Well, this is what I get for deciding to read something that creeps me out before bed, lol! I’ll admit, I don’t do well with scary shows, movies, books, etc. I like rom-coms and the food network. Sooo I may have a hard time sleeping tonight. But I feel like this won’t be scary for the normal person, it’s a YA after all. Just the scenario of a bomber, having him stalk and contact the main character, leaving things for her to find and then the whole helpline conversations (with multiple people) were creepy. Maybe I’ll just try and stay awake tonight.

I get that this is a YA, but it was so incredibly juvenile. Yes, let’s not tell the police (ahem, father who is the detective on the case) about all this stuff going on and how I’m talking to the bomber, but I, Gabi, can solve this myself. I don’t need anyone’s help, I can stop this and save everyone. No. Just no. That whole part was frustrating to me. To be fair though, figuring out the who and why behind all of this and how it was going to end is why I continued reading. All other aspects of this fell completely flat, or even cringey. The romance (extra cringey, added nothing) the character development, the relationships with other characters (platonic). Even the helpline situation in general - yeah, let’s make a “community helpline” run by students and not offer them any support on how to handle the things they come across. The whole concept was strange to me, especially how the principal and faculty involved just disappeared after it all started.

Plus, if this is going to revolve around a theme of school bullying and being more accountable, plus, oh I don’t know, a SCHOOL BOMB THREAT, you’d think they would take it a bit more seriously. This was rather campy at times.

So while I’ve never read a book with this sort of storyline, I don’t think I will be again (because of my own rainbows and fluffy clouds and unicorn marshmallow self, not because of the book). But, based on pretty much every other aspect of the book being a letdown, I don’t think I’ll be trying this author again either.

Things I did like:
- Interesting enough that I wanted to finish to see who did it and how things would end
- Janae

*An ARC was received in exchange for an honest review.

No longer interested in reading this. Clearing out old galleys.

Are You Still There was a thrilling young adult novel with plenty of twists and turns to keep you on your toes. The novel starts with a student planting a bomb on a high school campus and leading police straight to it. The bomber never reveals their self and the police are unable to determine who planted the bomb. Then, the bomber starts planting cards in students lockers and sent to the police, taunting further violence. A helpline is set up at the school which forms the heart of this story, made up of 8 students from every social circle imaginable. They have shifts every day after school and take turns in pairs, answering calls and texts from fellow students. But what happens when the bomber is still unhappy and gets really invasive and stalker-like with a student from the helpline, who happens to be the police chiefs daughter?

Centering a novel on a threat against a school is, at best, an iffy proposition. While its important to address such things, to ask kids to consider issues of reporting, privacy, police involvement, cyber bullying , and the like if the topic of school violence isn't well handled it can fall into sensationalism or become trite. This is particularly true when, as in this book, you have students investigating and a love element. In an overly convoluted plot, that is at the same time obvious in several of its twists, a ragtag group of kids from different cliques solve the mystery, even when the cops are at a total loss. It fails as a mystery and is only mediocre as a thriller. It tries to ranscent but fails.

Here's me, requesting a YA thriller to have something fresh to read, as it's a genre I don't normally read. Here's me, having the same crap flung at me that you read in every other book. If I wanted a book about boyfriend drama, I would've picked up a contemporary.

I thought this was going to be a suspenseful read, but the book actually focussed very little on the bombing. It's more a tale of how the princess perfect main character finds a naughty streak by dating a Latino kid. When it did focus on the Stranger, his logs were far from creepy -- they made me roll my eyes at how original it all was. "No one notices me, well they'll notice me now". Add some card game analogies. Heard it all before.

Then there's the big "reveal", which was the only reason why I kept reading -- because I wanted to know who the Stranger was. Which was massively underwhelming. If you're going to keep the identity a secret, at least make it exciting. Incorporate a twist.