Book Review: The 11th Hour by Kristine Scarrow

Book Title & Author: The 11th Hour by Kristine Scarrow
Published by: Dundurn on February 24th, 2018
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 192
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
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Synopsis: Annika Dietty thinks her future is with Dylan Sopick — until they run away together.

One day, after weeks of secret planning, seventeen-year-old Annika Dietty leaves home at dawn to run away with her boyfriend, the charming and popular Dylan Sopick. She tried telling her friends and family how amazing Dylan is, but seeing as they all seem set against the relationship, she’s decided their only chance is to run away together.

But not everything goes according to plan, and Dylan seems to be having more and more trouble dealing with every obstacle they encounter. At first Annika is sympathetic, knowing that he’s had a harder life than she has, but very soon Dylan’s behaviour becomes unsettling, and Annika realizes that her safety is at stake. She finally admits to herself that Dylan needs help she can’t provide. She wants to get him to help — if she’ll get the chance.

Review:

I think this book is one of the worst books I've ever read. I cannot believe I just said that because I was really excited for this book. I really thought it would be a really good, possibly even thriller-y, kind of book. I should have checked how long this book was because it's nearly impossible to write a good book with this synopsis under 200 pages. In fact, I think it IS impossible.

I really should have DNFed it early on because I knew very early on that this book wasn't just bad, but it was terrible. The book itself was boring, the characters were boring and nothing really happened plotwise.

Annika drove me absolutely insane. How she constantly defended Dylan honestly made me want to scream. How she couldn't understand why her parents AND her friends couldn't stand Dylan. I get it "love is blind" and all that crap, but come on, when EVERYONE is against your boyfriend, maybe you should reconsider dating him? Just a thought Annika.

Sorry, not gonna give a pass to Dylan just because he has a mental illness. I'm sorry he struggles with a mental illness, but that's no reason to be an absolute dick to everyone he meets. Even Annika's longtime platonic guy friend. So what, Annika has a guy friend, that doesn't automatically mean he wants to get into her pants. In fact, I think this book does a huge disservice to those who have a mental illness. I actually think this book could be quite dangerous to those who are vulnerable. 

This book does not sing the praises of medication or therapy, which is dangerous. Medication and/or therapy is vital to those with mental illnesses and this book demonizes those things. I cannot like a book that does that.

We will never know if Dylan's mental illness caused his extremely controlling nature, but aside from his mood swings, Dylan's controlling personality was what stuck out to me. I kept yelling at Annika to get a freaking backbone, which she didn't until much later. Later when things got more messed up and there was blood on human hands.

Final thoughts: Given the way this book handles mental illness, I will absolutely not be recommending it. Give this book a VERY wide berth.

Book Review: People Like Us by Dana Mele

Book Title & Author: People Like Us by Dana Mele
Published by: G. P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers on February 27th, 2018
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 384
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
Goodreads
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Synopsis:
Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is past, and she's reinvented herself entirely. Now she's a star soccer player whose group of gorgeous friends run their private school with effortless popularity and acerbic wit. But when a girl's body is found in the lake, Kay's carefully constructed life begins to topple. 
The dead girl has left Kay a computer-coded scavenger hunt, which, as it unravels, begins to implicate suspect after suspect, until Kay herself is in the crosshairs of a murder investigation. But if Kay's finally backed into a corner, she'll do what it takes to survive. Because at Bates Academy, the truth is something you make...not something that happened.

Review:
I was massively excited for this book. I mean, anytime someone says the words "boarding school murder mystery", I perk up my ears. Those are buzzwords for me. I was nervous though. I was so excited about another book recently and that one ended up disappointing me in a huge way. So, I was very apprehensive about starting this book.

I was hooked less than 50 pages into it and I couldn't have been more excited about that. Now this book was what I'd call a psychological thriller and by now, you all should know that psychological thrillers are my favorite thrillers of all time.

Oh my god, I was totally obsessed with this book and ended up reading the majority of it in one day. I love when I can do that because it means that I'm enjoying the book and that it's a compelling book. It's hard to find a compelling thriller sometimes, but oh boy, this ticked all the boxes.

And hello, I loved all the lesbian romances in this book. I wasn't expecting it, but it only made me love the book more. There were some lesbian love triangles too. Normally, I cannot stand love triangles, but I was so obsessed with the murder mystery aspect of this book that the love triangles were a minor annoyance for me.

I'm trying to remember where I read that this book was a cross between Pretty Little Liars & Mean Girls (Goodreads, maybe?) because that was a pretty accurate comparison. It had the Mean Girls aspect with Kay, Brie, Tai, Tricia & Cori and it had the Pretty Little Liars aspect with someone taunting someone else through technology, whether it was a computer or a cell phone.

Those girls were important to the story, but my obsession was with Nola. Oh my god, I was so obsessed with her. She was the "weird girl" who Kay enlisted to help her crack Jessica's website, where all the taunts began. I am a sucker for complex characters and although Kay was complex, so was Nola. Incidentally I called Nola, Nala for a good chunk of the book. I blame my longtime love of The Lion King for that.

The book was so creepy and atmospheric and that was one of it's many pluses. Mele did a great job at setting the scene. I could see myself at Bates. I could visualize all of the girls in my head.

I had no idea who the murderer was. I had my suspicions of a few people, but nothing totally concrete. The reveal was excellent though and although I know some people had some issues with the end, it was the end that boosted this book to a five star rating for me.

Final thoughts: This book was so atmospheric, set in a boarding school, with a murder mystery. It was totally an Alexia book, so YES you need to pick up a copy.