Tag Archives: Murder

Review: Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,
Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig

Last Seen Leaving
Caleb Roehrig
Feiwel & Friends
October 4, 2016

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About LAST SEEN LEAVING

Flynn’s girlfriend has disappeared. How can he uncover her secrets without revealing his own?

Flynn’s girlfriend, January, is missing. The cops are asking questions he can’t answer, and her friends are telling stories that don’t add up. All eyes are on Flynn—as January’s boyfriend, he must know something.

But Flynn has a secret of his own. And as he struggles to uncover the truth about January’s disappearance, he must also face the truth about himself.

My Review

LAST SEEN LEAVING is the first of three murder mystery/suspense type books that I’ve read lately, which is a little odd for me only in that I read them almost in a row. Most years I maybe read one or two, tops. I actually really enjoyed all three books, though.

Earlier this year I read WHITE RABBIT by Caleb Roehrig, and loved it. I love the unusual choice of character names he uses in both books. I thought WHITE RABBIT was a more polished book, which makes sense since it’s Roehrig’s second novel. In both books the main character totally drew me in so I felt connected to his emotional journey.

In LAST SEEN LEAVING, part of Flynn’s journey is recognizing something he’s not ready to admit to himself. While it may clear him of involvement in January’s disappearance, admitting it undoubtedly changes his life.

But Flynn’s not the only one who has secrets. As he looks more deeply into January’s disappearance, he discovers she may have played a role with him and perhaps he was too busy protecting his secret to notice hers.

I liked that element to the book. Again, it made Flynn reevaluate whether keeping his secret was the right choice. Was it causing him to hurt other people in ways he hadn’t considered?

Another thing that comes up in the book is unreported sexual assault. While nothing happens on scene in the story, some of the characters have really strong, evocative responses when (briefly) describing their experiences. Sensitive readers should be aware. Check my content notes section for more information.

Overall, I liked LAST SEEN LEAVING a lot, and I’m very much looking forward to reading DEATH PREFERS BLONDES because it totally looks as though it will have the same serious murder mystery packed with quirky, fabulous characters.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 15 up.

Representation
The main character is gay. One of his friends is also gay and from a conservative Muslim family.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
So there’s a LOT of really strong profanity in this book. More than 70 instances of f*** and many instances of other words.

Romance/Sexual Content – Trigger Warning
A boy and girl kiss. She pressures him for sex. He refuses. Two boys kiss. Rumors spread about a girl making a sexual advance at an older man. A man faces accusations about sexually abusing teenage girls.

Some of the accusations come from victims who only relate brief stories of their experiences, but they’re pretty shocking. It’s not the detail but the way you can tell the girls are still in the midst of dealing with the trauma. This might be triggering for some readers.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content – Trigger Warning
In a pretty intense scene, two characters battle for a gun.

In one scene, Flynn witnesses a man fatally shoot himself.

Drug Content 
Flynn comments in one scene that he hopes to be able to sneak beer at a family celebration. He references a tradition where kids all go for a hay ride and then sit around a bonfire where they drink alcohol and eat s’mores.

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Review: White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig

Blogger's Favorites, Book Review and Content, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,

White Rabbit
Caleb Roehrig
Feiwel & Friends
Published on April 24, 2018

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About White Rabbit

Rufus Holt is having the worst night of his life. It begins with the reappearance of his ex-boyfriend, Sebastian—the guy who stomped his heart out like a spent cigarette. Just as Rufus is getting ready to move on, Sebastian turns up out of the blue, saying they need to “talk.” Things couldn’t get much worse, right?

But then Rufus gets a call from his sister April, begging for help. And then he and Sebastian find her, drenched in blood and holding a knife, beside the dead body of her boyfriend, Fox Whitney.

April swears she didn’t kill Fox—but Rufus knows her too well to believe she’s telling him the whole truth. April has something he needs, though, and her price is his help. Now, with no one to trust but the boy he wants to hate yet can’t stop loving, Rufus has one night to prove his sister’s innocence…or die trying.

My Review

It’s been a while since I read a book purely for the fun of it, but I think I needed this book. It was so much fun to read. I got carried away by mystery elements and the complex relationships between characters.

As the story progressed and Rufus drew closer and closer to the murderer, things got more and more dangerous. I was totally biting my nails and practically jumping at every noise while I read. Add to that the fact that Rufus has this really fabulous voice, which again made it great fun to read. I loved the side comments and the way the dialogue gave these light moments away from the tension without disrupting the storytelling.

I loved that Rufus (okay, first, I loved that he’s called Rufus. There aren’t enough Rufus characters in literature. Love it!) battles this deep anger, part of which seems perhaps hereditary and part of which might be environmental. But he doesn’t just make excuses about Hulking out. He recognizes how damaging it can be and really wrestles with his angry impulses. That made him so easy to understand and so admirable to me.

Also, I loved his relationship with his mom. It felt very real, and I felt like there was this great balance in the story where she was there, and obviously a big force in Rufus’s life, but the relationship with her didn’t dominate the story. I also loved the moment where one character has to confront a family member about a secret he’s been keeping. He’s worried the family member will reject him over it to the point that he’s expecting to lose the relationship. And instead, the family member talks about how they love him no matter what. We need those kinds of stories and moments, and the reminders that there are good parents out there, and that sometimes we expect to be rejected but are instead surprised by love and acceptance.

Anyway, I read this book in less than a day, I think. I had so much fun reading it, and I absolutely want to read Roehrig’s other book, LAST SEEN LEAVING.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Rufus and Sebastian are both gay. Sebastian is black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Regular use of extreme profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two boys. References to sex. Some details leading up to the event. Some sexual comments.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Rufus has some pretty serious anger management issues which he speaks pretty candidly about. He’s trying his best to manage via medication and other healthy strategies, but he’s still bearing some consequences from fights in his past. In several scenes he’s very tempted to fight again. At one point a man threatens him and handles him pretty roughly. A couple characters are downright physically threatening. Someone fires a gun at another person in two scenes. A character threatens others with a gun in another scene. More than one character gets drugged.

Drug Content
Teen alcohol use is pretty normalized. Some references to smoking pot. References to a dangerous psychedelic drug that causes some violent outbursts.


Review: Borrowed by Lucia DiStefano

Book Review and Content, Paranormal, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

Borrowed
Lucia DiStefano
Elephant Rock Books
Published on November 1, 2018

Amazon | Goodreads

About Borrowed

Love, mystery, and danger collide in this new literary thriller with the dark heart of a Gillian Flynn novel and the lyrical prose of Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun.

A triumph of authenticity, grace, and nail-biting suspense, Lucia DiStefano’s ingenious debut is an unflinching, genre-bending page-turner.

As seventeen-year-old Linnea celebrates the first anniversary of her heart transplant, she can’t escape the feeling that the wires have been crossed. After a series of unsettling dreams, inked messages mysteriously appear on her body, and she starts to wonder if this new heart belongs to her at all.

In another Austin neighborhood, Maxine braces for a heartbreaking anniversary: her sister Harper’s death. Between raising her brothers and parenting her grief-stricken mother, Max is unable to ignore her guilty crush on Harper’s old flame or shake her lingering suspicion that her sister’s drowning wasn’t really an accident. With Harper as the sole connection, Linnea and Maxine are soon brought together in fantastic and terrifying ways as the shocking truth behind Harper’s death comes to light.

My Review
I would describe Borrowed as Return to Me (as in the movie starring Minnie Driver and David Duchovny) meets The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

The premise totally fascinated me. What if this girl who received a heart transplant started getting messages from the new heart inside her? I loved this idea. And I loved Max and Linnea. Both are pretty unusual teens—Linnea because she’s a transplant recipient, so for much of her life, she’d been sick and waiting for the transplant. She doesn’t go to school (though she’s supposed to get her GED), and she works full time as a pastry chef. So not an entry level thing. This makes her seem a lot more like an adult than a teen.

Max manages the care of the rest of her family and clearly wrestles with survivor’s guilt after her sister’s death. So she, too, feels more adult than teen.

But both situations seemed understandable and worked in the story. Max’s care for her siblings and the hard calls she has to make with her mom definitely won me over. Linnea had me with her spirit and her creativity.

Somewhere around the three-quarter point, the story takes kind of a dark turn. I’m not good with stories like this—ones that show sexual trauma, even if the details aren’t outright explicit, so I struggled with this part of the book. I definitely think it could trigger sensitive readers.

I liked that each girl handled the situation very differently, fighting in their own ways. But it was too intense for me. I finished reading it—didn’t want to stop in the dark part. For readers who like this kind of intense, dark story, Borrowed really hits those notes and packs some interesting characters as well. I’d say it’s a good fit for fans of The Lovely Bones.

Recommended for Ages 17 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described. One of Linnea’s best friends is Latina.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing, references to sex. For instance, Max uses sex with her boyfriend as a way to escape the pressures in her life for a while. The last part of the story contains some scenes with some intense content including rape and assault. There’s not a play-by-play description of the event, but we’re in the mind of the victim and see a great deal of the emotional trauma and some of the physical trauma she endures. Definitely not for sensitive readers. Honestly, this was probably a bit too much even for me to read.

Spiritual Content
Some references to God and a brief “Thank you, Jesus”… more cultural references than spiritual ones, if that makes sense? At one point Chris gives Max a cross he carved from wood as a sort of good luck charm or symbol. It’s clear neither of them mean it as a spiritual symbol.

One character believes fervently that he is called by God to do some horrible things and uses scripture references to defend some awful treatment of others.

Violent Content
See notes in sexual content. Some brief memories and descriptions of someone attacking a girl.

Drug Content
Harper smoked weed and drank with a boy before she died. Teens smoke cigarettes. Max and her boyfriend get drunk together.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

About Lucia DiStefano

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

A former high school English teacher, Lucia DiStefano currently works as an editor, ghostwriter, and writing coach. First-generation Sicilian-American and daughter of an olive farmer, she admits to having recurring pasta dreams. Hailing from central Connecticut, Lucia lives near Austin, Texas with her husband and an old bloodhound named Waffle.

Follow the Blog Tour for More

August 1: Cover reveal at YA Interrobang

September 4: Review at Alice Reeds

September 10: Author interview at Alice Reeds

September 24: Cover reveal at BubblersRead

October 8: Review at Liz Loves Books  

October 9-15: Giveaway at Miss Print

October 15: Review at BubblersRead

October 17: Guest post at Liz Loves Books

October 22: Excerpt at YA Interrobang

October 25: Author interview at YA Outside the Lines  

October 31: Author interview at Katya de Becerra: The Last Day of Normal

November 1: Giveaway and guest post at Carina’s Books

November 5: Author interview at BubblersRead

November 12: Author guest post at BubblersRead

November 14: Author interview at Cynsations

November 19: First impressions video with YouTuber BookRatMisty

November 20: First impressions on The Book Rat

November 20: Author interview at The Story Sanctuary

December 3: Review at The Story Sanctuary – you are here!

December 5: Podcast Interview at The Writing Barn

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Review: A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

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

A Study in Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes #1)
Brittany Cavallaro
Katherine Tegen Books
Published on March 1, 2016

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About A Study in Charlotte

The last thing Jamie Watson wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s great-great-great-granddaughter, who has inherited not only Sherlock’s genius but also his volatile temperament. From everything Jamie has heard about Charlotte, it seems safer to admire her from afar.

From the moment they meet, there’s a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else. But when a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances, ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Jamie and Charlotte are being framed for murder, and only Charlotte can clear their names. But danger is mounting and nowhere is safe—and the only people they can trust are each other.

My Review

A STUDY IN CHARLOTTE has been on my reading list since before it hit the shelves. (I wasn’t cool enough to get a review copy, but I got a free audiobook version from the first week of Audiobooks Sync summer program.) So I’ve finally had a chance to read it.

Sad, terrible disclaimer: I’ve never read the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and I kind of wish I had read them before reading this book. I feel like I would have gotten more of a kick out of the moments which must be a nod to the classic original stories. But I very much enjoyed reading the book even without that insider fun.

I liked that both Jamie and Charlotte have some big flaws (Jamie’s anger management issues and big emotions; Charlotte’s addictions and inability to see past her analysis of a situation) which somehow make them a stronger team. While it’s not really a character-driven story, the relationships between characters evolve quite a bit as the story unfolds. Jamie must give up the idolized version of Charlotte from his childhood, and faces an opportunity to build a relationship with his dad (who has his own flaws) and step-family.

While I wish the language had been cleaner, I really enjoyed reading A STUDY IN CHARLOTTE. The murder mystery kept me on the edge of my seat, and the complex relationships and intriguing cast of characters led me to devour the book from beginning to end. This is a series I want to see through to the end.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Charlotte is (of course) from London. Other characters from Connecticut.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some lusty comments from Jamie – things like noticing a girl’s curves or wondering who’s having sex. A boy makes lewd comments to and about a girl. Later we learn he sexually assaulted a girl (we don’t learn any of the details other than that she was not sober and did not consent.). Brief kiss between a boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Brief descriptions of a fist fight between two boys. A boy is discovered murdered by poison and snake bite. Someone attacks a girl and shoves a plastic jewel down her throat. A bomb explodes and injures some people. An unknown virus threatens to kill a boy if he doesn’t find the antidote quickly.

Drug Content
A girl takes Oxycodone and smokes cigarettes. Teens drink vodka at a weekly party. References to drug rehab and cocaine use in the past.

Review: Recipe for Hate by Warren Kinsella

Book Review and Content, New Adult 18up, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , , ,

Recipe for Hate
Warren Kinsella
Dundurn Press
Published on October 21, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Recipe for Hate
The X Gang is a group of punks led by the scarred, silent, and mostly unreadable Christopher X. His best friend, Kurt Blank, is a hulking and talented punk guitarist living in the closet. Sisters Patti and Betty Upchuck form the core of the feminist Punk Rock Virgins band, and are the closest to X and Kurt. Assorted hangers-on and young upstarts fill out the X Gang’s orbit: the Hot Nasties, the Social Blemishes, and even the legendary Joe Strummer of the Clash. Together, they’ve all but taken over Gary’s, an old biker bar. Then over one dark weekend, a bloody crime nearly brings it all to an end.

Based on real events, Warren Kinsella tells the story of the X Gang’s punk lives — the community hall gigs, the antiracism rallies, the fanzines and poetry and art, and what happened after the brutal murders of two of their friends.

My Review
I kind of can’t resist books featuring punk kids or the late 70s era punk scene, and this book is both. It’s raw and gritty and soaked in the passion for personal freedom, disdain for authority, and commitment to indie music which the punk scene is so known for. Reading it felt, to me, much like watching the movie SLC Punk.

While I loved the setting and all the punk culture, the style of the writing was hard to follow at times. The narrator, Kurt, would digress from the present into memories and backstory—all of which were interesting and added some flavor to the story, but made it a little confusing to keep the timeline straight.

Scenes jumped around from one perspective to another, revealing details the narrator, Kurt, wasn’t present to witness. Sometimes he would explain he’d learned the details later. Especially toward the end of the book, as things begin to happen quickly, I found the narrative choppier. Sometimes the story would shift to a different scene or time within the same paragraph. I think it would have helped to have a hard break before each shift to make it easier to follow what’s happening visually.

In terms of plot, Recipe for Hate had some really surprising moments which I didn’t see coming. (I won’t give anything away.) More than once the story took a turn I didn’t expect—in a good way. The plot made sense but wasn’t predictable.

The story contains a lot of profanity and some graphic descriptions of violence, so that may be a barrier to sensitive readers. See the content section for more specifics. If you like murder mystery with a sort of stream-of-consciousness style narration, you will want to check out Recipe for Hate.

Recommended for Ages 16 up.

Cultural Elements
Kurt mentions that he’s gay. Some of their friends are Jewish or lesbian. Several members of radical racist groups say really inflammatory things. There’s a general disdain for police in the punk scene.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used frequently. Racial slurs used (by racist characters) infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between a boy and girl. Kurt briefly recalls a friend telling him about two men who raped her. At one point, the boys find a girl whose clothes are roughed up, and she tells them a man planned to rape her but was interrupted.

Spiritual Content
The racist extremists have some devotion to a sort of twisted Christian doctrine. The first two boys found murdered have obvious connections to rituals celebrated by this group. (One boy is found in the position of a crucifixion for instance.)

Violent Content
The description of the murder scenes, while brief, is pretty brutal. Extremists beat up a young man and woman.

Drug Content
Some references to drinking alcohol.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

 

Review: Murder, Magic, and What We Wore by Kelly Jones

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Historical, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , ,

Murder, Magic, and What We Wore
Kelly Jones
Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publishes September 19, 2017

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About Murder, Magic, and What We Wore

The year is 1818, the city is London, and 16-year-old Annis Whitworth has just learned that her father is dead and all his money is missing. And so, of course, she decides to become a spy.

Annis always suspected that her father was himself a spy, and following in his footsteps to unmask his killer makes perfect sense. Alas, it does not make sense to England’s current spymasters—not even when Annis reveals that she has the rare magical ability to sew glamours: garments that can disguise the wearer completely.

Well, if the spies are too pigheaded to take on a young woman of quality, then Annis will take them on. And so she crafts a new double life for herself. Miss Annis Whitworth will appear to live a quiet life in a country cottage with her aunt, and Annis-in-disguise as Madame Martine, glamour artist, will open a magical dressmaking shop. That way she can earn a living, maintain her social standing, and, in her spare time, follow the coded clues her father left behind and unmask his killer.

It can’t be any harder than navigating the London social season, can it?

My Review

This was a fantastic light-hearted read. Rollicking and reckless, it kept up its tongue-in-cheek humor while still keeping me intrigued as Miss Annis attempted to puzzle out her father’s mysterious death. The plot was slightly predictable, but the wild humor kept everything fresh enough to hold my amusement.

This book did stretch my suspension of disbelief until it began to fray like a thread. However, I think that was intensional. The story is intended to entertain, rather than immerse, and for that purpose it works beautifully.

I loved the magic system in this book. It fit so perfectly with the historical period in which the story was set. Also, I liked how there were dashes of history thrown into the midst of the suspense, as it helped to ground the story a little more (and keep that thread of disbelief from snapping entirely).

Murder, Magic, and What We Wore is comparable to the Glamourist Histories by Mary Robinette Kowal while being easier to read (and cleaner) for the younger generation. Fans of Cindy Antsey’s books will also fall in love with this comedy of manners. Overall, I’m rating this book 5 out of 5 stars. I hope that the author decides to make this book into a series, as I’m very curious to see what Annis and her friends do next!

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Most of the characters in this book are English. One minor character is described as being either West Indian or African. Some antagonism (characteristic of the time period) toward those of French descent are shown.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
One character is insinuated to have attempted to rape several maids. He attacks Annis at one point, and it is assumed that he has less-than-honorable intentions. One proposal of marriage. One remark that it is not considered good form to allow a young gentlemen’s lips to approach a young lady’s.

Spiritual Content
A few characters dress as characters from Greek mythology for a masquerade.

Violent Content
A few suspicious deaths (off page). A few attacks, including one insinuated to be an attempted rape. Some injuries. Nothing graphic.

Drug Content
Characters drink and serve alcoholic drinks as a matter of course. One character comments on a memory of a lady getting drunk and behaving in a silly manner. More alcohol is added to the punch at the masquerade to insure that the guests forget the unusual events of the evening.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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