Reviews

That Weekend by Kara Thomas

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I really wanted to love this.

This follows a girl named Claire and the weekend that she can't remember. The first 30% had my attention but I just didn't really find it very thrilling and found myself skimming a lot of it. I'm so disappointed that I didn't love this book.

I heard so much praise for this author's previous books and I think it was still a fine YA thriller.

Thankyou for the publishers sending me this as an ecopy arc

Pub date: June 22 2021

camilled's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

penecle's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

jennagarcia's review

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4.0

Loved this one. Had multiple theories and managed to mostly figure it out by the end. But still jaw dropped when I got some things right. Mildly annoyed at part of it because it seems to be a theme in suspense books these days…or at least the ones I’ve been picking up.

amandawhyatt's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

imkevbo's review

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challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I almost gave up finishing this book, but I persevered. I am glad to have finished it, although I didn’t actually love it!

hayleybeale's review

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4.0

We are delightfully once again in Kara Thomas’s niche: an atmospheric thriller with an on-the-edge teen girl at the center. While it delivers the anticipated revelations and slippery reality, I got a little confused by the complicated timelines.

Claire wakes up on the side of a mountain - she has a head injury, a cut on her hand, and no recollection of the last 36 hours. As it becomes clear that the two people she was meant to be with - her best friend Kat and Kat’s boyfriend (and Claire’s crush) Jesse - have disappeared, the police and the FBI seem to be circling around Claire as a suspect.

As with all Ms Thomas’s mystery novels, she creates vivid and authentic characters that inhabit a real world. Claire’s middle class background contrasts with Kat’s upper crust family and Jesse’s slightly wrong side of the track upbringing. The scene of the disappearance, Sunfish Creek, echoes those contrasts with the gated private lakeside community and the working class village attached to it.

The novel starts out with a typical Now and Then structure but then adds in some further complexity. Maybe I was reading a bit too fast, but I got somewhat bogged down in the different stories of what ‘actually’ happened and a little confused about why some things happened as they did.

Anyway, this is still an absolutely solid mystery that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys well-grounded thrillers led by teen girls.

Thanks to Delacorte and Netgalley for the digital review copy.