Author: Emiko Jean

I received this book for free from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Murder.

Fire.

Revenge.

That’s all seventeen-year-old Alice Monroe thinks about. Committed to a mental ward at Savage Isle, Alice is haunted by memories of the fire that killed her boyfriend, Jason. A blaze her twin sister Cellie set. But when Chase, a mysterious, charismatic patient, agrees to help her seek vengeance, Alice begins to rethink everything. Writing out the story of her troubled past in a journal, she must confront hidden truths.

Is the one person she trusts only telling her half the story? Nothing is as it seems in this edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller from the debut author Emiko Jean.

I’m always up for a book that is creepy and messes with your head, and this sounded like it was perfect for that. Sadly, it really fell short for me. It’s supposed to be a mind fuck, but it was too predictable. It was supposed to be creepy, but it just wasn’t. I didn’t really like the main character much because she was kind of boring. Even though she is breaking all the rules and is out for murder, she just seemed a bit blah for me. And the love interest… there always has to be one of those right? He didn’t do much for me. He’s the one who is supposed to be all dangerous, but helpful, and really a sweetheart. Yeah, he met all those stereotypes on the surface. So basically this was just a kind of meh book for me. Even with it being short, it took ages for me to finish it because it didn’t hold my interest very much. I liked how it was told in past and present at least so it got a few points for that.

Alice is the main character. She has had a pretty shitty life. Bounced from foster home to foster home with her twin sister for her whole life. Oh, and conveniently her now dead boyfriend happened to live at a few of them with her. So, she is the good girl. Her sister Cellie is the one who causes all the trouble. Fire being her big thing. They had been in the mental hospital before, but now after a fire who killed her boyfriend, Alice is back there. And so is Cellie somewhere. Alice is determined to find her and kill her before Cellie kills her like she intended to in the fire. She meets a boy who is mysterious and surprisingly helpful and she thinks she might just win at getting to Cellie first. Along the way she also begins to fall for the boy. (I apologize, I don’t remember his name)

Boy who’s name I can’t remember is all sorts of mysterious of course. He is the dangerous, quiet sexy guy who no one can figure out. Well, he’s actually just a pussy cat. He is all broody and tough seeming, but that’s just for show. Not that he’s not helpful though. He really does try to help Alice. He does go about it quite wrong though. And of course he ends up falling for her too. What a surprise!

The way this is told is the books strong point. We get a chapter in the present while Alice is in the mental hospital, and we get the past so we know the history of Alice and Cellie’s life and what they have gone through. That all leads us into now. I liked learning about the past, but the present was where it lacked for me. I didn’t really care for Alice, and all the crap happening didn’t hold my interest. Also, I kind of figured everything out quickly which I suppose ruins the whole mind fuck aspect of things. Maybe I’m too picky or too clever, but I don’t really think so. I wanted to like this book, but our relationship just didn’t start off well, and crumbled pretty quickly. I hope that others have better luck with it than I did.

2.5 Hot Espressos