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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Violence
Moderate: Stalking
Minor: Car accident
the last chapter was bad plus the book felt like it was a second book in a series
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
honestly if i could rate this book a 10/5 i would. this is one of the best books i’ve ever read. the plot started out so fast and i immediately knew this book would be good. i hate when books spend too long on a plot point that isn’t important and this book didn’t do that once. the characters felt so 3d and i never once disliked any character!! i loved the mystery and i can’t get over how amazingly paced this was. i forgot i was reading while reading this book. although i wish the ending went on a bit more i have nothing i dislike about this book !!
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
“No one is safe. We all think we are, but at any moment someone can erase you without a second thought. The world will go on, unchanged, like you were never there at all.”
This story follows a girl named Flora Calhoun, who is sort of a teen detective, or at least she’s very interested in solving crimes, due to her grandfather, who raised her, being a former CIA member. She’s found a dead girl in her past, and the past comes back to haunt her when she finds ex-girlfriend Ava shot to death. This is super traumatizing, obviously, but Flora is determined to find out what happened. It sets her down a dangerous path where she discovers an underground fight club basically called the Basement and befriends a boy there, VT, or Valentine, who also has a tragic past with the loss of his sister and the two sort of team up to find out more. Things take an even more dangerous turn when Flora’s sister and best friend are dragged into the crossfire, making it hard for Flora to ask for help for worry she’s endangering those she loves. Indeed, she makes some pretty questionable decisions in this book, and I kept thinking, your grandfather is a damn badass, he’s got the connections to help, and she doesn’t communicate with him enough as I thought she should. I loved their relationship, that was probably my favorite part of the book. (Crime fighting grandfather/granddaughter duo!) In the end we find out it’s the daughter of a politician who killed Flora, which is why all the clues kept leading back to the politician. It was an interesting twist, but overall the book was just okay for me. I feel like I’ve read more compelling thrillers, and the parts of this book I did like, like Flora and her grandfather on the page, were few and far between. I liked the bisexual rep of Flora, but i wish Ava hadn’t been killed so early, and also Valentine just was annoying to me. That’s that, I suppose.
This story follows a girl named Flora Calhoun, who is sort of a teen detective, or at least she’s very interested in solving crimes, due to her grandfather, who raised her, being a former CIA member. She’s found a dead girl in her past, and the past comes back to haunt her when she finds ex-girlfriend Ava shot to death. This is super traumatizing, obviously, but Flora is determined to find out what happened. It sets her down a dangerous path where she discovers an underground fight club basically called the Basement and befriends a boy there, VT, or Valentine, who also has a tragic past with the loss of his sister and the two sort of team up to find out more. Things take an even more dangerous turn when Flora’s sister and best friend are dragged into the crossfire, making it hard for Flora to ask for help for worry she’s endangering those she loves. Indeed, she makes some pretty questionable decisions in this book, and I kept thinking, your grandfather is a damn badass, he’s got the connections to help, and she doesn’t communicate with him enough as I thought she should. I loved their relationship, that was probably my favorite part of the book. (Crime fighting grandfather/granddaughter duo!) In the end we find out it’s the daughter of a politician who killed Flora, which is why all the clues kept leading back to the politician. It was an interesting twist, but overall the book was just okay for me. I feel like I’ve read more compelling thrillers, and the parts of this book I did like, like Flora and her grandfather on the page, were few and far between. I liked the bisexual rep of Flora, but i wish Ava hadn’t been killed so early, and also Valentine just was annoying to me. That’s that, I suppose.
mysterious
tense
slow-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
I found You’re Next while searching my library’s catalog for sapphic books that might fulfill various prompts for Jae’s Sapphic Book Bingo. Something about this one just stuck out to me. Ultimately a promising debut, I enjoyed it, with a few caveats.
I really like Flora as a lead. She’s wonderfully flawed and layered, prickly yet still charming and endearing. Her bisexuality is also wonderfully rendered, with it not being questioned that she’s into both guys and girls, and attraction to both is just casually part of who she is. Plus, while the story takes a dark turn, I love the backstory that she’s kind of a meddler who sticks her nose where it doesn’t belong, becoming a bit of a nuisance for the police. I would have loved more context for that, given how little it’s touched on outside the current circumstances.
There are also some great supporting characters that play off her really well, like Valentine, who is like her but played a bit too one extreme, and Cass, who is her best friend and the one who is constantly there to get Flora out of trouble.
The story suffered a bit from length and pacing issues. Like I noted prior, there’s a lot of references to prior escapades, but it often feels like they’re lacking context and this could have been trimmed in favor of having a book preceding it exploring at least one prior adventure and more properly introducing the cast. And while there are some complex plot twists that keep the story interesting, that does get bogged down by the sheer length of the book, and it feels like there are moments between those twists which could have been excised to create a shorter, punchier book. And the ending also feels really open, suggesting there will be further installments in a series, however, there has yet to be any news on that front.
I’m curious to see what Kylie Schachte will do in her follow-up books in the future, as there is potential here, even with some of the flaws. If you’re looking for a fun YA thriller with great LGBTQ+ rep, I recommend trying this one.
Jesus Christ this is horrifically bleak
Also took me a long time to get through, and her friend was an asshole
There were good points but honestly I’m too annoyed about the ending to talk about them
Also took me a long time to get through, and her friend was an asshole
There were good points but honestly I’m too annoyed about the ending to talk about them
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes