"The Cellar" written by Natasha Preston is thrilling. On a dull summer night, Summer, the main character, and her friends decide to go to a club. Summer tells her boyfriend, Lewis, she is attending, but she is going to walk by herself. Lewis is not too fond of the idea because it is late at night, and it could be dangerous. Summer would normally walk with her friends, but they are going earlier. As Summer is walking, she hears odd noises and she starts to get a weird feeling in her stomach. She hears a guy's voice say, "Lily, is that you?" She tries to tell him that she is not Lily, but before she can answer, he hits her over the head and throws her into the back of a van. She hears the van start and after a short time it stops.
Summer wakes up in a cellar surrounded by three others girls. She is terrified because she has no idea who they are, and they keep calling her Lily. She tells them that her name is not Lily, it is Summer. They tell her that their names are Violet, Rose, and Poppy. The girls try to explain to her that if she does everything he tells her, she will okay, but if she disobeys he will punish her. Poppy explains that they have a set breakfast and dinner time, and everything has to be clean because he does not like anything messy. Rose explains that he only comes down during breakfast, lunch, dinner, and sometimes throughout the day to check up on them. When the hour for breakfast arrives, Lily hears the cellar door unlock. Her kidnapper walks down and greets everyone calling them flowers. He explains to her that his name is Clover, and over breakfast she learns that he has an upstanding career as a lawyer. She does not understand what is happening because he does not seem like a person who would kidnap girls.
After a few months of doing the same routine over and over, Summer has not fully accepted that she has been kidnapped. She wants to try to murder her kidnapper, but none of the other girls want to hurt him. Clover has them brainwashed, except for Violet. Violet cannot handle being in the cellar any longer. One day when Clover came down for breakfast, Violet hit him over the head with a vase. Clover then preceded to turn around and pin her against the wall and murder her. Poppy and Rose watch without emotions, but Lily (Summer) is horrified. Clover instructs his flowers to clean up the mess. Want to know if she escapes? Or if she survives? To find out more, read the book "The Cellar" by Natasha Preston, available in Burton's library.
Written by: Tori F.