I’m pretty sure I bought this at Book Fair Australia, the reason I can be that sure about this because I looked at their website and found her on the list of guests. If she didn’t have a table then I would have bought it at the table set up by a bookshop.
Essentially, this book is about two damaged teenagers. One because she was a victim and the other because his father was the victim. They are brought in by the FBI to help find a juvenile killer. When I opened the book I didn’t realise it was YA. I’m not sure how to identify YA except the books very often have teenage protagonists. And there are two teenagers who form the basis of the book. But I’ve only realised that it was YA tonight when doing a little research about the book. I don’t really care who the target audience is, if the book is good then I’ll be happy. And I was very happy with this book. There is a smidegon of a look at romance, but I’d be quite happy if they end up with a platonic relationship.
The time to open this book is not when I’m meant to be writing about it. I opened it to see if there were any nice comments in the front. Sometimes they’re in the front to help people decide to buy. I got sucked into reading again, managed to pull myself out at Chapter Two. I found a couple of things I didn’t notice on the first read through, but mostly it was old stuff. On the other hand, this ‘old stuff’ was as good the second time as it was for the first. I suspect I could lose a day reading this book again.
I was enjoying the book so much the first time I only made one note. It’s on page 68 and gives us a quick description of the guard. Marney talks about his deep voice and his rounded vowels. At this point I don’t remember why I wanted to remember this. What I will say is that I lost more time to another ten pages of book. Essentially, I’m going to write more words without opening the book. I’m writing too late in the day and I need something people call ‘sleep’.
This book moves at a fast crack. The way it’s written made me want to read more quickly than I should. I would have seen more details had I read more slowly. But, I just had to finish it. I lost more sleep to this book than is good for me. I really struggled to put it down. It’s a ‘just one more chapter’ book. Actually, this book defines the ‘just one more chapter’ idea. The front cover tells me it’s ‘a captivating and chilling psychological thriller’, which defines it perfectly. So captivating I struggle not to read ‘just one more page’.
There are enough details in this book to set you up for some odd nightmares. We are brought up close and personal into a crime scene, and the words we’re given almost give away the smell that must permeate any crime scene of a serial killer. Most of the time we’re inside Emma Lewis’ head. She’s nineteen and we get some details of her calming herself down when the going is tough. Such as when she sees a crime scene, or when she’s interviewing a juvenile serial killer. I would love to see this on the screen, some of the passages would be perfect on TV. I also think it would be better to serialise it rather than cut out heaps and make a movie. The suspence would work better that way. I’m not sure I would make one chapter per episode, you’d probably have to cut and paste things somewhat.
I’m looking forward to reading more of Marney’s books. She was integral to the formation of the #LoveOzYA community. It started on Twitter (X) with just a hashtag to promote Aussie authors of Young Adult fiction. I’d love to tell you when it was formed, but I can’t find anything better than my memory on the internet. I’m going back around eight to ten years, I think. I’ve been blogging about books since 2009 and I remember seeing the #LoveOzYA start to be prominent some time later. One fact I’d love to tell you about the #LoveOzYA website is to do with a toggle switch they have on the top right hand corner. It says Dyslexia Friendly, when you toggle the switch the font changes to something that might make things easier for dyslexics to read. It’s probably something I should install on this website, it just looks logical. Last note before I let you go. I’ve just subscribed to the #LoveOzYA YouTube channel. They have chats with authors and stuff. I suggest you give them some love and subscribe to get them over the magic 100 subscribers, that way they can get their own url.
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