Quick Stats
Age Rating:
Overall:5 stars
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Setting: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
This. Book. Is. SO GOOD. It’s definitely in my favorite thrillers of all time. This is the first book by Jessica Goodman I’ve read, but now I can’t wait to read her debut. I adored the characters and the writing indescribably. Stella and Ellie’s relationship was so raw and real. It was heartwarming and infuriating. It was everything.
I actually almost DNFed the book because of the mystery. It felt so obvious. And I guess it was meant to. But I’m so glad I didn’t because I was so wrong and the way everything played out was SO GOOD. Jessica Goodman played me, but she almost did it too well. I stuck around because the writing and the characters were so well done that I thought there was no way that the mystery could be so poorly done—and I was right.
The best part of the book was definitely the characters. Aside from Noah, who was really just an annoying, cliche spoiled white boy jerk, everyone was so well rounded and I felt for and connected with everyone.
This book starts a good bit before the murder takes place, and so the victim, Mila, was able to be a three dimensional character herself. Usually with murder mysteries, the murder takes place before the book starts or within the first two chapters. You don’t care for the victim, you’re only invested because the main character is invested. But because we had several chapters of getting to know Mila, seeing the kind of person she was, and even seeing some character growth in her, I was invested in what happened to her because of her as well as because of Stella and Ellie and the whodunnit aspect, and that added another layer to the book that I really enjoyed.
One might think, that since it took so long to get to the murder, the first chunk of the book was boring, but it wasn’t. The writing and the characters were strong enough that I was fully engaged in what was happening even before the mystery truly started.
This book was an easy five stars for me and I cannot recommend it more.
Age Rating:
Overall:5 stars
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Setting: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
This. Book. Is. SO GOOD. It’s definitely in my favorite thrillers of all time. This is the first book by Jessica Goodman I’ve read, but now I can’t wait to read her debut. I adored the characters and the writing indescribably. Stella and Ellie’s relationship was so raw and real. It was heartwarming and infuriating. It was everything.
I actually almost DNFed the book because of the mystery. It felt so obvious. And I guess it was meant to. But I’m so glad I didn’t because I was so wrong and the way everything played out was SO GOOD. Jessica Goodman played me, but she almost did it too well. I stuck around because the writing and the characters were so well done that I thought there was no way that the mystery could be so poorly done—and I was right.
The best part of the book was definitely the characters. Aside from Noah, who was really just an annoying, cliche spoiled white boy jerk, everyone was so well rounded and I felt for and connected with everyone.
This book starts a good bit before the murder takes place, and so the victim, Mila, was able to be a three dimensional character herself. Usually with murder mysteries, the murder takes place before the book starts or within the first two chapters. You don’t care for the victim, you’re only invested because the main character is invested. But because we had several chapters of getting to know Mila, seeing the kind of person she was, and even seeing some character growth in her, I was invested in what happened to her because of her as well as because of Stella and Ellie and the whodunnit aspect, and that added another layer to the book that I really enjoyed.
One might think, that since it took so long to get to the murder, the first chunk of the book was boring, but it wasn’t. The writing and the characters were strong enough that I was fully engaged in what was happening even before the mystery truly started.
This book was an easy five stars for me and I cannot recommend it more.