this was a very fast paced, quick little book. 2/5 stars.

this book follows a group of friends who have just lost one of their own- a girl named Greta- to a brutal murder. there is an investigation going on and it seems like the main characters know more than they are letting on, but no one seems to be willing to reveal what they know.

the writing:
i do not have anything specific to say about the writing. nothing about it really stood out to me, bad or good. i will say that i was super engaged throughout the book- i read it in one sitting on a flight. it was a very easily digestible writing style, at least.

the characters:
the characters had shockingly a good amount of depth to them for how short the book was. our MC, Shane, has had a pretty tough life. he is very poor and does not have his father in his life, and you can really see how that impacts how he sees the other characters.

greta was very well done in my opinion also. as the book progresses, you start to really understand that her perfect life is not as glamorous as it seems on the surface, and see how that affects her and her family.

the plot:
the plot was pretty thrilling. i guessed who had killed Greta a little over a quarter of the way through, but that did not make the reveal any less jarring. it was fast-paced and intense, and i felt like i was right there along with the characters as it was unfolding.

the bad:
i’m knocking off stars due to the fact that the reveal of the killer/how Greta really died felt very silly. it did not feel like a real scenario that would happen, and it took me out of the story quite a bit. it kind of soiled a lot of the book for me, as i was just thinking about how it didn’t really track for me.

overall, it was an engaging book, but not one that i think was particularly amazing. 2/5 stars mostly because of the far-fetched ending.

At first I was intrigued by this book because it reminded me of one of my old favorite shows, pretty little liars. A charismatic beloved blonde teen goes missing and secrets are slowly revealed. But, like pretty little liars, the ending completely lost me. I just can’t buy it. Which is like my only requirement in a mystery. I wanted to buy into it, but the last two chapters almost felt cringey.
I did like the writing though, even if it was a little ‘teen angsty’ at times.

This definitely felt more like a young adult book than an adult book. The storyline and characters were very juvenile.