Rating: 3.5 stars
“On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app. Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?”
I enjoyed reading this, even if I did find the ending a tad predictable, and I am looking forward to reading One Of Us Is Next.
This young adult thriller was a good one to get me back into reading books of the genre, as I have been going through a heavy fantasy binge the past few months. It look me less than a day to read, which is rare for me, but I couldn’t seem to put it down, it had me hooked from the get go, and the only reason I rated it 3.5 stars is because of the predictable ending, otherwise it would have been a 4 star read.
I enjoy the fact that this book has been advertised as a combination of The Breakfast Club and Pretty Little Liars as it fits the bill so well, but I feel like Gossip Girl would have been better to use than PLL. I understand how Simon can be an unlikable person as he seems to get off on spreading other people’s private business, which could eventually cause damage in someone’s life.
I like how the book is written form differernt points of view so we get to see each characters interior life as well as what their life looks like from an outsiders point of view. I think that Addy might have been one of my favourite characters as you feel like she is going to be the stereotypical popular girl, but the chapters from her point of view debunked that thought, and I feel like when this is the case, it is rarely pulled off as well as McManus has done so.
While I enjoyed the small romance aspect of this book, I feel like it wasn’t necessarily needed, and that the book would be great without it, but it was a good sub plot to include, something positive during the main plot.
The book was very fast paced and a really good page turner, and I very much look forward to reading the sequel soon.
Tea Stains and Book Spines 