A review by camiclarkbooks
The Agathas by Liz Lawson, Kathleen Glasgow

adventurous funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I received a digital ARC Of "The Agathas" by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. 

This book has been on my TBR since January 2022 when I first saw the cover on social media. I was initially drawn to the illustrated cover, with its retro vibes and cool color scheme, and knew I had to read it was I saw the book’s tagline: “Who killed Brooke Donovan? It’s the biggest mystery of the summer, and everyone in Castle Cove thinks it’s the wrong guy…”

“TheAgathas” story is of how Alice Ogilve mysteriously disappeared for five days last summer and now her ex-best friend has also disappeared, but unlike Alice, Brooke Donovan didn't come back instead, her body was discovered in the water below the cliffs at Castle Cove. Alice partners with her classmate and tutor, Iris Adams, to uncover the truth of Brooke's death. Along the way, the two high schoolers discover that their town and the, people that live there have been keeping secrets of their own.

I was blown away by the concept of “The Agathas” from the book’s beginning. Alternating the perspective of each chapter between Alice and Iris not only gave us insight into the main characters but also gave us different angles of the mystery. Alternating POVs can be a difficult thing to manage. One character’s perspective is often better written than the other’s which can result in the reader dreading the shift and skimming the less interesting perspective’s chapters and missing crucial information about the plot. Luckily, that is not the case with “The Agathas.” Both Alice and Iris had compelling POVs that were equally well written.

The two main characters also had some good depth to them, though they did play into some stereotypes. Alice is portrayed as the typical “poor little rich girl,” raised by a nanny in a huge empty house with parents that are always too busy with their own lives to be around her. This has resulted in Alice having deep-rooted insecurities, but has also made her a very self-reliant individual. That, coupled with her hyper-fixation on Agatha Christie novels, helped her to solve the mystery of her ex-best friend’s death.

Iris is the typical smart outcast harboring a secret of her own. That secret drives almost all of Iris’s actions, from her agreeing to tutor Alice to her forming a partnership with her to investigate Brooke’s disappearance and death. The result is that Iris is a very goal-oriented character who moves through the plot with decisive actions, which is refreshing in a YA story, when so many female protagonists are so questioning of their every decision.

The side characters in “The Agathas” are all relatively flat stereotypes—ranging from the overzealous guidance counselor to the misogynistic detective. Although it would have been nice to see some more well rounded characters, the side characters all worked in the framework of the story. It gave the story the feel of a teen comedy movie and that really set a fun tone for the reader. I was able to perfectly picture a “Mean Girls” style Netflix show of “The Agathas,” which I would binge watch immediately. 

Since “The Agathas” is a mystery, I don’t want to spoil it by spending too much time analyzing the plot. So, I’ll leave it at this—it was great. There were excellent twists of all sizes, which were executed beautifully thanks to the chapters alternating POVs. The ending was a great homage to Agatha Christie’s works, as anticipated, and also nicely set up future mysteries in Castle Cove.

As for the writing style, I wish there had been a little more description of the scenes; “The Agathas” was very dialogue heavy. This was not a bad thing, as the dialogue was all well written, but I think some more time describing the scenes could have strengthened the story a little more. Every few chapters there were text conversations between some of Alice and Iris’s peers, which gave the reader additional insight to the events surrounding Brooke’s disappearance. Although I loved the idea, I thought the messages themselves were very awkward. Most of the chat speak used felt very outdated, from the days of AIM instant messaging, which did not blend well with the references to Facebook and TikTok. However, it is extremely difficult to write a believable text conversation, let alone text conversations between seventeen year olds, so this critique should be taken with a grain of salt.

Overall, “The Agathas” is a great YA mystery with a fun setting and a captivating plot. The book reads like a movie and is one that will have you staying up late to figure out “whodunnit.” I absolutely loved “The Agathas” and am so grateful to Random House Children’s, Delacorte Press, and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book before it’s released on May 3, 2022. I actually loved this book so much that I added the Barnes and Noble exclusive edition to my shopping cart and have begun stalking the Internet for any news on upcoming sequels. If “The Agathas” isn’t turned into a series, that will be the real crime.
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