What’s it all about?:
A group of story-tellers are disappearing one by one.
A young woman is haunted by her past.
A serial killer has one target he is desperate to hunt down.
Veerle is trying to lie low, to live as ‘normal’ a life as she possibly can. But when you’ve thwarted a serial killer, it’s hard to do this. Especially when he wants revenge . . .
What did I think?:
Urban Legends is the third and final volume in Helen Grant’s Forbidden Spaces trilogy and after the brilliance of the previous two novels, I had high expectations for this one. Well, it did not disappoint! Our heroine Veerle De Keyser is back in her home town after staying with her father and his girlfriend didn’t exactly work out, to put it mildly. Veerle is now eighteen and has matured considerably after her past traumatic experiences. Her only goal is to get her head down, repeat her last year of school and perhaps work out some more normal issues that teenage girls have. Like figuring out how she really feels about her current boyfriend Bram (whom she met while staying in Ghent) while the specter of her first real relationship with Kris looms over her.
Each book in the series has explored a different and rather murky mystery, typically involving innocent people being killed. In this novel the author develops another compelling narrative which kicks off right from the opening chapter. It involves a group of young people who enjoy meeting up in abandoned buildings, much like the Koekoeken group Veerle joins in the first book. The purpose of their meetings is to swap gruesome urban legends with each other, in competition to become the master storyteller at the end of the night. I absolutely loved the chapters that featured the storytellers as I used to do a similar thing with friends at school and with some of the legends, it was an interesting trip down memory lane where I remembered stories I had previously forgotten (and those that still had the potential to send shivers down my spine, thanks Helen!) :-)
So as you might have guessed, story-time isn’t exactly fun-time in this novel. Someone is picking off the storytellers one by one and brutally murdering them so when they meet again, there are less of them there to tell the stories. Strangely enough, this is connected back to an old adversary of Veerle’s we first meet in Silent Saturday and he returns darker and definitely more disturbed than before. We are also treated to chapters told from his perspective and believe me, they might make you want to check you locked the doors before you go to bed at night! Even though Veerle is not meant to see her old flame Kris they team up to try and investigate what is going on. They don’t have much time however, as the killer is determined not to be thwarted by anyone – let alone these two and will remove any that dare to stand in his path.
Helen Grant has an undeniable talent for writing thrilling novels and Urban Legends is no exception, providing an action-packed, tense and suspense-filled plot that does not shy away from the darker side of society. By the third book, I felt as if I knew these characters personally and, as a reader, it seemed like I had gone through everything with them. By the dramatic finale, I was literally on the edge of my seat, unable to put down the book for a second until everything had been resolved one way or another. This is such a fantastic series that I believe everyone, no matter what your age who loves a good thriller should read as soon as possible. I’m certainly glad I read it and am very excited to read more by Helen Grant, in fact – I pronounce her the Queen of YA thrillers!
Come back tomorrow when I’ll be featuring an interview with the author of The Forbidden Spaces trilogy, Helen Grant!
Would I recommend it?:
But of course!
Star rating (out of 5):
