The Boo Hag by David Morgan

Title: The Boo Hag
Author: David Morgan
Release Date: March 28th, 2012
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages: 327
Format: Electronic Copy
Acquired: From Author
Age Group: Young Adult

Lenny Petrakas is worried about her skin. Not the way you're thinking. Not like that at all. While most people spend time concerned about dirt and elasticity, temperature and moisture, Lenny has a more pressing problem. Something is after her. Something evil that won't stop until it has peeled every last inch of skin from the teen's body. And then, it may end her misery quickly, or it may dump her body in the woods. Let infection and dehydration run its course. Lenny is just your normal sixteen-year-old girl. Was. Was just your normal sixteen-year-old girl. Quiet and polite. Petite. Introspective, but not to the point of isolation. Loyal? Fiercely so. Outstanding? Noteworthy? Different? No, no, and no. Or so she thought. What started as an eerie feeling, a certainty that someone had been in her room while she slept, has spiraled into something far worse. Something was in her room. Something that finds her highly different, extremely noteworthy, and intensely outstanding. Game over? Wrong. Lenny's a fighter, and she isn't about to lie down and take what's coming to her. Enlisting the help of her best friend, a not-so-secret admirer, the hottest guy in school, one odious cheerleader, and a paranormalist teacher, Lenny is facing her fears head on, in a battle she knows can only end in death

I just want to start out by saying that I don't normally read horror stories, and this is what I'm classifying it as by the way, because I am a big coward. No seriously, I can't even watch horror films. Anyways, I did a little research on what a boo hag was and I can just say that I am glad I never heard of such a thing when I was young. Urban legends/folklore are the worst type of scary stories that exist in my opinion, just because they are uncanny.

So, what is a boo hag? A boo hag is a skinless woman/ghost/witch/demon that sits on her victims while they sleep in order to take their skin. The victims usually feel a weight on them while they sleep, and anyways it isn't very good what happens. They enter through cracked walls or floorboards and the only way to stop them is by putting a broom at the end of your bed or keep a gun beside you. If you want to know more about them, you can go here where I got the information from.

Well, when I first started reading it Lenny was already figuring out that something was out of sorts and it just got creepier and creepier as the story went on. Needless to say I had to read the story during the daytime because Morgan's writing was so gripping that I had to keep looking over my shoulder. Reading this at night and having an active imagination is not a good mix, just to let you know.

Luckily for Lenny she's got people on her side who are helping her deal with the pesky little boo hags that are determined to come after her. The story was much quicker than what I was expecting, but it kept the reader trained on what was going on in the story. One thing Morgan did well was bring the story to life and make the characters believable. He brought an urban legend to life, and while I probably won't be having nightmares of boo hags, this is an urban legend I cannot forget.

For the majority of the story I did like it and I liked Lenny. She's a strong and memorable character. This novel was dark, twisting, and haunting fun that can make a person's skin crawl.