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A review by katiemack
Friends Like These by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.0
I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
The mystery here--Where is Tegan? Who killed [character name removed for spoilers]?--is compelling enough that it would probably entertain fans of Karen McManus or Holly Jackson. For me, this didn't do enough to stand out in the plethora of YA mysteries that have come out in the last five years or so. The unreliable narrator trope makes the story more intriguing, but I didn't care what happened to the characters because everyone had at least one aspect that made them wholly unlikeable. I'm all for realism (no one is perfect), but they didn't have anything to make them interesting either. Plus, the suspension of disbelief asked of the reader is, well, almost too much to keep the story going.
The mystery here--Where is Tegan? Who killed [character name removed for spoilers]?--is compelling enough that it would probably entertain fans of Karen McManus or Holly Jackson. For me, this didn't do enough to stand out in the plethora of YA mysteries that have come out in the last five years or so. The unreliable narrator trope makes the story more intriguing, but I didn't care what happened to the characters because everyone had at least one aspect that made them wholly unlikeable. I'm all for realism (no one is perfect), but they didn't have anything to make them interesting either. Plus, the suspension of disbelief asked of the reader is, well, almost too much to keep the story going.
Moderate: Violence and Murder