Category Archives: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

Review: Take Me with You by Tara Altebrando

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,
Take Me with You by Tara Altebrando

Take Me with You
Tara Altebrando
Bloomsbury YA
Published June 23, 2020

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About Take Me with You

Eden, Eli, Marwan, and Ilanka barely know each other beyond having a class or two together. But when they are all summoned via messaging app to an empty classroom after school, they find a small cube sitting on a desk. Its sides light up with rules for them:

Do not tell anyone about the device. Never leave the device unattended.
And then, Take me with you . . . or else.

At first they think it’s some kind of prank or a social experiment orchestrated by the school administration. Still, they follow its instructions until the newly-formed group starts to splinter. Nobody has time for these games–their lives are complicated enough. But the device seems increasingly invested in the private details of their lives. And disobeying its rules has scary–even life-threatening–consequences . . .

My Review

You know you’re in for a wild ride when an author creates a simple black cube and makes it creepy as all get out. I had no idea what I was in for when I started TAKE ME WITH YOU.

As soon as Eden took the cube, I knew I was hooked. I sneaked in a few pages between things I had to get done. Anytime I had a couple minutes, I was right back in the pages of the book.

Eden and Marwan are my favorites. I loved the fact that we got to see what they were each thinking about each other but not brave enough to say. And I loved that even though the cube opened up a nightmare for all the people involved, it also forced people who were isolated in different ways to take risks and form friendships. That part was really cool.

I think I stayed on the edge of my seat with this book all the way until the end. It’s definitely the kind of book where you just want there to be another chapter that really, finally, explicitly says what you’ve hoped will happen. But all the possibilities are there, and there’s something really sweet in leaving the story with that kind of open doorway to something great.

I really enjoyed TAKE ME WITH YOU. I’m not usually a big suspense reader, but I definitely enjoyed this book a lot. I think fans of WE DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS by Adi Alsaid or THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS by Marieke Nijkamp will like this book.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Marwan’s famiy is culturally Muslim. His parents are from Egypt. Ilanka’s family is Russian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Description of kissing between boy and girl. He asks for her to send him a “fun” picture. She takes a picture of herself in a bra and considers sending it to him.

Spiritual Content
Marwan and his family are Muslim but not practicing.

Violent Content
Someone throws eggs at and a rock through the window of Marwan’s family’s restaurant. A racial group name appears in spray paint on the sidewalk near the restaurant.

Drug Content
Parents drink alcohol socially.

Note: I received a free copy of TAKE ME WITH YOU in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Review: Finally, Something Mysterious by Doug Cornett

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Middle Grade 8-12, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, , , , , , , , ,

Finally, Something Mysterious
Doug Cornett
Knopf Books for Young Readers
Published April 14, 2020

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About Finally, Something Mysterious

Paul Marconi has always thought that Bellwood was a strange town, but also a bit of a boring one. Not much for an 11 year old to do. Fires are burning nearby, Paul’s parents are obsessed with winning a bratwurst contest, his best friend, one of the founding members of their only-sibling detective club, The One and Onlys, is about to have a younger sister, sort of undoing their whole reason for existing. But then! Hundreds of rubber duckies have appeared on the lawn of poor Mr. Babbage without any explanation. Finally! There is something that Paul and his friends can actually investigate.

In the face of all these strange occurences, Paul is convinced that solving who put the duckies on that lawn will finally bring some sense to what has become an upside down world. Soon the three friends have a long list of suspects, all with their own motives, but no clear culprit. When everything comes to a head at the town’s annual Bellwood Bratwurst Bonanza, Paul discovers some that some things don’t have an easy explanation and not everything can be solved.

A perfect summer story about friends, amateur sleuthing and a whole lot of rubber duckies.

My Review

You can probably guess from the title that FINALLY, SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS is going to be a funny book, and you’re right! These three friends won’t back down in the face of weird alibis, scary teachers, or midnight tuba solos. I had so much fun reading this book. I loved the friendship between Paul and the One and Onlys. His small town is packed with quirky people sharing interesting connections.

I love that the mystery they’re solving involves loads of rubber ducks. It’s random and strange and a great representation of the kind of goofy humor that fills the pages of the story. If you’re looking for a good laugh, this book delivers.

It reminded me a little bit of THREE TIMES LUCKY by Sheila Turnage and Lemony Snicket’s All the Wrong Questions series. If you liked either of those, or you just need a good laugh, you’ll want to check out FINALLY, SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
I think all three main characters are white kids.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
None.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog.

Review: Hope is a Dangerous Place by Jim Baton

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, , , , , , ,

Hope is a Dangerous Place
Jim Baton
Published February 5, 2020

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About Hope is a Dangerous Place

Seventy-five years ago, fifteen-year-old Hope McCormick disappeared. To remember her, the newly incorporated town was named “Hope.” When high school friends Kelsey and Harmonie begin looking into this unsolved mystery, they discover that someone will do anything to make sure the town’s secrets never come to light. Which neighbors are allies, and which face masks a violent enemy? And what will it take for their struggling town to fulfill its original destiny of hope?

My Review

The thing that drew me to HOPE IS A DANGEROUS PLACE was the idea that the town is named Hope and the whole mystery of her disappearance and its affect on the town so many years later. I think I was looking for a kind of ON THE JELLICOE ROAD-slash-THE HUNDRED LIES OF LIZZIE LOVETT kind of story? Or maybe, on the spiritual side, something reminiscent of Frank Peretti’s THIS PRESENT DARKNESS?

I liked that the story has multiple narrators that tell some of the things happening behind the scenes. Lots of the narrators are adults, though, and many times those characters take the actions that cause major events in the story to happen. The teen characters– Kelsey and Harmonie– often stay interested but passive players in the story that’s unfolding around them.

The town is interesting– it definitely has that closed-circle, small-town feel that reminded me of Ashton in THIS PRESENT DARKNESS. I thought the pursuit of the missing girl helped to keep the story moving forward, but sometimes things unfolded in a weird way. At one point a character discovers a death in her family while taking a walk past a relative’s house– I guess that could happen, it just seemed weird the way it played out. Sometimes deeply sad things would happen and it didn’t seem like they really had a lasting effect on the characters, which made them feel shallow to me.

The cast is fairly diverse, which was really nice to see. I don’t really have any expertise on representation being good or bad, but something felt weird to me in some moments. Like there are a couple moments where the black characters kind of stop everything and have this big gratitude response to the white characters. I don’t know. Something about it just felt… icky… to me.

Like, one girl discovers that in the town’s past, a white man broke up a lynch mob gathering to murder a black man, and then the black community starts gifting food to the grandson of the guy and talking about how they owe him a debt of gratitude. Breaking up a lynch mob definitely sounds like a brave thing to do, but it’s also the right thing? The response of the people seemed a little over the top. I don’t know. Again, I’m no expert on representation, but it felt weird to me.

I don’t think the author meant to create disparity between the white and black or white and Latino communities in the story, but I felt like there were some unequal relationships and situations. It made me wonder if the author had had black or Latino sensitivity readers? Maybe so, and maybe I’m off in my perceptions. I can only speak to how it affected me.

I wouldn’t really say that HOPE IS A DANGEROUS PLACE is young adult fiction, even though there are a couple of teen narrators. I think this is really adult lit. It’s got a lot of Christian content but some swearing and drinking, so I imagine it’s hard to put it solidly into one genre or another.

On the whole, there were some things I enjoyed about the story and some things I found problematic.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Harmonie is black. Kelsey and Harmonie’s teacher is Latina. Other minor characters are Latino and black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to a man who solicits a woman thinking she’s a prostitute.

Spiritual Content
Characters attend church and prayer services. Those scenes often relate the sermon being preached. Some discussions about the presence of angels and demons. One minor character offers to contact a dead spirit and comments on a girl’s aura.

Violent Content
Some references to abuse by a parent and by a law officer. An unknown person makes a creepy threat to the girls using a doll. Someone starts a fire in a building the girls are in. References to a lynch mob and a police officer who shot a man after claiming he tried to escape custody.

Drug Content
More than one adult in the story drinks a lot of alcohol. One character is a recovered alcoholic.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of HOPE IS A DANGEROUS PLACE in exchange for my honest review.

Review: How We Became Wicked by Alexander Yates

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

How We Became Wicked
Alexander Yates
Atheneum Books/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Published June 23, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

A plague, called Wicked, is pulsing through the world; and in its wake, it’s dividing the population into thirds:

The WICKED: Already infected by the droves of Singers, the ultraviolet mosquito-like insects who carry the plague, the Wicked roam the world freely. They don’t want for much—only to maim and dismember you. But don’t worry: They always ask politely first.

The TRUE: The True live in contained, isolated communities. They’re the lucky ones; they found safety from the Singers. And while the threat of the Wicked may not be eliminated, for the True, the threat has certainly been contained…

The VEXED: The Vexed are the truly fortunate ones—they survived the sting of the Singers, leaving them immune. But they’re far from safe. The Vexed hold the key to a cure, and there are those who will do anything to get it.

My Review

This book is sooooo creepy! The Wicked say some really violent things but in this cheerful, artless, innocent way. The juxtaposition of those two things gave me chills in lots of scenes.

HOW WE BECAME WICKED is told in two different viewpoints, from characters in two different situations that don’t, at first, overlap. One section follows Astrid’s point-of-view.

Astrid isn’t a super girly heroine. She’s very smart and practical, and almost detached from her emotions. I liked her, but sometimes that detached feeling kind of kept me from feeling like I understood or empathized with her. Astrid is the town leader’s daughter. She’s got an Ariel complex– you know, wants to be part of someone else’s world. Mainly she wants to escape the walls of her town and go somewhere else, find other True survivors.

The other point-of-view is Natalie’s. She lives with her parents and Wicked grandfather on an island with a lighthouse, too far from the mainland to be a temptation for other Wicked. The only thing that keeps Natalie and her family safe from her grandfather is the fact that he’s imprisoned inside the lighthouse.

Natalie’s point-of-view was easier to connect with, for me. I liked her courage and her loyalty to her family as well as her quick thinking.

Despite the separate storylines, I found the plot of HOW WE BECAME WICKED to be really easy to follow (And mostly not too predictable. I did guess one major twist, but only shortly before it was revealed.) and nicely paced.

Because of the nature of the Wicked, the story does show some violence. I know I mentioned this already, but it’s very creepy the way they talk about and commit awful violence with this innocent childlike glee. They don’t understand what it is they’re doing, which is one of the things that makes them so dangerous.

If you liked THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH by Carrie Ryan, definitely check out HOW WE BECAME WICKED. (Also, if you like zombie or post-apocalyptic stories, go read THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH because it is awesome!)

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Main characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used not very frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
A brief, unwelcome kiss from a boy to a girl (he immediately apologizes for misinterpreting the situation). Some references to past intimacy between Astrid and Hank (the only two teens in their settlement).

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
The Wicked turn violent and talk about the violent things they want to do. They don’t seem to have any grid for the awfulness of what they’re saying. Wicked characters try to murder others using a wrench, guns, knives, a tank, and other items. There are some violent descriptions. They’re usually fairly brief, and more horrible because of the horror of the True witnesses and the Wicked’s inability to understand what they’re doing.

Drug Content
The town plans a celebration which includes drinking champagne.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of HOW WE BECAME WICKED in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Vanishing Girls
Lauren Oliver
HarperCollins
March 10, 2015

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads | Book Depository

About VANISHING GIRLS

Dara and Nick used to be inseparable, but that was before the accident that left Dara’s beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged.

When Dara vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just playing around. But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it’s too late.

My Review

I read VANISHING GIRLS in the middle of a suspense binge. I like that it blended suspense elements with psychological elements. Nick is a complex character. She wants to be close to her sister, but has a lot of feelings of guilt and resentment toward her.

Weirdly, VANISHING GIRLS is the second suspense book I read this summer where the main character works at a theme park. (The other is TWO CAN KEEP A SECRET in which Ellery works at a horror-themed park.) I had some parts of the plot related to the theme park figured out pretty quickly. Other things took me completely by surprise.

One big twist didn’t make sense to me. It’s one of those moments that turns your whole perception of the story on its head. I love those kinds of moments. I love looking back through the big moments earlier in the book to see how the new information changes what was really happening there. But one moment didn’t seem to fit with the new reality. So I got kind of caught up on that.

On the whole, I think VANISHING GIRLS is an interesting book, and some of the issues it deals with are big issues. I definitely appreciate that and think it’s awesome that this novel addresses an issue that most people don’t want to talk about. I think I like PANIC by Lauren Oliver better, but it ‘s a different kind of story– more community-oriented whereas so much of VANISHING GIRLS is about what’s happening in Nick’s head.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Characters are white and straight.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used pretty frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
A girl and boy kiss. References to sex. A girl and her boyfriend kiss while both are topless. He asks her to have sex with him, but she refuses.

References to child pornography. Someone finds an image of a teenage girl posing topless.

Spiritual Content
Dara and Nick’s aunt believes in energy and crystals and seances. The girls don’t buy into her beliefs.

Violent Content
Some brief descriptions of a violent car accident. A man threatens a teenage girl.

Drug Content 
Several scenes show teens drinking. Dara has a history of smoking pot and experimenting with other drugs like mushrooms and cocaine.

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Review: Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, New Adult 18up, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

Genuine Fraud
E. Lockhart
Delacorte Press
Published September 5, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads | Book Depository

From the author of the unforgettable New York Times bestseller We Were Liars comes a masterful new psychological suspense novel–the story of a young woman whose diabolical smarts are her ticket into a charmed life. But how many times can someone reinvent themselves? You be the judge.

Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat.
Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete. 
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two. 
A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains. 
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.

My Review

Wow. I was not expecting this book to be as dark as it was. From the description, I think I expected there to be two points of view, Imogen and Jule. There’s not– the whole story is told from Jule’s perspective. It’s also told in a choppy timeline, where each chapter jumps backward a bit and then runs forward to end where the previous chapter began. (Like the movie Memento with Edward Norton.)

I think the timeline totally worked. It created this choppy, suspenseful story where Jule’s completely in control of the narrative. I suspected a few of the twists before they happened, but some things took me completely by surprise.

Some of the book reminded me a little bit of a poem I read once by Robert Frost, which I think is about a boy killed with an axe. The words create this kind of aloof, calm sense, but somehow that makes what the poem tells all the more shocking and disturbing. That’s how I felt about some of the scenes in the book.

I felt like I couldn’t look away. Even when I didn’t want to know what happened, I felt like I had to finish the story. The writing was pretty compelling. It’s definitely one of those stories that looks at the darker impulses of being human: selfishness, obsession, greed.

If you’re into darker lit, GENUINE FRAUD is probably right up your alley. If you prefer stories where you like the characters and grow to like them more as the story progresses and you understand them more, GENUINE FRAUD is not likely to be the kind of book you’d enjoy. I’d recommend WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart instead, or WE ARE THE GOLDENS by Dana Reinhardt.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Representation
Jule’s sexual orientation is unclear. At times it seems like she has feelings for Imogen, but it’s hard to tell whether those feelings are sexual.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity and some crude language used often throughout the book.

Romance/Sexual Content
Jule witnesses Imogen having sex in the pool with her boyfriend. Imogen references walking in on two female roommates having sex.

Spiritual Content
Jule listens to a man singing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” at a bus station and wonders whether she’s too lost for a savior. She concludes that she is.

Violent Content
Scenes show two young women bashed in the head with heavy, blunt objects. In two other scenes, a young woman attacks someone who’s following her. Details are a bit disturbing. A young man is found after having apparently hanged himself.

Drug Content 
Imogen drinks alcohol at a bar in Puerto Rico with Jule (where it’s legal).

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