Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas (aka Abby McDonald)

ISBN: 9781442486607
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
Series: Stand alone
Released: July, 2013
Length: 400 pp
Goodreads  |  B&N

     SUMMARY

Paradise in Aruba quickly gets gruesome in this “ripped-from-the-headlines thriller (Kirkus Reviews)” with a twist that defies the imagination.
It’s Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives.
But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations. As Anna sets out to find her friend’s killer, she discovers harsh revelations about her friendships, the slippery nature of truth, and the ache of young love.
Awaiting the judge’s decree, it becomes clear to Anna that everyone around her thinks she is not only guilty, but also dangerous. And when the whole story comes out, reality is more shocking than anyone could ever imagine...

     REVIEW

Any book that can suck me in and keep me hooked until I finish the damn thing in one sitting - that's the kind of book I love. Minor flaws and all, this book was amazing.

Sadly, I've learned over the years that I am super naive when it comes to sinister, creep-tastic and intense books like this one. I never see the twists coming even when everyone else does! You can see by my Goodreads updates (below) that I didn't start to truly suspect something until more than halfway through the book, and even then I was all like "No, say it ain't so!". It also doesn't help my case that this story was like a fictional version of the real-life Amanda Knox/Italy thing a few years back. Obviously no one really knows what happened in the Amanda Knox story, though so HA. Thank you Abigail Haas (aka Abby McDonald) for giving me a satisfying fictional answer, though!

Still, my lack of ability to deduce the identity of the bad guy may have been the reason why I enjoyed Dangerous Girls so much - because the twist was (mostly) a shock when I read it. A creepy ass shock that may or may not have caused me to lose sleep the night I read it. Whatever, NBD.

For starters, Abigail Haas' writing is smart and engaging and I was hooked from the start. She built and fleshed out characters that I somehow sympathized with yet didn't trust as far as I could throw 'em. I especially loved the back and forth chapters from past to "present" that equal parts made things make much more sense but (intentionally, [I think]) confused the airwaves, too. Like I said - I just didn't know who to trust!

Dangerous Girls was a wild ride from beginning to end and even if you're not a big dope like me and you can see the ending coming from a mile away, I think you will still find the truth to be rather disturbing and this to be quite a mind-blowing read.

And hey, if you've already read Dangerous Girls and are just checking this review out for kicks and giggles, maybe you should think about checking out Dangerous Boys, also by Haas. Equally disturbing but in such a weirder way. My review for that will be up in a few weeks.

     THE BREAKDOWN

RATING: ★★★★★ - 5 stars

Have you read Dangerous Girls yet? I hope the answer is yes to that question because you're missing out if you haven't.

If perhaps you have not, pick it up soon! t's the perfect read a summer read (for you weirdos like me who like to go to the beach but stay out of the water). I'd love to know what you think if/when you read it!


A.

Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

ISBN: 9781471403989
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
Series: No, Stand Alone
Released: May, 2014
Length: 240 pp
Goodreads  |  B&N

     SUMMARY

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

     REVIEW

By now I'm sure you've heard all the hype surrounding We Were Liars. Look at the blurb up there ^^^. The end of it specifically says "and if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE." That's basically been everyone's MO who has read this book and reviewed it. No one will talk about it. When I was looking the book up before I read it, it was very nearly frustrating that I couldn't get any information on it other than whether it was good or not. Obviously not that I don't want to even remotely give anything away, I completely understand those reviews and why they were so vague. So I'm going to keep this really, really short.

We Were Liars is beautiful, haunting, poetic, sometimes strange. It spoke to my soul, telling me things I'd never heard before but somehow understood completely. That might sound like I've gone off the deep end, but you will understand once you read the book. It has a real "classic" feel to it that was like being in a dream and even sometimes a nightmare.

Disclaimer: I've see a lot of reviews by people who didn't like We Were Liars for various reasons. The story can be confusing at times. It's slow. It's dramatic. At times it is hard to even like the MCs, even when you understand the feelings being portrayed. And you will have absolutely no idea what is coming (unless you're like my sister who says she guessed what was going to happen like 2/3 of the way through the book, but I still don't know how).

Like I said, this is a slow book. It took me a while to really get into it but every time I picked it up, I was captivated by Cady's and the Liars' story. I loved this book so much that I finished it, then decided to re-read it the next day. That's all I can say to you without giving any of the plot away. I'm going to go cry in a corner now kbye.


     THE BREAKDOWN

RATING: ★★★★★ - Absolutely loved it!

I adored We Were Liars. After a bit of a reading slump and reading some things I just wasn't really into, WWL really surprised me. It was just fantastic. There's a very high chance that this will be a book I re-read over and over for years to come - it is just that dear to me.

Have you read We Were Liars? What did you think? I've heard from tons of people who loved it, and I can't wait to discuss this one with you, but I really want to hear from those of you who didn't like it. Other than it being slow and rather confusing until you realize what the heck is going on, what didn't you like about it? Can't wait to hear from you all!

A.