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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed this one. I was sucked into the story more than I thought I would be. While it's not overly complicated and not littered with a million red herrings to throw you off, I think that's what I liked best about it. That's not to say that it was obvious who shot Grant - I didn't have a clue until it was revealed, as the more we found out about the 5 of their lives it felt like it could have been any of the 4 of them. I think some authors try to really convolute and complicate things to have that 'big twist' and unless it's well done, it ruins a book for me. This was the perfect balance of easy to follow along, but still left you in the dark on who the killer was. I'm looking forward to reading more of her books.
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A trite and shallow excuse for a mystery. None of the suspects have any distinguishing characteristics and any clues we're given are too vague to identify or even imply any one of them. The number of times our leads say "but that could have been any of them!" is too frustrating for words. It just gives off the feeling that the author doesn't know how to provide real meaningful clues without giving the game away. Reading this felt like the author had at one point read The Secret History, thought "hey I could do that!" and then proceeded not to do anything of the things that make that story compelling.
i really wanted to like this book. i picked it up because of the cover design (still fantastic) and finished most of it in one sitting. i wanted to know how it ended, but the finale just... didn’t make a strong impression on me. i was guessing until the end who the killer was, but i didn’t find myself caring either way about who went to jail.
i don’t know if i’ve just come to expect more from the YA genre, but this... sure was something. have you ever seen someone try to write high schoolers, and it becomes apparent they have never set foot in a high school in 25+ years? that’s how it felt every time the author tried to show kids texting, which was a good chunk of the book.
the writing style was clunky, and not in a way that worked. the main character’s only response to meeting a child with cancer (who she’s only supporting so she can save her boyfriend, mind you): “Oh, man. This is so sad.” direct quote. the killer’s final monologue includes, “They were scared. And upset. But I knew better.” such insightful dialogue.
the whole thing seemed far fetched, and you should know i’m usually willing to believe whatever you’re selling me. i don’t read thrillers to have a realistic time. but when the main character found herself out of school for employment at the DA’s office, working her boyfriend’s case, conveniently sitting in on his trial as court reporter (as an intern!), harassing answers out of several inciden innocent people despite getting fired from said job for lying, and then being the only one in town (including a team of skilled investigators) who could find a camera hidden in plain sight, which she THEN HACKED A COURTROOM TELEVISION TO SHOW LIVE...
the ending also wrapped up too neatly for me. no characters got the depth i felt they should. henry had so much potential, with his bad boy facade and hidden weakness for lori! and logan’s completely unexplained relationship with two people who it’s implied are helping him run a betting ring! the whole book led us to a red herring involving nudes leaked as revenge and ruining three girl’s lives, and this just... isn’t addressed! it moves kate’s false suspicions along, acts as convenient drama once or twice, and then gets swept under the rug.
tl;dr— someone looking for a mediocre middle grade mystery might have a better experience here than me.
i don’t know if i’ve just come to expect more from the YA genre, but this... sure was something. have you ever seen someone try to write high schoolers, and it becomes apparent they have never set foot in a high school in 25+ years? that’s how it felt every time the author tried to show kids texting, which was a good chunk of the book.
the writing style was clunky, and not in a way that worked. the main character’s only response to meeting a child with cancer (who she’s only supporting so she can save her boyfriend, mind you): “Oh, man. This is so sad.” direct quote. the killer’s final monologue includes, “They were scared. And upset. But I knew better.” such insightful dialogue.
the whole thing seemed far fetched, and you should know i’m usually willing to believe whatever you’re selling me. i don’t read thrillers to have a realistic time. but when the main character found herself out of school for employment at the DA’s office, working her boyfriend’s case, conveniently sitting in on his trial as court reporter (as an intern!), harassing answers out of several inciden innocent people despite getting fired from said job for lying, and then being the only one in town (including a team of skilled investigators) who could find a camera hidden in plain sight, which she THEN HACKED A COURTROOM TELEVISION TO SHOW LIVE...
the ending also wrapped up too neatly for me. no characters got the depth i felt they should. henry had so much potential, with his bad boy facade and hidden weakness for lori! and logan’s completely unexplained relationship with two people who it’s implied are helping him run a betting ring! the whole book led us to a red herring involving nudes leaked as revenge and ruining three girl’s lives, and this just... isn’t addressed! it moves kate’s false suspicions along, acts as convenient drama once or twice, and then gets swept under the rug.
tl;dr— someone looking for a mediocre middle grade mystery might have a better experience here than me.
Dit Is Ons Verhaal is enorm een spannend, meeslepend en mysterieus YA-boek.
Het verhaal draait grotendeels om de hoofdpersonage Kate. Zij is er heilig van overtuigd dat de moord op Grant gepland was, en geen ongeluk zoals iedereen beweert. Ze zet alles op alles om de waarheid te achterhalen, maar loopt helaas ook tegen dingen aan die betrekking hebben op haarzelf.
Het verhaal is ook erg moeilijk weg te leggen, omdat dit spanning zo goed opgebouwd is en je gewoon wilt weten hoe het verhaal zich voortzet en afloopt.
Ik vond de personages in het boek erg goed en sterk omschreven. Het personage van Kate kwam zeer goed naar voren en ook haar karakter werd erg duidelijk en goed toegelicht. Ik vond haar karakter ook erg sterk, en het was een prettig hoofdpersonage.
Haar standvastigheid en doorzettingsvermogen kon ik zeer zeker waarderen.
Ik vind ook dat Ashley Elston een erg sterk en krachtig verhaal heeft neergezet. De verhaallijn is erg goed opgebouwd. Het was helemaal niet storend dat er vooral uit het perspectief van Kate gekeken en geschreven werd. Af en toe kwam de uiteindelijke verdachte ook naar voren met zijn verhaallijn. In het begin was het enorm hersenkrakend welke persoon dit was, en ik moet ook eerlijk bekennen dat het pas op het einde ook echt duidelijk is geworden wie deze persoon was. De spanning werd zodoende erg goed opgebouwd, en het was ook onvoorspelbaar.
Er werd ook gebruik gemaakt van diverse goede plottwists.
Het verhaal draait grotendeels om de hoofdpersonage Kate. Zij is er heilig van overtuigd dat de moord op Grant gepland was, en geen ongeluk zoals iedereen beweert. Ze zet alles op alles om de waarheid te achterhalen, maar loopt helaas ook tegen dingen aan die betrekking hebben op haarzelf.
Het verhaal is ook erg moeilijk weg te leggen, omdat dit spanning zo goed opgebouwd is en je gewoon wilt weten hoe het verhaal zich voortzet en afloopt.
Ik vond de personages in het boek erg goed en sterk omschreven. Het personage van Kate kwam zeer goed naar voren en ook haar karakter werd erg duidelijk en goed toegelicht. Ik vond haar karakter ook erg sterk, en het was een prettig hoofdpersonage.
Haar standvastigheid en doorzettingsvermogen kon ik zeer zeker waarderen.
Ik vind ook dat Ashley Elston een erg sterk en krachtig verhaal heeft neergezet. De verhaallijn is erg goed opgebouwd. Het was helemaal niet storend dat er vooral uit het perspectief van Kate gekeken en geschreven werd. Af en toe kwam de uiteindelijke verdachte ook naar voren met zijn verhaallijn. In het begin was het enorm hersenkrakend welke persoon dit was, en ik moet ook eerlijk bekennen dat het pas op het einde ook echt duidelijk is geworden wie deze persoon was. De spanning werd zodoende erg goed opgebouwd, en het was ook onvoorspelbaar.
Er werd ook gebruik gemaakt van diverse goede plottwists.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The girl with the camera is going to be a problem.
if i'd read this book when i was fifteen years old, i might've not given up on my dreams of law school.
(okay, who am i kidding. law school would still be a no for me but i would've certainly thought harder about it.)
the story is about a murder in a small louisiana town. four privileged rich boys are accused of being negligent and accidentally murdering another friend of the group as they went hunting while they were drunk and high. or maybe not so accidentally. kate is a high school who interns at the DA's office and has private interests in the case, and as she helps her boss and her mom (who's his secretary) figure out what happen to bring justice to the dead teenager, a lot goes down and she gets way more sucked into the story she thought she would.
my favorite thing about this was, surprisingly, a small detail - as we follow the characters through school it's such a realistic setting. granted, it's been a good four years since i was last in high school (thank god) but my experience was a lot more like the one portrayed here than i usually see in YA books. kate and her closest friends are in the school's paper, and there are cheerleaders and jocks and the whole shebang, but overall kids mingle. there's none of those over the top cliques or extreme segregating that's usually seen, and they all party together and know each other relatively well, and i thought that was something so refreshing.
regarding the characters themselves, other than kate we don't really... know them. she has friends, and they're a big part of her story, but none have a lot of personality to single themselves out. even the river point boys aren't given a lot of character development - they're rich, they're troubled, they leer a lil' bit of the evil side and that's about it. except for kate's favorite, of course - but even he just turns out to be not-so-evil and not-so-spoiled and it's not elaborated on much further than that.
kate herself was an interesting character. she did make some stupid decisions, but i enjoyed following her especially because of her relationship with her boss and her mom. it's nice to see a teenage character who doesn't think every adult in her life is either out to get her or is just plain stupid. she made mistakes, but when they confronted her with them she owned up to it, and i liked that. and as for the romance - it's a YA contemporary mystery. of course there's a romance.
i also thought the author could've talked more abot gun safety and the dangers of having guns around, but maybe that's just because i really, really hate guns.
the extra .5 star is for the mystery itself. the story is very procedural because, seeing as kate works at the DA's office, it follow that side of things. that's something i tend to enjoy in my thrillers, and it wasn't different here. i thought it was very well done. it was interesting seeing how much kate actually got to do since she wasn't a lawyer, and although i don't think a DA would ever actually let an intern get so involved in a case, it made sense in the context created here. it wasn't one of those stories where the character is basically a 17 years old prodigy who solves murders all on her own.
overall, i really enjoyed it and i read the whole thing in a day. i really couldn't put it down for the last few chapters.
dark
tense
medium-paced