmas. Now... this girl is terribly depressed. She is responsible for the death of her Scottish pen-pal aka BFF for life, who was visiting the U.S. for the summer. Catherine's grandma works in a church that is haunted by a "presence"--actually the ghost of a teenage boy named Noah. Noah falls in love with mortal girls, all with dark hair and some kind of psychological or emotional problem, for reasons that still remain unknown to me. He lured them into his Basement of Secrets where he strangles them...mwahaha... at least I think so. The writing style was so cruddy, most of the time I didn't know what the heck was going on. So of course Noah falls for Catherine. Meanwhile, Catherine is also being pursued by the reverend's son, Collin, who is described as a "hunk"... what is this, a bad sitcom from the 90's?
But like, it's so contradictory because a few pages prior to this claim, Bunting describes Collin as tall and awkward, and having abnormally long, skinny legs. NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT. So basically, nothing happens the entire book besides Catherine moping around and crying over nothing; Noah daydreaming about Catherine; Collin inviting himself over for dinner at the grandma's house every night; and the poor grandmother trying to cheer up Catherine and spend time with her. The only part at which the story gained a little momentum was when Catherine encounters a Miss Lottie Lovelace (sounds like a brand that makes doilies) who warns her about the notorious Noah that once was after her, but she escaped. Then, Catherine confronts Noah, and the two have this epic battle with light sabers and then Harry Potter comes with the Elder Wand and smokes them all... I WISH. Nope, instead what I got was poo: Catherine sets Noah (a GHOST mind you...a flippin' dead-as-a-door-nail-GHOST) on fire and he "dies". It is never explained how she succeeded in doing so, did it ever mention her carrying a lighter or some other fire-starting implement. It was all a blur pretty much. Just when I was all giddy that the stupid thing was over, Catherine goes back home to Chicago and starts school again and everyone thinks she's a wackadoo and I don't blame them. This sad excuse for a story concludes with Collin, now an apparently charming Romeo, comes a-knocking at Catherine's door! I would ponder how he managed to magically teleport himself all the way to Chicago but who even gives a rat's behind at this point!
One last thing before I end this conflict... I knew The Presence was going to be a dud when I read the opening line: The church my grandmother goes to is immense.
*groan*
Stay in school, be a Potterhead, respect the nature, and above all... be your magickal self!
Blessed be~
The Black Rose Librarian
AKA Sam ^.^
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