Wish You Were Dead was very high on the creepiness scale! I had some minor problems with the book, but overall I never suspected who the bad guy was, and the book kept me on the edge of my seat.
It’s a bit confusing at the beginning, because of the different formats. First we are introduced to some blog entries. Then there’s a third person narrative, about Lucy, who apparently gets abducted. Then a narration starts, and it takes a while to figure out who the narrator is. Is she/he one of the bloggers? Is it the abductor? Finally you figure out that this is a new character, Madison, who is our first-person narrator.
The tension builds as rich, popular teens begin to disappear in the small town of Soundview. Madison tells most of the story. She is also from a very wealthy family and these disappearing students are her friends. I liked the way the story flowed, once it got going. I felt the frustration and anguish of the teens in the story, and like I said, I didn’t figure it out until the very end.
I was bothered, once again by the absence of parental supervision for a lot of these kids. I just don’t think, after what has happened, that all the parents would continue to take their business trips and work their long hours and leave their children to fend for themselves. I thought, at times, the teen’s decisions were too stupid to be believed. So your friends are disappearing, and you’ve been told to do everything in pairs or groups, and you talk your friends into letting you walk home alone. No way.
Or, you maybe figure out who you think is responsible for these crimes, and rather than let the authorities know, a couple of unarmed, unprepared teens go try to find their friends. Again, no way.
This is another book about bullying, in which the person being bullied is out for revenge, and in this case, in a very violent way. I’m not sure the anti-bullying message is that strong in this book, but it’s a good, thrilling mystery with some interesting twists. I’d recommend this to my thriller/suspense lovers without reservation.
I’ve posted about the Illinois’ Abraham Lincoln High School Book Award previously. This book is one of the 2012 nominated titles, and that’s why I read it.
Published by Egmont, 2009
Copy obtained from the library
236 pages
Rating: 3/5
It's definitely a creepy cover. The award books you've been reading sound interesting, I'm going to find out if there is a similar thing where I live, could be a good source of new books.
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