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A review by kensi
The May Queen Murders by Sarah Jude
3.0
This book was a great quick read to run through on a snowed-in day, which is exactly when I read it. I will say that I had rated it higher initially when I first finished it, but as I thought about it throughout the rest of the day I lowered it down to 3/5 stars for a few reasons.
It's a very interesting premise set in a remote community in the Missouri Ozarks, so superstitions and family traditions run deep and wide throughout the story. Those aspects of the story were certainty my favorite parts; I love hearing about handed down warnings from the people before and what exactly people are wary of even in the modern day. It made what could have been a typical slasher story something a bit more special and more interesting to read.
I liked Ivy and Rook well enough as characters. They were better than others, but I was really interested more in Heather and her respective love interest. I felt like they were more "fun" and a bit more fleshed out. Ivy wasn't a bad character, though, and she was more relatable than I thought she would be seeing as I'm getting older and don't always mesh with YA as much as I used to. The romance between Ivy and Rook was also sweet, and a little heavy as I continued on into the book.
The mystery of the murders and Heather's disappearance is where the book falls flat to me. It got too convoluted, and so much was happening the the last four or five chapters that I had to re-read parts to make sure I was understanding what was going on. I feel like the author should have stuck to one or two ideas, and tossed the others out the window or use them in another novel. Too much going on can make a book confusing and not worth a read. There were also other side plots related to the many other townspeople that kind of got lost in the muck as the story continued.
Even with all that, I did enjoy what I read. It was a rather nice departure from the typical YA horror, and I liked it well enough!
It's a very interesting premise set in a remote community in the Missouri Ozarks, so superstitions and family traditions run deep and wide throughout the story. Those aspects of the story were certainty my favorite parts; I love hearing about handed down warnings from the people before and what exactly people are wary of even in the modern day. It made what could have been a typical slasher story something a bit more special and more interesting to read.
I liked Ivy and Rook well enough as characters. They were better than others, but I was really interested more in Heather and her respective love interest. I felt like they were more "fun" and a bit more fleshed out. Ivy wasn't a bad character, though, and she was more relatable than I thought she would be seeing as I'm getting older and don't always mesh with YA as much as I used to. The romance between Ivy and Rook was also sweet, and a little heavy as I continued on into the book.
The mystery of the murders and Heather's disappearance is where the book falls flat to me. It got too convoluted, and so much was happening the the last four or five chapters that I had to re-read parts to make sure I was understanding what was going on. I feel like the author should have stuck to one or two ideas, and tossed the others out the window or use them in another novel. Too much going on can make a book confusing and not worth a read. There were also other side plots related to the many other townspeople that kind of got lost in the muck as the story continued.
Even with all that, I did enjoy what I read. It was a rather nice departure from the typical YA horror, and I liked it well enough!