If "Carrie" had a sister she would be "Callis"

Loved this book! If Stephen King's "Carrie" had a sister or cousin she would be "Callis". The story is tragic on so many levels. I could not stop listening. I could see this book turned into a movie.

You have a beautiful little girl with a loving family but his is no ordinary girl. She has a gift, a gift that will destroy all she loves. MIx in nasty high school bullies, dysfunctional foster parents, and a witch and you have a recipe for trauma induced insanity.

For those who enjoyed reading Stephen King's "Carrie" you WILL LOVE "Callie Rose"!!!

32 people found this helpful

I judge books by how late they keep me up

I have a sleep timer on my MP3 player that I set for 15 minutes when I go to bed, Callis Rose kept me up for 2 hours past bed time. Callis Rose is a girl who finds out early in life that she can control the physical actions of people around her, mostly when threatened and almost every time she uses her power, bad things happen. Mostly by chance and she's a sweet girl that he gets you to care about who takes care of the people around her but she keeps handed a bad hand and then there was a straw the broke the camels back.

Good job Mark, as usual, I ate it up. This isn't for the faint of heart, it shows what happens to a person when you push them beyond the breaking point.

11 people found this helpful

I wanted Callis to have a happy ending but...

If I could sum up Callis Rose into one sentence I would say: The Mean Girl's WORST Nightmare.

Callis Rose is a complete social outcast who is stunningly beautiful, who genuinely has an endearing personal and a captivating personality combined with a background, being utterly adored by one of the star athletes of the school (and every other guy with a pulse) with some kick ass psychic power that could have you doing anything she wants you to do... Amazing girl with amazing gift but truly doomed. From age 11, onward the girl's life just became a serious of not unfortunate but downright traumatic events. I was endeared to the young girl from the get go and from then out I was thinking "Please have a happy ending"... If you're expecting a happy ending then that will be a downright no.

All in all though, despite the tragic fate of Miss Callis Rose, the book was written damn well! This love affair between Sean Runnette and Mark Tufo needs to stay solidly intact because he does the man's writing justice.

28 people found this helpful

Lovely & Scary Callis Rose

Callis Rose is a beauty and lovely girl, so innocent at heart yet so evil and deadly. With her power she can control anyone and make them do anything.

This book was fantastic, I was listening to it all day to know what will happen next to Callis and to know what will she do next and to whom. I am big fan of Mark Tufo's work, specially the Fallout series.

What I loved about this book, was the small connection between it and the fallout series in few small things here and there, and to those who read the fallout series you will know what I am talking about when you reach it.

Sean Runnette is a great narrator and he always does a great job with these books.

Keep it up Mark Tufo, this was a great book.

14 people found this helpful

Mind Penetration

If you could sum up Callis Rose in three words, what would they be?

Hell F@#%n Yeah

What did you like best about this story?

The level on intensity. Mark has thee ability to bring you directly into the story and engrossing you into each character. .

Which scene was your favorite?

The scene where Callis snaps when she finds out that Mindy had something to do with her brothers accident and her foster mothers death. . She goes and enacts disturbing vengence

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Without a doubt... Listed to it within 2 days

Any additional comments?

Mark Tufo has yet another incredible book in his arsenal. Teamed with Sean for Narrative brilliance this man cant fail.!!! Kudos to you Tufo and long live TALBOT! !

Oh p.s ,,, awesome plug of B.T in this series...Genius

9 people found this helpful

Tufo knows how to write

Another great book from Mark Tufo. While different from his Mike Talbot stories, he does a great job creating the characters and weaving an interesting story.

5 people found this helpful

Dark, yet compelling

I immediately liked the premise of the book, but after a while felt like there was never going to be a good ending. The character flaws were real and made the characters believable. The love was a bit dramatic, but then teens are dramatic. I enjoyed the book, but it wasn't a favorite and not good enough to want to read more by the same author. I liked to be warned when there is foul language in a book so that i don't listen aloud with kids around, and this had some teen language. The f word and such.

5 people found this helpful

The first 8 hours are great, hour 9 too violent

Any additional comments?

Having loved the Zombie Fall-Out books I was excited to give Callis a try. And I loved the book up until about the last hour or so. At that point the degeneration and violent acts of several characters became too morbid for me. I know teenage girls can be evil and I'm not squeamish, but I had to stop listening. There is a surprise pop-up of one of my favorite Zombie Fallout characters (and this book may explain his later unflappability) but this just wasn't my book.

4 people found this helpful

A good antidote to being too happy

I have really enjoyed Mark's books ... they are funny, they are interesting, and I care about the characters. However this book is not funny, and while it is interesting you will likely not care about the characters.

Very Minor Spoiler Alert: take a sweet young girl with an unusual capability and stick her with an absolutely unrelenting stream of the most despicable people you can dream up. Not just for a little while - not to provide an opportunity for growth ... just not-stop grinding right till the end ... until they turn her despicable. I almost stopped listening when she was taken from the perfect household with the perfect caring foster mother and placed with a known IV drug user with scabs on her arms and babies crawling in filth on the floor. Enough is enough ... please give me at least one person in the book I can care about.

13 people found this helpful

Meh... the end was disappointing

I was so excited to listen to this book and it was really good to the point I was binge listening. But its one of those with a disappointing ending. Almost cheesy. I'm disappointed that I can't get the 9 hrs I wasted listening to this back. Why spend so much time whether it is a book or a movie building a great story only to ruin it with the ending.

1 person found this helpful