Eyes of a Stranger

The book, Eyes of a Stranger by Sharon E. Heisel, is categorized in suspense-drama, and has a lot of original twists. The summary of the book is mildly confusing, but here it is. A girl named Marissa was born with a deformed leg and has always been self-conscious about her looks. Cindy is Marissa's best friend. Cindy is very sweet, but is pretty obese. They have both always been social outcasts, and this made their friendship very strong. Nick is a man with many psychological problems. However, he is a very handsome man and could attract any young woman. He is fixated on young blondes, and attracts a new one each week. His "girl of the week" procedure is that he uses his charm to make the girl fall for him, brings her to a carousal, steals leather straps from the carousal, ties the girls up with these leather straps, drives to a secluded cottage, rapes them, severs one of their toes, and then kills them. Marissa and Nick meet at the carousal that Marissa operates. Marissa becomes attracted to him, and he realizes that she is under his spell. When all the girls that Nick brings to the carousal turn out missing then Marissa starts getting suspicious. Before she can let anyone know her suspicions, Nick woos her, and convinces him to go on a car ride with him. I won't say how Marissa turns out because it is the climax of the story, but it is very exciting. This book is very good, however, some parts were very confusing, and hard to comprehend. I wish that the author would have explained the character's backgrounds and personalities more, but reading the book was manageable. This book contains some gore; so if you don't like gore then don't read it. I enjoyed this book's twists and drama. I would recommend it to anyone over the age of twelve because some parts are a little mature. I hope you read this book and enjoy it. Thank you for reading my review. I hope it helped you.

"Eyes of a Stranger," Heisel's first young adult novel, is a pretty good suspense story with a unique protagonist who has a less-than-perfect physique. She's 16-year-old Marissa Bruner, who was born with a limp in one of her legs. One day, she notices an attractive guy who frequents her family-owned carousel park in Salmon Creek, Oregon. It's not just his good looks that draws Marissa's attention to him, but his habit of bringing a new girlfriend with him every time. Regardless of his casual dating style, Marissa can't stop thinking about him. But, in the meantime, one of her high school classmates goes missing, adding to a recently growing list of pretty young blondes who have mysteriously vanished from the area. Not surprisingly, all signs point to the mysterious stranger. The shared point of view between Marissa and the bad guy gives a little more suspense to this story. However, the bad guy's motive--which apparently resulted from an abusive childhood--was rather cliched and skin-deep (when does a bad guy not act out because of his troubled past?), leaving the reader still wondering "Why did he do what he did?" But at least Marissa's a stand-out character. She's resourceful and--though she's not fast on her feet--she's a quick thinker, using one of her life rules in a life-or-death situation: "If you can't outrun 'em, outsmart 'em." Young adult readers who enjoy light suspense stories (no gratuitous blood and guts here)--as well as carousels--will probably like "Eyes of a Stranger."

Marissa is a shy teenage girl with a slight disability. One leg is shorter than the other, making her very embarrassed of her limp. She lives with her Uncle Paul at Salmon Creek Carousel, where she helps run the old Carousel. Her simple life all changes when some girls start disappearing, after she seen them all with the same guy. "The blue sedan pulled up and her Mysterious Stranger jumped out. He opened the passenger door with his right hand, a bit awkwardly, but then he bowed with a grace that was as natural as a cat's. He reached in with his left hand to help his passenger. Marissa was not at all surprised to see a blond emerge." This was a very well written book, with its full suspense, that kept me wanting to read more. This would not a good book for people who thrive for love and romance. Even though this was a great book it kind of jumped around and you never find out what happened to the guy that was first convicted.

i think u should read this book this because it has alot of action and suspense. I think it's a great mystery.

One of the (bad) reasons I liked Eyes of a Stranger was that it was actually set in OREGON. Well, do you know how hard it is to find a book set near my city? Hard. But one of the (good) reasons that I like Eyes of a Stranger was I like the suspense. We follow the 'villian' around, knowing him for a while only as 'he,' and every horrifying detail of his conquests was not referred to by name. Slowly, each and every gross tidbit of 'his' is revealed to us...a definite two thumbs up.