The monsters have known each other their whole lives. This is their final summer before college - time to hang out, fall in love and dream about the future.
Until they accidentally start a forest fire which destroys their hometown and leaves death in its wake.
Desperate for the truth to remain hidden, the group make a pact of silence.
But the twisted secret begins to spin out of control and when one of the friends disappears they all become suspects.
We know how it starts but where does it end?
Secrets and lies are everywhere in this compulsive page-turner, perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying .
I have such mixed feelings about this book! Let me try and break it down. Apologies for any incoherence, that's just how strongly I feel!
Characters. When I started, I was afraid they'd form a homogeneous lump of 'friends' but they actually separated out very quickly. They were mostly not very likeable, but they were never less than compelling, and I almost didn't put the book down at all while reading. (Only when my safety demanded it.) The longer it went on, the more unlikeable two in particular became, but I was never even close to stopping reading ... I wanted to know what happened to them!
The fire itself was so well described. I'm lucky that I don't live in an area prone to wildfires, and I've never really thought about the cost of rebuilding burned out areas afterwards. I did well up over (spoiler) as I kind of expected to once I knew it was coming!
I found the second half less compelling, but still very compelling, if that makes sense. Things got very tangled for a while and I was trying to guess what would happen, and mostly failing! I really enjoyed the read and I'd love to read other novels by this author ... I think she has a great talent for the genre and I'll be watching out for her in future.
A great read for anyone who likes tension, dubious characters and fast paced story telling!
(I also clapped on one character near the end, during a phone call...if you've read it you'll know!)
This post is part of a blog tour and is my honest opinion. Thanks to WriteReadsTours and to Penguin Teen.
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