A book that's hard around the edges but has a soft middle. This is about finding your people, fighting for who you are and shedding the negative roles you're given. An inclusive LGBTQ+ read that queer youth might find comfort in.

This was sadly a DNF for me. I HATE dnfing books but with so many new ones coming out and me being a reviewer I have to be picky to have time for everything. I tried this e-ARC and put it down, I then bought a physical copy and I actually just unhauled the book a few weeks ago because I never picked it up again. I think I am finally realizing that I am just not a contemporary YA person anymore.

Thank you so much for allowing me to read and review your titles.
I do appreciate it and continue to review books that I get the chance to read.
Thanks again!

Wild and Crooked is a sensitive and complicated story of disability, queerness, and classism. Small town quirky and full of heart.

A raw, compulsively readable, and completely compelling story. WILD AND CROOKED has convinced me that contemporary thrillers may just be a genre I need to try more of!

I really enjoyed this! Kalyn and Gus and their shared tragedy made for a compelling story. I could have done without the Phil character but that’s a minor complaint.

I really enjoy taking a break from fantasy and reading a YA Contemporary. It's nice to take a step back from a world where I have to learn everything about it to just being able to know what world they are in from the beginning.

The characters can also be easier to connect with because of that and most of the time they are going through the same issues I have went through.

There wasn't anything wrong with these characters but I just had a hard time finding my own connection with them or the plot of the story. I know that others will really enjoy this book and I believe it's just a case of "it's me not you".

I loved how raw this book was! The characters were amazing and everything was woven together so wonderfully!

I never got to read this one. Maybe some day but I just never got to it. Sorry for requesting it. Sometimes life just gets in the way of being able to read all the books you think look interesting. I will never be able to finish my to read list.

Thanks to the publisher/author and Netgalley for an advance copy of this work in exchange for an honest review.

This is the first Leah Thomas book I've read and now I'm wondering what else I've missed out on.

The book focuses on Kalyn and Gus, two teens who are linked by a history that isn't theirs. Kalyn Spence is moving to her father's hometown with her mother to take care of her ailing grandmother. She is unsure of the move because of her family's past with the town, her father was convicted in the murder of the town's golden boy when they were still in high school. The town's golden boy just happens to be Gus Peake's father. Due to Kalyn using her grandmother's maiden name and Gus' last name being different from his father the two become friends only to be torn apart by their families and the secrets between the two.

I absolutely loved this book, the story was amazing and the true-crime fan in me was so invested in that part of the story. I absolutely loved Kalyn and Gus and their friendship, it was great to read a book with two main characters who love each other but not in a romantic way, something that seems to be rare in books nowadays. I seriously can't recommend this book enough, like seriously go read it now!

I loved the disability representation in this book but I couldn't get over the cliched plot. Two outcasts falling in love just didn't do it for me with this one. I didn't find enough uniqueness in these two characters to feel for them or fall in love with them. I wasn't particularly interested in this one, even though it's the unlikely friendship between a murderer's daughter and the victim's son.

ARC's usually have mistakes and things to change later but I haven't seen one with this many mistakes in a long time. It was unreadable at parts and I found myself having to read the passage numerous times to understand what to fill in the blanks with.

There wasn't anything egregiously wrong with this one. It was just uninteresting.


*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bloomsbury YA through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*

So many secrets in this small town. We've got Gus, probably lying to himself, and Kalyn, definitely lying to everyone, and the whole mystery of their intertwined lives revolving around their fathers murder/being the murderer. Plus the added bonus of being awkward high school kids who were not well socialized for one reason or another.

I loved the plot here, and the way the story unfolded. The chapters are told from three different POV and I struggled a little with the voices, which were not always as distinct as I wanted them to be. You definitely had to remind yourself who was talking at times.

The end wraps up pretty neatly, but it's so interesting. I loved Gus's moms and their relationship, which had enough meat to be real, but not too much for YA book.

**4.5-stars**

This is the story of the friendship of Kalyn Spence and Gus Peake. Two kids whose stories were tragically intertwined before they even knew that the other existed.

You see, Kalyn's Dad is in prison, accused of murdering Gus's Dad. When Kalyn moves to Samsboro, into her paternal Grandmother's home, she is forced to attend school under an alias for fear of repercussions if people knew she was a Spence.

She tries to fly under the radar but finds her new found persona exhausting. She befriends Gus, who definitely stands out in a crowd, and finds his honesty and quiet demeanor refreshing.

Gus has lived in Samsboro his whole life with his Mom, who has never fully recovered from the loss of his father, and her wife, Tamara. Gus, who has cerebral palsy, spends most of his time with his best friend, Phil, but longs for a bigger life outside of Samsboro.

Once Gus and Kalyn begin spending time together, they grow close rather quickly and are both shocked when they discover how their lives are tied together.

Soon the kids are uncovering long-held, small-town secrets and exposing evidence that has never before been brought to light.

I really enjoyed this story. I don't think Leah Thomas could have fit more hard-hitting topics in here if she tried!

This is a story of identity, perceptions, reality, love, hate, forgiveness, moving on; in short, it's about life. The characters are great. I loved Kalyn and Gus both so much and even Phil, self-proclaimed antisocial personality disorder and all.

I was pleasantly surprised when the book took a mysterious turn and the kids started their own investigation. I had a lot of fun reading that aspect of the story.

I need more people to read this and be talking about it. I think there is a lot of really great rep in here and the various stories were so honestly told. It was really moving. So, yeah, if you are into Contemporary, pick this one up! It's so worth it!!!

Thank you so much to the publisher, Bloomsbury, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I appreciate the opportunity and look forward to reading more from this author!

There's a lot going on in this book. We have the obvious exploration of the roles we play in life - roles we find for ourselves and those others place upon us. Thomas has three different approaches in her characters. Kalyn despises the role thrust upon her and is determined to be her own person regardless of expectations. Gus is frustrated by his societal role but can't see a way out of it. His friend has fully embraced his role to the point that he's loathe to depart from it's guidelines. He see this role as a way to guide his behavior. Each character either finds ways his roles don't fit or failings in what society has laid out for them At the same time, they also come to realize the ways they have put others into boxes that perhaps don't fit them as neatly as originally supposed. Now the idea that people are more than one thing is certainly not new. And the central plot has some logical failings, some elements that are thin. But the characters are compelling and their interplay charming.

Wild and Crooked was a good read. I had a bit of trouble getting into it at the beginning, and Phil's love of Shakespeare often had me rereading to make sense of what he was trying to communicate. The underlying story of unexpected friendship and the need to know the truth kept me reading until the very end, and I am so glad I did, as the ending was much better than the beginning.

I was excited about the representation in this book, but it wasn’t enough to redeem the rest of it. The characters are cliche and the dialogue is fake/forced.

In her acknowledgments, Leah Thomas thanks Karen and Georgia and calls herself a Murderino. I didn't make the connection before reading it, but yes, this is definitely the My Favorite Murder kind of true crime. It's darkly funny ("grim" works) and, above all, it honors the victim and his family.
It's not surprising that I love Kalyn, right? She's so sarcastic and tough, and that's because she's had to be. Her life has been almost impossible because of who her dad is.
Throughout the book, we see how the impact of that one night continues to reverberate almost two full decades later. It's a sad but necessary thing to contemplate.
This is an amazing book. I'm sure it'll be compared to Sadie by Courtney Summers; it's a worthy comparison.
Highly recommended.

Interest Level: YA

Imagine that your dad is from a small town and is in jail for murdering the high school All-American jock. Now imagine that you and your mom have to move to this small town to take care of your grandmother who has fallen ill. You are going to have to go to the same small high school that your dad and the kid who was murdered went to. Kalyn Spence and her mom move to the extremely small town of Samsboro, Kentucky. Kalyn is used to being an outspoken rebel but when she has to go to the same high school that her father went to, she has to change her last name in order to protect herself because the Spence name is notorious in this town. Even though Kalyn's dad has been in prison her whole life, she loves her father and deep down doubts that he is a killer. Kalyn changes her name and her personality. She goes from crazy, psyco, murderer's daughter to syrupy-sweet prom queen. One person sees through the act and becomes her friend, although he still doesn't know who her father is. Enter Gus Peake. He is the son of the All-American jock that was murdered before he was even born. Gus also has cerebral palsy and because of this he is looked down on by other kids. When Kalyn and Gus meet it is an instant friendship that neither one of them could have predicted. Kalyn doesn't care about Gus' disability and Gus doesn't care about Kalyn's foul mouth. They become inseparable, that is until they find out who each other's fathers are. How can the daughter of the murderer and the son of the murdered ever stay friends? What happens when these two start digging into a past that everyone in town wants to stay hidden? When they start getting close to the real truth will their lives be in danger? Read this heart-stopping novel to find out that in a small town, anyone can be a murderer.

I loved, loved, loved this book! It is full of love and hate, mystery and deceit, right and wrong. It is a murder mystery that will have you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. Find out how a small town murder that was covered up for so many years can make big news when the truth comes out. This is one that once you pick it up you better strap in and get ready for the ride of your life. Do not miss this 2019 YA book!!!!

Beautifully written and a real page-turner. I fell in love with this story and the characters. Couldn't put it down and was so invested into it. Hope it gets the hype it deserves upon release.

Thank you to Bloomsbury YA and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC!

3.5 stars*

This is one of those books that seemed to take so much longer to read than it should have. Small town dynamics are some of my favorite things to read about, but can sometimes drag along quite a bit, and unfortunately this was one of those books.

Wild and Crooked follows Kalyn Spence, the daughter of a man who has been convicted of murder, as she starts school in her mother's hometown and befriends Gus Peake, the son of the man her father supposedly murdered. But, when some new evidence comes to light that might exonerate Kalyn's father, the pair dives deep into what really happened that night.

Great premise, right? Plus, as an added bonus, both Gus (pan) and Kalyn (gay) are queer, and Gus lives with cerebral palsy (with a leg and an arm that don't have full functionality), and a speech impediment. Love that representation, and I love the fact that a story follows a 100% platonic relationship between a boy and a girl (THANK GOD).

But, there's something about the way this story was written that didn't totally do it for me. While the mystery aspect was interesting and the characters were alright, this story switched between Gus and Kalyn's perspective. While getting to see both sides of the conflict was great, the two didn't really have distinct enough voices for me to be able to keep track of who was talking all the time. If I happened to pause mid-chapter and then went back, I couldn't immediately tell who's voice I was reading. Then, when a third perspective was introduced later on in the story, I found myself even more confused and would've just preferred to stick with one narrator.

The plot twist also....didn't really work for me as I didn't feel like it was worked up to well enough. It seemed to come a little out of left field.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and loved the character dynamics, but this didn't blow me away as much as I wanted it to.

Trigger and Content Warnings: Death of a parent, descriptions of dead bodies, generally a lot of physical violence and descriptions of injuries and that stuff, mentions of homophobia, mentions of mental illness, mock lynching, pot smoking