I've never read a high-low book before and I wanted to give it a chance and better understand how they work.

That being said, the premise was intriguing; a ghost sending messages to her BFF? Cool. A girl with dyslexia? Great, good to have representation.

But then everything else felt a bit too rushed and convoluted.

Jaylin, the maincharacter, gets the instagram message from her dead friend Fatima. it seems like Fatima wants to the truth about what happened to come to light. Jaylin follows the prompts from these messages and learns what happened the night of the accident that killed Fatima.

A lot happens without a lot of detail. We jump pretty quickly from one event to another. Things aren't really explored or thought about.

Jaylin has dyslexia but is still smart but we're told that. We don't see how she's smart. She also makes a few silly decisions that were unnecessary.

I know this book was written for children/teens with a low reading level but that doesn't meant that things shoudl be glossed over. People with low reading levels can still think critically and comprehend things but because the plot moves so quickly it doesn't leave a lot of time to think about what's going on.

Things also wrapped up a bit too easily and perfectly. But at the same time there were things that weren't really resolved.

Not being an expert about the type of book I'm not really sure if it was done well, and I can only point to my enjoyment of the book. The first how I enjoyed, with Jaylin following the clues from the messages, but the last third left me upset and frustrated due to the pacing of the book. A little more breathing room for Jaylin to think and the reader to understand her thought process would have helped. The pacing felt very off because of the low word count.

Overall I would have liked more inner emotion from Jaylin. More of her thoughts and ideas. At only 80 pages (for the paperback) there was a lot going on and I think adding another couple hundred word with Jaylin's emotions would have gone a long way to help me better connect with her.

DNF. Tried to pick this up twice but it sadly wasn't clicking for me. Thank you for approving me and allowing me early access

requested this off netgalley, ive read a few books from this publishing house and they are very easy fast reads so i picked this one up. this story is about jaylin and after she has lost her best friend in an accident, but then jaylin starts recievin text messages from someone claimin to be her best friend askin jaylin to find the truth about the accident, or can it be?
the story had me interested and curious and i like both jaylin and fatima and their friendship.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Grave Message in exchange for an honest review.

I think Grave Message is cool in concept and having a dyslexic lead in a hi-lo book is definitely something I haven't seen enough of, but the pacing really hurts this one. I think with a short length like this you have to sacrifice either some level of character or plot depth but this spends a lot of time at the beginning on letting us get to know the MC so when the plot finally hits, it feels like a really rushed tonal shift.

Thank you NetGalley and Mary Jennifer Payne for the chance to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like this book a lot. I really did, and I think my biggest issue with it was that I wasn't engaged with the characters. I think if there was more backstory to the characters I would have felt more and cared about what happened to them. It felt like I was dropped close to the end of the story and wasn't given enough information about the characters to follow the story.

I do have to say that I really enjoyed in the inclusion of characters with a disability that is not normally written about in books and the inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community.

It’s a bit difficult to give my review on this since I’m not the target audience - the fact that it was written for students at a lower reading level left it feeling a bit bare and without all of the detail I would hope for. That being said, I think it’s very important that books like this should be available and I’m sure it was a really interesting story and a welcome change for those at that reading level who struggle to find things to read that will keep their attention.

This book was a great hi-lo thriller that I think would appeal to many teens. The story was exciting and fast moving, while still keeping the language understandable. I also appreciated that the main character, Jaylin, is dyslexic, and the difficulties that causes her are discussed without it becoming her defining characteristic. Overall, a great choice if you're looking for a high interest book for a teen with a lower reading level.

Grave Message, by Mary Jane Payne, is a hi-lo short story that follows the main character Jaylin. While studying for an important exam, Jaylin randomly receives a message from her best friend that died a year ago. After receiving more messages, Jaylin finds she must solve the mystery of how her friend died.

First of all, I liked the characters, especially how much representation there was. The main character herself was dyslexic, which was interesting to follow. As this was a short story, the plot moved very quickly and didn't take long to read. I enjoyed the mystery aspect of the story and trying to predict what would happen next.

I was a bit disappointed that the ending was so soon, as it did not explain everything fully. I wish there was just more going on with the reveal. This book was written for teen readers with below a 2.0 reading level and did a good job of making things interesting while having simpler writing.

Overall I thought the story was fine. It had some positive representation, but I just wish the ending was explained more.

Jaylan has left her boyfriend Jamal at a party as she needs to go home and study for an English test. Jaylan hasn’t told Jamal that she has dyslexia so he doesn’t understand why she is leaving to study. At home, she receives an instagram message from her best friend Fatima. Only Fatima died a year ago when hit by a car. Jaylan thinks someone is prancing her. With each additional message she gets from Fatima, she decides to investigate the death of her best friend. What will she find out, if anything?

The author has written a paranormal story in the sense that a ghost is “talking” to her. It also deals with relationships with mother and boyfriend. (The novel is more like a novella to me partially due to the shortness of it. Novels are usually a bit longer.) The author uses short chapters to tell a story of mystery and suspense. I enjoyed reading how Jaylan dwelt with the messages from her best friend. It’s an excellent story.

Jaylin is studying for a stressful English exam when she receives a text message from her best friend, Fatima.

The thing is, Fatima died a year ago in a terrible traffic accident. At first, Jaylin thinks someone is playing a horrible prank, but as the texts become more detailed, containing secrets that just the two of them shared, Jaylin realizes she's either going mad or Fatima is actually reaching out to her from beyond the grave. Then Fatima shares one last secret and asks Jaylin to set the record straight around the circumstances of her death. Jaylin is torn. Is she strong enough to relive losing her best friend all over again?

Writing is poor. Grammar is somewhat incorrect.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This book was fine. Nothing exceptionally horrible; nothing exceptionally great. I didn't realize it was a novel specifically for teens with lower reading comprehension or I wouldn't have requested this book. It was written in such a way that our main character Jaylin is 17, but sounds like she is 9-11 years old. It was disconcerting for me and made me have a hard time suspending disbelief.

The mystery of this story is perfectly acceptable, but I didn't really understand *why* Fatima would come back to get Jaylin to set the record straight. There wasn't a good reason to prompt Jaylin's investigation in my opinion.

All that being said, this is a perfectly fine hi-lo book and does have dyslexia rep which you don't see often.

An excellent paranormal for YA readers that is written with simple language.

This book is engaging and keeps you hooked until the end. I enjoyed it greatly!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Grave Message by Mary Jennifer Payne is a YA paranormal thriller that is written at an elementary school level for struggling readers. It will appeal to fans of Pretty Little Liars or T@gged. The story revolves around Jaylin, an ordinary girl who receives a text message from her best friend, Fatima. It can't be real though. Fatima died a year ago. Soon, Jaylin is working with her best friend's ghost in order to solve her murder.

Here is a chilling excerpt from Chapter 1:

"And I need youur help. I need yor help. I need youu to to ggo to oo to ouur spot tomorrow.
x Faatimtima
This must be a sick joke. Someone has hacked my best friend's account.
I slam my computer shut. My hands are shaking so hard, I have to sit on them just to think. Maybe I'm dreaming. Yeah, that must be it. I'll go to bed and everything will be okay when I wake up. After all, there's no way this can be real. Because Fatima died exactly one year ago today."

Overall, Grave Message is an excellent hi-lo book that is perfect for struggling tween and teen readers. As a teacher myself, I know how hard it is to find high-interest books that will appeal to older students. These students don't want to read "baby books," but they won't benefit from reading grade-level texts that are too high above their reading level. One highlight of this book is the thriller aspect. It's very on-trend for what kinds of TV shows teens watch nowadays. If you're looking for hi-lo books, you check out this book when it comes out in February!

This short read is a story about our main character Jaylin, who starts receiving messages from beyond. Her best friend, Fatima, died exactly one year ago to the day, and she is receiving messages from her asking her to solve her murder, letting her know there is more to the story than there appears.

I liked the premise of this story, and I felt it was very well written, especially geared towards teens reading below a grade 2.0 level. I love this being a quick read on top of that! However, as with most quick reads, I felt it was wrapped up too neatly and too quickly. I guess I just wanted more drama in the discovery of the truth.

I liked the representation throughout this story. The main character has dyslexia, but it is also made abundantly clear that she is very smart. I love this, given the fact that being dyslexic does not impact your IQ. I also loved that all her texts and notes she reads are written in the viewpoint of a dyslexic person! That really hammers it home and was a nice touch.

It also seemed to me that her mother was potentially in a wheelchair? There is nothing that says that specifically, except one sentence says she wheeled into the room, so that's how I took it. If so, I'm happy for this representation as well, but it could have been touched on more. Lastly, Fatima was, and her girlfriend Anne is, gay. The book touches on concern her family won't accept her for being gay, which I'm glad was addressed since this is a common issue for young people.

I received an advance reader copy of this book courtesy of Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

3 stars!