Book Review- Skeleton Creek by Patrick Carman

Title: Skeleton Creek
Author: Patrick Carman
Series: Skeleton Creek #1 and 2
Published: April 5th 2010 by Scholastic
Length: 358 pages
Warnings: ghosts, alchemy, some things may be scary depending on how easily sacred you are
Other info: This edition is actually the first two books in the series merged into one.
Summary : There was a moment not long ago when I thought: “this is it. I’m dead.”
Something sinister is happening in Skeleton Creek. Ryan and Sarah are determined to find out what. After a disturbing incident leaves Ryan housebound, Sarah makes films of what she finds, then sends him the links. And when Ryan gets up the courage to watch them, he can hardly believe his eyes…
Review: Ryan and Sarah were investigating Skeleton Creek, an abandoned gold dredge, when he broke his leg. Obviously after that, the parents wanted them seperated. Which obviously doesn't happen for the purposes of plot development. Because Ryan saw the ghost of Old Joe Bush, a worker who died on the dredge. And Sarah and Ryan are determined to get to the bottom of what exactly is going on concerning Skeleton Creek.
I must admit now that I only got half the experience that I should have done. The reason is that half the story is in video form, and you go onto the website and enter the passwords in the book into the site and it will play the appropriate video. This has both good and bad points- its very original and adds interest to the experience. The bad point is that when reading, say on the bus or in bed, you suddenly come across a password and think I can not be bothered to go to my computer and look at the video right now. Or, if you're on the bus, you can't. And when you DO go on a computer, you think 'I have much more important things I need to be getting on with.' But anything important is hinted in the text so you can vaguely work out what's going on.
The writing flows very well, its very easy to understand. Its all written in diary format, apart from the occasional email/snippet of info/password that gets added in.
The action was quite slow. It was also fairly predictable and in my opinion, not too interesting. The edition I read is actually two books merged into one, Skeleton Creek and Ghost in the Machine, I think that if I'd read just book 1 without continuing onto Book 2, despite the cliffhanger ending, I wouldn't want to read on. As it is, I still won't worry about hunting down the next.
My edition marked it as seriously scary, the main reason I noticed this book and picked it up in the library. For me at least, it wasn't at all.
My edition also had lines printed in it to imitate a diary, which was interesting. But the font the majority of the book was set in was italic and really hard to read. Which, when read before bed at the end of a long day, isn't very good owing to the fact that you're tired and don't want to dechiper fairly hard to read writing to read a book. Maybe it's just my edition...US readers care to comment on the formatting of their edition?
Good things, the mystery worked well and the characters were easy to imagine. But thats about it.
Overall: Strength 2 tea to something that has a good idea but doesn't quite work
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Author website | The videos