Book Review

 Book Review for Diary of a Haunting

    Well, this is it. I have nearly finished the book and will be writing this review as I go through the rest of the book. The more I look into the book, the more harder topics I can find throughout reading this. It can focus on a lot of hard topics such as murder, religion, partial racism, and especially those terrifying visions Laetitia can get. It can make you realize things about yourself and the way you may act towards others. Laetitia knows she isn't the kindest person, and she can be pretty self-centered sometimes, but through the book you can really see her personality change throughout it. Sometimes, not even Laetitia may know if it's a good thing or not. This is my personal review on what I think of the book. There are a lot of things I don't like about the book, like it's not too scary to me, so I'm going to give this book a 3.5/5. I know it's kind of harsh, but I REALLY wanted some horror, considering horror movies and scary things on that topic are probably some of my favorite things to watch and read. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad book, I just wished it was more scary to me. Others might find it scary, but I truly didn't see anything scary in it. Let me give a slight summary of all of these topics I mentioned, such as the hard topics, why I don't find it scary, and focusing on Laetitia herself.

    There are many hard topics that have happened in this book. Laetitia truly suffered a lot, or maybe still is, again I'm almost done with the book so I'll fix myself if I'm wrong in the end, I'm hoping for at least a somewhat happy ending for her. But back on track, she's went through so much, so much confusing herself too. When it comes down to her religion, she always grew up learning things about God from her mother and grandmother and thought there was always just one way to believe in God, and it was that way.

I felt this was a good representation of what's going on in her life, throughout feeling controlled to do things and such

When she met Miss Pierre, she found out there was a lot more to religion and it ended up confusing her on what the world truly means to her. She ends up also getting really drawn into this certain murder case going on in her city, where police brutality happens. She can get really confused in her own faith for God, it makes her wonder if God is truly there for her, or if it's him making her life completely hell-filled. She's also been wondering if it's just the demons inside her making her feel more vulnerable and easier to take over the more she prays and asks God for help. She just feels trapped but at the same time, she enjoys this pain. Yet it just really horrible to see her feel the way she does, wishing that maybe she shouldn't have her mother and grandmother deal with this and go off somewhere else so they don't have to deal with it.

    After reading some more of the end of the book, this just took a turn. Laetitia ended up getting removed from her household after a fire in her room and an exorcism happened. She ended up getting sent to the hospital for what the doctors called a suicide attempt. To live and see her family again it seems she had to lie, or maybe even admit that those images were just her in a way "inner demons fighting her". It doesn't need to be solved with magic or anything. "You have to face the problems you have in this world." I feel like that's a wonderful quote. You have to realize what may be wrong with yourself, and even through the most challenging things, you have to fight them off, you have to use your own strength to move forward and free yourself from that captivity. In this case, Laetitia had to fight her own problem, such as anxiety and depression and work through her own difficulties.

Possession and her thoughts, not sure

I can't truly tell if the book is making this just a cover up for the actual possession that was going on, but I feel like this strange turn of events. Hopefully she will be able to be sent home!! She got sent home, I'm happy about that! 

    Explaining what happened in the end is nice because Laetitia and Angela ended up catching up and related about the protests and injustice going on in their city. It brought them together again. Plus Laetitia's singing voice came back again! That's something always nice to read! Maybe those really were just her internal problems. The book did have a good ending to it, though. That's something I am fairly happy about because at least she didn't die. Again, it wasn't scary but I feel like this book had a really good meaning towards the end, which makes me raise my score to a 4/5. It interested me a lot to know what was going to happen in the end. I'm relieved she got to live great at the end, especially with the book ending off with her being happy, even through the questionings of racism, depression, anxiety, self love, friendships, and just all out truly figuring out what you're meant to do in the world, what you're meant for at that. Laetitia did a really great job on staying strong throughout everything. I look up to her as a person. She was an amazing protagonist. Thank you.