The Holy Terror

I'd give this book 2.5 stars if I could. The beginning starts off a little strange. We're not given much description and we pretty much live inside Zara's head. There's a lot of dialogue and inner monologue, and while it's quick to read, it's just not as engaging as it could have been. Plus, Zara's obsessions with phobias is a little odd and it's never really explained why or how she remembers them all.At first I was thinking that this was going to turn out to be a typical teen book with all the cliches, but there were enough surprises along the way that I could look past the shortcomings of the novel. The characters are developed well enough, even though most are pretty much standard-fare for any teen novel; the mean blond pretty popular girl, the hot mysterious guy that falls for the awkward girl, awkward girl's slightly more awkward friend with bonus handicapped boyfriend. I was a little disappointed that the author stuck to these less than creative roles, but it didn't kill my interest in the story.Zara's step dad dies and her Mom sends her to Maine to live with her Grandmother, Betty. Zara is used to North Carolina weather so she constantly complains about the snow, ice, and cold temperatures. Since I live in Michigan I can sympathize, but Zara whines about it excessively.Zara is being stalked by a man and her friends set out to find out who or what he is. With one day of research they come upon the idea that he's the Pixie King. I'm not sure how they come up with this, I don't know if you can do a Google search for "stalker, man, following, pointing, fast" and come up with Pixie King as a result, but they did it somehow. Zara doesn't even mention the gold dust that she sees, which would have been a valuable search keyword, so I'm not sure how they arrive at this conclusion.Once Zara figures out what's going on in the town and about who's following her, the story really picks up. In fact, it picks up so fast that it's over before you know it. The fight between Zara and the Pixie King is anti-climatic and pretty much the first plan she comes up with works on the first try. Zara accepts the fact that pixies are real and comes up with the plan to defeat them so quickly that it's kind of absurd. Plus, the way she defeats them is so hypocritical since she's constantly spouting off about Amnesty International and how people that are falsely imprisoned need the help of letter-writing teens, which was also another weird obsession that Zara had.I know there's a second book coming out but I can't stand it when an author plans for that. I'm going to read it but I hope I enjoy it more than I did Need. I like the characters and the world, but I think the pixies got a raw deal in the end, and I hope we get to learn more about them! My reviews of Captivate (Need, #2) and Entice (Need, #3).