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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
I saw All These Beautiful Strangers on the new releases table at Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago and knew I had to read it. The cover is gorgeous, the title is catchy and vaguely creepy - sign me up!
Charlie Calloway, daughter of real estate mogul Alistair Calloway and the infamously vanished Grace Calloway, is starting to think about college and her future during her final years at Knollwood, a wealthy, elite boarding school when she is invited to join the A's - a notorious, exclusive secret society that you can only join upon completing "The Game," a series of assignments designed to steal from and humiliate those who have wronged the A's in the past. While playing The Game, Charlie reflects on her father's time at Knollwood and learns about the events that brought her parents together - and realizes that her mother's disappearance might not be as surprising as she previously thought.
I really enjoyed All These Beautiful Strangers. It's an interesting hybrid between YA in Charlie's chapters and a mystery-thriller in the flashback chapters to her parents' youth, and I've never read anything that attempted to bridge those two genres before. The story itself is wild and beautifully written, but even by the end, I never felt like I had a good read on Charlie, which is mostly weird because she's the primary narrator and her chapters are told in first person. There were also a few unnatural, seemingly unnecessary encounters (Charlie's conversation with the counselor comes to mind) that pulled me out of the story. Overall, though, this was a really good read.
Charlie Calloway, daughter of real estate mogul Alistair Calloway and the infamously vanished Grace Calloway, is starting to think about college and her future during her final years at Knollwood, a wealthy, elite boarding school when she is invited to join the A's - a notorious, exclusive secret society that you can only join upon completing "The Game," a series of assignments designed to steal from and humiliate those who have wronged the A's in the past. While playing The Game, Charlie reflects on her father's time at Knollwood and learns about the events that brought her parents together - and realizes that her mother's disappearance might not be as surprising as she previously thought.
I really enjoyed All These Beautiful Strangers. It's an interesting hybrid between YA in Charlie's chapters and a mystery-thriller in the flashback chapters to her parents' youth, and I've never read anything that attempted to bridge those two genres before. The story itself is wild and beautifully written, but even by the end, I never felt like I had a good read on Charlie, which is mostly weird because she's the primary narrator and her chapters are told in first person. There were also a few unnatural, seemingly unnecessary encounters (Charlie's conversation with the counselor comes to mind) that pulled me out of the story. Overall, though, this was a really good read.
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I skimmed the last half of this book. I could not stay interested in the story or characters. I didn't find the main character very intriguing and the mystery never grabbed me.
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Beetje te young adult
east coast rich people behave badly, have secrets.
3.5 stars!
In a nutshell, Charlie Calloway is an uber-rich teenage girl attending a preparatory school for uber-rich teenagers. Ten years ago, when she was seven, her mother disappeared; in the present, an elite secret society of her school (the "A's") have set their sights on initiating her amongst their ranks. Charlie soon learns that failing the tasks they set for her in order to become a full-fledged member has devastating consequences, and these two plotlines converge as she attempts to gain their approval and falls deeper into the rabbit hole of her mother's disappearance.
This one was a real toughie to rate. On one hand, I raced through it in less than a day, which has been hard for me lately, as Assorted Personal Life things have meant that I've barely been able to do a book or two a month. The characters were flawed and at times outright unlikeable, which is sometimes just plain fun to read about. On the other, I feel like the threads introduced weren't tied up in a manner as satisfying as I'd have liked, and the climax of the story wasn't the 'bang' I was hoping for.
In a nutshell, Charlie Calloway is an uber-rich teenage girl attending a preparatory school for uber-rich teenagers. Ten years ago, when she was seven, her mother disappeared; in the present, an elite secret society of her school (the "A's") have set their sights on initiating her amongst their ranks. Charlie soon learns that failing the tasks they set for her in order to become a full-fledged member has devastating consequences, and these two plotlines converge as she attempts to gain their approval and falls deeper into the rabbit hole of her mother's disappearance.
This one was a real toughie to rate. On one hand, I raced through it in less than a day, which has been hard for me lately, as Assorted Personal Life things have meant that I've barely been able to do a book or two a month. The characters were flawed and at times outright unlikeable, which is sometimes just plain fun to read about. On the other, I feel like the threads introduced weren't tied up in a manner as satisfying as I'd have liked, and the climax of the story wasn't the 'bang' I was hoping for.
Det slutna sällskapet kallas också A-gruppen, och är ett hemligt sällskap som styr den anrika internatskolan Knollwood bakom kulisserna. Charlie Calloway blir inbjuden att genomgå inträdesproven till sällskapet, samtidigt som hon börjar nysta i sin familjs mörka hemligheter. Och det visar sig snart att hennes egen pappa varit medlem i sällskapet.
En bladvändare som passar bra för varma dagar, när hjärnan är lite trött. Trådarna knyts samman lite hastigt i slutet, och Charlie är bitvis lite väl YA-klyschig, men delarna som handlar om hennes familjs förflutna är intressanta nog att väga upp för det.
En bladvändare som passar bra för varma dagar, när hjärnan är lite trött. Trådarna knyts samman lite hastigt i slutet, och Charlie är bitvis lite väl YA-klyschig, men delarna som handlar om hennes familjs förflutna är intressanta nog att väga upp för det.