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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I swear if she doesn't write another! Also VT better not be dead. I loved his personality.
Although there was good pacing and plenty of twists in this mystery/thriller, I found one thing slightly off-putting. The way that the story referenced Flora's previous experience with finding a dead classmate seemed almost like there was some prequel of which I was not aware. I definitely checked to make sure this wasn't a sequel, but this seems to be the author's first book...
Ain't no way Valentine is dead that is a huge bummer of an ending.
How far will one go to save a friend?
Not far enough.
For some reason, this book had the potential to be amazing and the ball was dropped…
Not far enough.
For some reason, this book had the potential to be amazing and the ball was dropped…
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book went by in a breeze. The author has a way with words that make the book easy to comprehend and fast paced, to keep the readers attention. I was so surprised to find out this is Kylie Schachte’s first book! The characters had a lot of depth to them, which I thoroughly enjoyed; especially because a lot of books mainly keep characters (besides the main character) surface level. I usually can predict what will happen next in these kinds of books/movies but I found myself thrown in several different ways and still ended up being shocked by the outcome. The ending was not what I expected AT ALL. I read this book within 4 days.. Love this book!!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Stalking, Car accident
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Fire/Fire injury
Ya know that random piece of writing advice that’s like “start a book like it’s the middle of a story and finish it as if it’s the beginning” or something like that?
Ms. Author took that way too far.
ANYWAY, aside from me dying, it was a really good book. Debated giving it 4 stars, but honestly— it deserves 5.
The most notable part that stands out to me is the character development of Flora. You see her at the beginning: reckless, driven, but she has a definite goal— that’s not finding the person that murdered her ex-girlfriend. She’s sad that they’ve broken up, and the repeated “7 mouths and 4 days”, along with going through her Instagram really show how broken up she is.
Wow how quickly that changes. All of a sudden she’s on a mission, pushing aside her grief, focusing on her goal. And with good reason!
The pendulum swing between the two is so important to the story, but also adds a feeling of human to Flora, something that is usually lost in murder mysteries when authors favor a more Sherlock Holmes character (which there is nothing wrong with, but with this being a person she knew, if it was disconnected detective work, it would’ve get off)
The characters are what really made this— the sense of human-ness in them while they all are making bad decisions and not telling the whole truth. And it’s not in a psychology way, it’s presented really well so you just see them as they are: flawed people that are learning.
The mystery itself is predictable… well, not one I would be surprised someone predicted. Did I predict it? …well, no. But I was focused on the characters, sooo.
Moving on, I would most certainly recommend this to people who want to get into murder mysteries or people that liked One of Us is Lying and Good Girls Guide to Murder (I liked this more than both of those, but that’s just my personal preference), or anyone for that matter! I would consider rereading, but I’ll need to recover from that ending.
Overall, great character development with the pendulum swing of Flora’s personality before and after Ava’s murder, and the human-ness of Flora was refreshing. All of the characters had their own flaws and all were expressed so humanly it was great! Would recommend and possible reread.
Ms. Author took that way too far.
ANYWAY, aside from me dying, it was a really good book. Debated giving it 4 stars, but honestly— it deserves 5.
The most notable part that stands out to me is the character development of Flora. You see her at the beginning: reckless, driven, but she has a definite goal— that’s not finding the person that murdered her ex-girlfriend. She’s sad that they’ve broken up, and the repeated “7 mouths and 4 days”, along with going through her Instagram really show how broken up she is.
Wow how quickly that changes. All of a sudden she’s on a mission, pushing aside her grief, focusing on her goal. And with good reason!
The pendulum swing between the two is so important to the story, but also adds a feeling of human to Flora, something that is usually lost in murder mysteries when authors favor a more Sherlock Holmes character (which there is nothing wrong with, but with this being a person she knew, if it was disconnected detective work, it would’ve get off)
The characters are what really made this— the sense of human-ness in them while they all are making bad decisions and not telling the whole truth. And it’s not in a psychology way, it’s presented really well so you just see them as they are: flawed people that are learning.
The mystery itself is predictable… well, not one I would be surprised someone predicted. Did I predict it? …well, no. But I was focused on the characters, sooo.
Moving on, I would most certainly recommend this to people who want to get into murder mysteries or people that liked One of Us is Lying and Good Girls Guide to Murder (I liked this more than both of those, but that’s just my personal preference), or anyone for that matter! I would consider rereading, but I’ll need to recover from that ending.
Overall, great character development with the pendulum swing of Flora’s personality before and after Ava’s murder, and the human-ness of Flora was refreshing. All of the characters had their own flaws and all were expressed so humanly it was great! Would recommend and possible reread.
This book aggravated me to no end. It was fast paced and it held my attention HARD. BUT, the main character, ugh. And the ending! UGH!
Overall it was extremely well written, but there were just some overly dramatic, unbelievable moments. Also, I kept feeling like I was missing something, like this was the second in a series and I had somehow missed the first book.
Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for granting this ARC.
Overall it was extremely well written, but there were just some overly dramatic, unbelievable moments. Also, I kept feeling like I was missing something, like this was the second in a series and I had somehow missed the first book.
Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for granting this ARC.
Spoilers, kinda.
The plot is slightly unbelievable: high schoolers playing detective with convenient access to high-level connections to do their bidding. Still it was moderately paced with a diverse range of characters, but at lot of indecisiveness and weak relationships. My initial guess for the culprit was wrong, in fact I probably never would have guessed correctly. All of the drama came out in the last few chapters and the plot twist just felt… lacking? It wasn’t exciting because it felt random. And then the ending was bullshit and unnecessary. It added nothing to the story and made Flora’s miserable life that much worse. And for what? A possible sequel? Honestly it just left me feeling disgusted, especially because it’s not hard to put two and two together at that point to know who did it or why.
The plot is slightly unbelievable: high schoolers playing detective with convenient access to high-level connections to do their bidding. Still it was moderately paced with a diverse range of characters, but at lot of indecisiveness and weak relationships. My initial guess for the culprit was wrong, in fact I probably never would have guessed correctly. All of the drama came out in the last few chapters and the plot twist just felt… lacking? It wasn’t exciting because it felt random. And then the ending was bullshit and unnecessary. It added nothing to the story and made Flora’s miserable life that much worse. And for what? A possible sequel? Honestly it just left me feeling disgusted, especially because it’s not hard to put two and two together at that point to know who did it or why.