Another super late review on another super late read. Another book that was waiting in my to-read list for a decade, & I kept that in mind while rating & for this review. Had I read this book 10 years ago maybe I would’ve liked it more, maybe not, we’ll never know, but I am very aware of the fact that most YA just doesn’t do it for me anymore so I try to give grace. Let’s review.
Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten
- Category – Young Adult Mystery Thriller
- Length – 325 Pages
- Read Time – 1 Day
- GR Rating – 3 Stars
Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls starts kind of in the middle of the story & loops us back around to the before with a series of flashbacks. June is our main narrator, although Delia is really the true main character. June & Delia used to be best friends, as the story begins we learn that relationship unfortunately soured but we don’t find out why until later. What starts off as just another regular school day gets turned upside down when it’s announced that a students life has tragically ended, that student being Delia. June is stunned & in complete disbelief, not only because it’s jarring to hear such news about someone she was so close with for so long but also because it’s said Delia took her own life, something June just doesn’t believe for a single second.
In true YA form, Delia is naturally the mysterious & aloof ‘manic pixie’ type of girl & the new girl in town when their friendship begins. Unable to let go of nagging thoughts in the back of her mind screaming at her that Delia would never do such a thing, June ends up diving head first into the deep end of the investigation pool. Believing something horrible must have happened to her former best-friend, partly driven by rumors & lingering guilt from the friendships end.
The investigation pool turns out to be filled with a mix of shady & dangerous happenings. June learns a lot of new things about her former best-friend during the course of her investigation, much of the revelations coming from the new friends Delia had post bestie breakup. However, throughout the book Delia remains, to us the reader, pretty much a mystery, we know she doesn’t have a good home life but not the details of it.
The second half of this book went off the rails for me, in the beginning I was definitely hooked into the story & then my eyes got to rolling, & one too many “oh come on” came out of my mouth & this is exactly my gripe with YA. Yes, yes it’s fiction but if it’s supposed to be “real world” fiction, keep it plausible. Somehow June was extremely naive, while simultaneously being cunning & street smart. The book also inexplicably switches between past & present, 1st & 3rd person pov’s, I didn’t find any of the characters particularly likable either. I won’t say too much because I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone who hasn’t read the book, but it turned out June was right about her former bestie not having committed suicide.
As always, thank you for joining me for another review & happy reading!
Hasta la próxima – V
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