Review by greenlivingaudioworm - This Is Our Story

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greenlivingaudioworm 's review for:

This Is Our Story by Ashley Elston

3.5

challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

One morning five boys walk into the woods to go hunting. They had all been drinking and some of them had been taking drugs. When only four boys walk out alive, everyone wants to know what really happened in those woods. Camera footage reveals nothing and the boys’ powerful fathers want nothing more than to sweep this tragedy under the rug. Enter Kate Marino, a senior who is interning at the district attorney’s office.

What I Liked —

This was an incredibly engaging story. I was immediately drawn into the mystery of who killed Grant. I loved how the story was told through Kate’s perspective as she worked her job. I also liked the inclusion of one of the River Point Boys interjecting and sharing what needed to happen to keep the mystery around Grant’s murder in tact. I had a hard time stopping the audiobook once I got started.

What Didn’t Work For Me —

I was obviously able to figure out the personalities of Grant and Shep as the book went on. However, I kind of grasped there was just one culprit responsible for the murder of Grant. But the River Point Boys were painted as this one character who took the form of multiple boys. I had no idea who was responsible for killing Grant and when the truth was revealed I was left scratching my head as to how I was supposed to figure that out. Isn’t the point of a mystery? Leave enough bread crumbs the reader could figure out the mystery?
I’m not sure why the added element of inappropriate pictures was added to this story other than to paint a larger picture about how icky the River Point Boys were or to help Kate figure out camera angles? I mean, it served its purpose, but it also felt icky to include in this story primarily about murder.
Kate. My sweet high schooler. You may like this guy but when he’s a suspect in a murder trial, you have to have some boundaries. Yikes.

Overall, I’m glad I read this backlist book. I also think mystery books for young adult readers have come a long ways in the past eight years. In this case, both are true.

Content Warnings