Charlotte BaconBesprekingen

The twisted thread in this story is described like so: "Claire had invoked one of the most sacred of the Reign's rituals, which was the making of a braided thread - always red, and braided with a few hairs from the members' heads - that meant those who wore it vowed secrecy for life about a certain topic." The topic in this case is the pregnancy of one of the girls at the prestigious Armitage Academy, Claire, who was subsequently murdered, and her baby taken from the scene and missing. Madeline Christopher is an intern in the English department, who feels awful that she had no idea that Claire was even pregnant, and takes it upon herself to ask questions in an effort to find out what happened to Claire, and where the baby is now.

I really liked the premise of this story, and the mystery was a good one. I got confused a lot because there were just so many characters, and all of their backstories ran together after a while. The story could have done with some tightening up and without all the extraneous side stories. The ending was a surprise, which is always a good thing, and tied things up nicely.

All in all, I thought this was a good mystery novel and I would recommend it.

4 out of 5 stars.

*** I would like to thank Hyperion and Charlotte Bacon for the opportunity to read and review this book.

After Arthur’s wife, Laura, kills herself by throwing herself off their balcony in New York, Arthur decides to take his two teenage kids to Wyoming, where they will all stay with his mother on what land she has left that she hasn’t sold (can’t really call it a ranch!). The kids have to learn how to fit in to this rural area, as well as figure out how to deal with their grief.

It’s told from all four characters points of view: Arthur; his mother Lucy; his son Cam; and his daughter Celia. It’s kind of slow, but a decent story. I liked the different points of view that explored their new life in Wyoming, as well as thinking back on each of their relationships with Laura. I wasn’t real happy with the ending, though.

Very powerful novel about a grieving family. After his wife commits suicide, a husband moves himself and his two teenage children back to Wyoming for the summer where they live with his mother. The way the story unfolds, as each character pursues a path toward healing is profoundly moving. Beautifully written with a real eye for the natural world.

This was quite a story, but I found it hard to follow as there were just so many characters and there were just too many changes with each chapter. It was hard to remember some of the characters as there were just too many chapters between characters. And the ending was so disappointing as there were major things just left unfinished. I would not recommend this book.½

I knew my chances of finding a yummy summer read like Tartt's Secret History were slim, so I thought maybe this would be like Carol Goodman's Lake of Dead Languages, but it fell short. Sigh.

Did anyone else feel like Bacon was hiding an integral character from the reader, despite the fact that the book is written from multiple viewpoints? When the killer was revealed, I was sort of thinking "Wait, who?" I didn't find this exciting or a neat twist, but rather an act of masking. shrug. Maybe I wasn't paying attention well enough when I was reading.

One of my favorite novels of all time!


A well crafted family saga which traces some 60 years in the life of a family with its roots in Rural Saskatchewan.

Margaret Evans, a young nurse, and Davis Campbell, a Scottish laborer who meet and fall in love when Davis becomes Margaret's patient. Ah yes, the typical love story you think. No, this story is anything but typical. The couple settles into a grueling impoverished life as farmers and have three children: Hilda, Jem and Stuart.

Hilda, who must cope with devastating grief from loss of her parents, bankruptcy and an unknown future, moves to Toronto to start a new life. Here she copes with unwanted pregnancy, unexpected love and premature widowhood all in the space of a few years. Her inherent toughness pulls her through.

Not surprisingly, Hilda's daughter Danielle experiences the same itch to move on after high school. When Hilda arranges a job for her at an auction house in Paris, the focus of the novel moves with her to a new, strange and sophisticated environment.

I found this a flawed but engaging novel, with enough character development to hold my interest, as well as a compelling sense of place. Then it all blew up in my face with a ridiculously contrived ending. I hate when that happens.

A good mystery keeps you engrossed. It has you wanting to get to the next chapter. It doesn’t have to be nonstop action. It just needs you wanting to know who did it. I think you can find that in Charlotte Bacon’s The Twisted Thread.

This is a story of a young woman found dead in a high class boarding school. That alone is traumatic and worthy of a mystery, but throw in the fact that she unknowingly had a baby and that baby is missing gives you a much bigger story. Who killed the young girl? Where is the baby? Who is the father? Who knew about it? As you go along, you’ll discover that practically everyone has a dark secret and plays a part in the mystery of the girl’s death.

I really liked the fact that this was not a straight forward mystery. Yes, I did figure out who did it earlier in the book but the history and the background of it all I only had a small inkling. There were so many twists and turns that I found myself second guessing my original solution. I stuck to it and was right but it might prove a challenge to you.

Ms. Bacon did an excellent job of creating an intricate plot. It was an enjoyable read.

The copy I received was an advanced copy with many formatting issues that did cause problems reading the book. That should be resolved in the final version.

This is a great summer read. Add it to your list.

Note: This book was provided by the publisher with no expectation of a positive review.

The Good: One of the things I really liked about this novel was the setting. It takes place at a prep school, and the author gives great descriptions of the settings that I can totally imagine Armitage in my head. I enjoyed Madeline, one of the main characters. I love that the author placed a "normal" adult around the privileged, over-educated teachers that surrounded the school. I thought the way the girls and their relationships with each other was depicted, was a pretty accurate portrayal. Their little "game"they played is sadly just another version of the way bullies get their power and it only seems to reinforce that only the rich, attractive, intelligent students are the only ones destined for greatness. I think more than the tragic story of a young girls death that could have been prevented on many levels, its a story on the level of cruelty teens possess these days. I liked the little thread of romance that was peppered throughout the story. Not only was there ONE potential love interest for Madeline, but TWO! I loved it!





The Bad: I was kind of disappointed in the character development in this novel. I thought there could have been SO much more to delve into. I don't know whether the author wanted readers to like Claire by the end but I certainly did not. In a way she was so under developed that I wasn't even that invested in her death. However my distaste for Claire is also representative of the fact that the author did a good job with description and making her a disgusting character. I have to say that besides the lack of character development, I thought there were a lot of unanswered questions, some loose ends that never got tied up. I would have liked to see those issues resolved.

Overall I really enjoyed this novel. I thought the best aspect to the novel was surely the descriptions. I totally felt immersed in the world of Armitage and the characters. I give this book a B+



**I received this book free from the publisher through www.netgalley.com. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

A book whose description includes secrets long buried in the past, a mystery, suspense, and a boarding school full of suspicious characters and unknown relationships, is guaranteed to be a book I will pick up and read. This book had all that and more, and was an amazing read.

Armitage, the setting of most of the story, is a boarding school with a reputation for entitlement and excellence. But when a student is found dead, and the baby no one knew she was carrying is missing, the secrets behind Armitage's seemingly-perfect facade start to be revealed.

The characters never venture into stereotypes, but instead are complex challenges to those same stereotypes, and the mystery is a fascinating one with many twists and turns. The author had never written a mystery before this one, and I certainly hope she writes one again.½

The Twisted Thread is a sneak peek behind the secret and lies festering at a New England prep school. Madeline is the fish-out-of-water who is not only still trying to figure out her surroundings, but is now thrust in the middle of a murder and missing person investigation.

Claire is your typical (seemingly), beautiful, "popular girl" who has suddenly turned up dead in her dorm room. Not only that, apparently she was secretly pregnant, had just delivered, and to top it all off the baby is now missing. Baby Daddy TBD.

Madeline finds herself trying to get to the bottom of the sordid story by talking to everyone who knew Claire. The "mean girls" at Armitage Academy are members of Claire's secret society and possibly the best candidates for the cover up. It seems that Claire also had quite a few boyfriends and everyone is a suspect. The teachers are keeping secrets also and I enjoyed trying to get to the bottom of all of their mysteries.

Madeline has a couple of love interests herself. When not teaching or detecting, she has some well-written moments with each of them. With Armitage-alumni-turned-cop, Matt, being my fave. No Thunder-Bolt of Destiny here.

The story is told from multiple points of view which can sometimes distract from the narrative rather than add to it. The mystery plot is a good one and the ultimate villain is a surprise at the end. Some of the other sub-plots are just not as strong. Overall, I enjoyed The Twisted Thread and the mystery kept me entertained.

Summary: When beautiful but aloof Claire Harkness is found dead in her dorm room one spring morning, prestigious Armitage Academy is shaken to its core. Everyone connected to school, and to Claire, finds their lives upended, from the local police detective who has a personal history with the academy, to the various faculty and staff whose lives are immersed in the daily rituals associated with it. Everyone wants to know how Claire died, at whose hands, and more importantly, where the baby that she recently gave birth to is--a baby that almost no one, except her small innermost circle, knew she was carrying.
At the center of the investigation is Madeline Christopher, an intern in the English department who is forced to examine the nature of the relationship between the school's students and the adults meant to guide them. As the case unravels, the dark intricacies of adolescent privilege at a powerful institution are exposed, and both teachers and students emerge as suspects as the novel rushes to its thrilling conclusion.
With The Twisted Thread, Charlotte Bacon has crafted a gripping and suspenseful story in the tradition of Donna Tartt's The Secret History, one that pulls back the curtain on the lives of the young and privileged.

Review: This book has a good plot and the storyline is solid. It’s been done before, but not tired out. It is full of intrigue, mystery, complicated social themes, and likeable characters. The novel itself had a lot of potential, but seemed to go the safe route with predictable outcomes and twists you could see coming a mile away. The author spent too much time trying to build the history of the school and the backgrounds of the character; it became almost a boring interlude to the main story. There was the expected conflict between the privileged youth from the boarding school and the regular people in the town below. Overall, Bacon’s writing was solid and she had a good narrative. The characters were likeable and dealt with real-life problems and situations. It also gave good insight into the life of privileged teens and what goes on behind the closed doors of a prestigious boarding school. This book didn’t blow me away, but it was a good book and is worth reading.

Disclosure: I received my copy of this book for free in return for an honest review.

Claire Harkness is a girl of privledge, she has it all money, looks, friends, but when she's found dead in her dorm room after just giving birth to a baby boy that nobody knew about, but where is the baby now? and why was Claire murdered.

Honestly this book's summary sounded really good, and I thought It was going to be a page turner, but it was def. not that. I was pretty much bored out of my skull during the whole book, when I think murder mystery I think lots of drama and twists and turns to the story, and this just feel flat throughout the whole book. There was no noteable climax and the whole plot felt like it was on a plateau. None of the characters interested me, and It just wasn't what I had hoped the book would be.

Unfortantally for me this book didn't do anything, and in fact It took me forever to get through hoping it would get better, and to be completly honest, but the time the story concluded I don't even know who was the murderer or where the baby was because I was just so not invested in the story anymore, I mentally had checked out.

Appears on my blog, Books Most Wanted

I borrowed this ARC from a friend because the synopsis sounded like the type of book I used to read a lot of. A good murder mystery used to be on top of every list I had, but I've gravitated away from that in recent years. This one particularly intrigued me because of the exclusivity of the wealthy school and people involved. You know there's going to be a lot of good "behind-the-scene" information from that alone. Though it promised so much, in the end it just couldn't give what it advertised.

-Minor Spoiler Alert-
There were characters a plenty in this novel. On top of that, each one had a very detailed back story. Now, don't get me wrong, a good back story can really enhance a book. However, back stories that do not necessarily relate to the concept or plot of the book can really hurt one. That is all that I seemed to read in this novel. There was almost a pattern: one chapter one be solely about a character and its back story, the next chapter would do the same to another character, and so on. This literally begins in Chapter 1. It made the book difficult to follow and gave me the feeling that most of the info was there to add pages to the book and nothing else. There was an attempt to put real chemistry between a few of characters, but I simply did not feel it. At the end of the book when they finally agree on agree on a date and such, it felt like "Eh, so?" There was just too much "bloat" to make these good characters and plot completely enjoyable.

The plot and sequence of events saved this book for me. The death of a student, the shock that she'd given birth, the police investigation, and the book's resolution kept the pace throughout the book. I love that it touched on hot topics with teens: bulimia, peer pressure, bullying, etc. Kudos for that definitely. Also, the secret society, The Reign of Terror, added a great twist into the mix. I'm a big fan of societies like these and the traditions that they keep. Sadly though, due to the "bloat" previously listed, it was difficult to follow at times. I had to re-read a couple of spots to pull out the plot threads to continue on. On the other hand, it did help with setting the scene. There was not a part in this book that I could not imagine in detail due to the author's clear descriptions.

Overall, this book was just okay to me. It had some great concepts and characters, but it just couldn't seem to flow well at all. I think that if the characters back stories were lessened slightly and the story was told from fewer view points the book would have been better off. Combine that with an ending that still left me wanting for a little more action, I give it 2 stars.

Armitage Academy is a prestigious private high school, situated on top of a hill in a rural Massachusetts town. It seems above reproach by those who look at it from the outside. But then, on a warm spring morning, the body of young Claire Harkness is found in her room. The death is suspicious, made more sinister by the fact that Claire apparently had secretly given birth only a week before…and the child is now missing.

Madeline Christopher, a teaching intern who lives in Claire’s dorm, is immediately thrown into the investigation, along with nearly every student and teacher who Claire associated with during the weeks leading up to her death. Matt Corelli, a local detective with a secret in his past, along with his partner Vernon (a meat-eater turned vegan), are tasked with cracking the case…but as the days go by, they find themselves uncovering not just the clues to a possible murder, but the dark history secreted behind the perfect veneer of the school.

Charlotte Bacon takes her readers deep behind the walls of a private school and uncovers the darker side to the world of the privileged and wealthy. The plot unwinds slowly and is narrated in multiple points of view. Bacon excels in setting scene, providing lush descriptions of the New England countryside surrounding Armitage Academy.

The Twisted Thread is loaded with characters: Jim the maintenance man, Claire’s boyfriend (and prime suspect) Scotty Johnston, Fred the art teacher, Porter the stately head of administration, a raft of girls who are intertwined in Claire’s social circle, along with Madeline, Vernon and Matt. Author Charlotte Bacon also delves deeply into several other teachers’ lives as well. Character point of view alternates by chapter. All of these voices, along with their complex histories, began to weigh down the novel for me. Not only was it sometimes difficult to keep all their lives separate, but often the threads of their pasts seemed irrelevant to the overall plot of the book. About mid-way through this novel, I wished that Bacon had focused her plot more on a handful of characters rather than an entire school.

The Twisted Thread is not a fast-paced thriller, but more of a literary mystery. Bacon gives the reader some false leads which adds tension to the narrative and keeps the reader guessing as to the final outcome.

I read an Advance Readers Edition of this book, and so, in fairness to the author, there may have been some late editing which resolved some of the issues I had with the novel – namely that there was just too many minor characters and their backgrounds which slowed the pace of this mystery to a crawl. On the upside, Bacon does an admirable job in revealing the political underpinnings and moral coverups of institutions which cater to the wealthy.

Charlotte Bacon's The Twisted Thread started out so strong for me. The story of a popular teen girl found dead in her room at the prestigious Armitage boarding school, and the mystery of how she died and who took her newborn baby had so much potential, with writing that was so perceptive, such as this:
"Being responsible for the transmission of American literature to four classes of intelligent, slouching adolescents sometimes struck Madeline as a task more ludicrous than ending dependence on foreign oil."
and
"She hated this sensation, the knowledge, only half-admitted most of the time, that the world could crack wide at any moment, and that you would never, despite wit, fiscal prudence, or luck be entirely prepared for what might happen next."
I liked the characters of Madeline, the young teacher at the school and Matt, a police officer who attended Armitage years ago. I also liked Matt's cop partner, Vernon, the formerly-overweight, now-health-conscious family man. If the story had focused on these characters and the mystery of what happened to the dead girl, it would have been a pretty good book.

Unfortunately, the author introduces too many characters, along with their back stories, which instead of deepening the plot, at times took away from it and confused me. There is the maintenance man, his mother, his boss, many, many teachers at the school, and a clique of mean girls. It was hard to keep characters straight, and many times I had to stop and ask myself, "wait- who is this again?"

There were too many subplots that went nowhere. As I got to the end of the story, some of the threads came together and the resolution was ultimately satisfying, but the author would have had a much better book if she concentrated on only a few of the voices. She had a lot to say about privilege, class, family and the culture of private schools, but it sometimes got drowned out by too much noise.

At Armitage, a high school for the extremely wealthy and privileged, a murder has just taken place. It seems that one of the most popular and influential students, Claire Harkness, has been found dead in her dormitory and there are no obvious suspects. But that’s not even the half of it, for when Claire’s body is discovered, it soon becomes apparent that she had given birth just a few days prior to the murder. In addition to having kept her pregnancy a secret in the close boarding school atmosphere, the baby that Claire delivered is missing as well. As students and faculty scramble about trying to tie up the loose ends, one of the interim teachers, Madeline Christopher, takes it upon herself to investigate the murder. But what she finds will take her into the dimensions of illicit relationships, secret societies and dangerous hazing that some students will do anything to keep under wraps. With the help of a handsome detective who also has had a tarnished history at Armitage, Madeline begins to realize that she may be in over her head and that the students of Armitage are hiding much more than anyone ever realized. Taut with psychological suspense, The Twisted Thread is a thrilling mystery with a shocking conclusion that will leave its readers chilled to the core.

While I typically don’t enjoy books of this genre, when I read the premise, I thought there might be something here that differed from most of today’s thriller/suspense novels. While I was right on some level, I was also a little less than enamored with the book as a whole. When sitting down to write this review, I realize that to fully do the book justice, I need to be able to parse and piece out the various layers and attributes of the story to fully get a grip on what I felt about the book.

One of the things I really liked about this book was that it gave a full picture of what life in a boarding school was like from the perspective of the teachers and faculty. The students’ experiences weren’t really at the center of the novel, but as I’m not a student anymore myself, I appreciated the look into the adult world of the boarding school and the way that rivalries and factions still existed among the adults, as they obviously did with the students. Madeline is very much on the outside of most of these groups as a teaching intern, and Bacon does a good job of creating tension in her character by showing her strong reactions to long-standing traditions and the exclusive behavior that goes hand in hand with this kind of atmosphere. Madeline is a unique character in that she stands outside the group, both with the teachers and students, and therefore has a curious mix of envy and repudiation for both the students and the other faculty. I liked her a lot, and felt that she was a very realistic and emotionally complex character who was curiously different than most of her colleagues.

The parts of the book I had the most problem with were the actual pieces and puzzles of the mystery itself. It just wasn’t as shocking or inventive as I thought it was going to be, and as such it was a touch disappointing. I felt like I had read this book before, and its bits and pieces could have been culled from various other books in this genre to form the story I read here. While I liked the backstory and plot developments that centered on the ancillary characters, the story of Claire’s death and her missing child just didn’t feel all that compelling. I can’t say I guessed the crucial plot points, but when I finally discovered them I wasn’t overly enthralled with the way the story came together. And this may be entirely my fault. I’ve been known to be quite picky when it comes to this genre, and sometimes I think I’m unreasonably so. Regardless of this fact, there just wasn’t enough gristle for me here to make it remarkable, though I did like other aspects of the book.

When you boil this book down to its most basic elements, I felt the more plebeian aspects of the story far outweighed the more mysterious aspects. I wanted to find out if Madeline would ever find a romantic partner. I wanted to know more about the detective and his life outside his job, and I wanted to find out more about the personal lives of the faculty and all the hidden fault lines regarding the social hierarchy at the school. Certain parts of the book felt underdeveloped to me as well, and I felt that the secret society plotline could have been more fully worked to a lot greater effect. As it was, I think I’ll be alone in the fact that I appreciated all the wrong things in this tale of murder and mayhem.

Though this wasn’t a great read for me, I fully expect that I may be in the minority here and that my overarching particularity might have ruined some of the magic that this book had to offer. It really wasn’t a bad little book, and I think that those readers of suspense and thrillers will have a much better time of it than I did. I think it would also appeal to those who like books about academia, and for those sections alone, the book was worth reading.

An exclusive preppy boarding school nestled just outside of Greenville in New England, Armitage is home to the privileged and those of intellectual and social prestige. It is certainly not accustomed to scandal and murder investigations. However, when beautiful Claire Harkness is found dead 10 days before summer vacation, end of the year graduation and celebrations transform into inquisitions. Detective Matt Corelli came to Greenville in hopes of tranquility, leaving big city crime behind for a calm and orderly existence with his partner Vernon, but such was not to be. Not only was the intimidating and influential socialite dead, but, much to the surprise of her teachers, she had apparently given birth. But where was the baby? Madeline Christopher, the American literature intern, searches to uncover traditions, rituals, and the Robespierre “Reign of Terror” connection. Alumni, administration, faculty, staff, students and locals all become suspect. The tale is well-written, incorporating lies, pretense, twists of truth, and personal agendas. Characters are overtly realistic, but much more complicated beneath their façade.

This Charlotte Bacon mystery was an ARC from Hyperion through NetGalley.

Some kids seem to have it all, and the students at prestigious Armitage Academy are great examples. Armitage is a New England prep school that prides itself in having students who not only excel academically but go on to Ivy League schools and take leadership positions in the world. Its students come from wealthy families all over the world and a lot of them seem to fit the stereotype of spoiled rich kids with a huge sense of entitlement. Read the rest of my review at http://PopcornReads.com/?p=1322

I really enjoyed this book set in a school for priviledged children. Thought it was well written, the characters were well drawn with a cop who was also a alumnus of the school. Enough of a mystery to hold my interest and alot of well thought out conversations. Excellebt first book for this author.

Set in a posh New England boarding school. I liked the character of Madeline, an intern at the school. A great quote from the novel about teaching: "This is what teachers do. Carry around dog-eared copies of books they love, underlined and scrawled in as if they held all the meaning in the world. Then we try to shake out whatever is magical or wondrous in them and deposit it like pirate gold in front of all those minds around the table." I find this inspiring as I prepare my fall syllabi.

Armitage Academy is the most exclusive school in Massachusetts. But when the popular and beautiful Claire Harkness is found dead, everything changes, especially when it is discovered that she had recently given birth to a baby boy, who is nowhere to be found. Some of Claire's close friends knew she was pregnant but not who the father was. But none of the teachers or staff knew. Madeline Christopher is an intern teacher in the English department and resided in the same dorm as Claire. Madeline starts getting information from the other girls and tries to discover who killed Claire. She discovers many secrets and traditions of this school and how things work for the wealthy and privileged.

This story is told alternately by three narrators; Madeline, Matt, a former Armitage alum now working as a local cop, and Jim, one of the maintenance men.



This had a lot of potential but did not live up to it. I don't mind different narrators but Jim and his story was fairly irrelevant and took up too much of the story. Though this was a mystery, Claire's murder seemed to be secondary all of the different characters that overcrowded this novel. There was another small mystery added that was used to develop one of the characters but was again not relevant to the plot. The author seemed to want to focus on those that run and work at the Academy and only sporadically giving clues to the murder.

It was an easy and quick read though it could have been cut down. The lack of focus really effected by enjoyment of the book. There were good parts and I liked Madeline and Matt but I just could not engage with the story as I would have liked. Some editing could have helped but still would not have saved this book.

Some reviews have compared this novel to Donna Tartt's The Secret History but I saw almost no resemblance except the setting.

my rating 2/5

This is not the kind of book I normally read. It wasn't particularly fast paced, it wasn't focused on just a few characters, and it wasn't told from a teen POV. It was an adult murder mystery. But for all of that, I enjoyed it anyway.

This is a very dense book. Dense as in the paragraphs are long and packed with detailed information. There is also A LOT of info told about each character--present, past, and hinting into the future--that didn't necessary have anything to do with the murder. It was not a quick read for me.

I figured out who the murderer was a little over half way through. Maybe not the reason behind the murder, that was a surprise, but the who-done-it aspect of it. And the reveal wasn't dramatic at all. It was sort of just there, a bit of information tucked in with all the other bits of information. But that was okay. Sometimes drama at the end of a book is annoying, so it was refreshing when that wasn't the case, like in this book. And the wind down after the reveal went on for a while, tying up all the ends of lives of all the characters we .

But, really, I did enjoy the story. The dynamics of the boarding school, teachers and students, and the schools relations with the town, was fascinating. As each piece of the puzzle was revealed, I loved how the thread got more twisted. I thought the plot was very well thought out and laid down in the novel. And I liked the two main characters. I liked how the book ended.

he Short of It
Beautiful wealthy girls can also die.

The Long of It
Claire is gorgeous. One of those drop-dead blondes that seem to have it all: looks, smarts, MONEY. And she attends one of the most prestigious private schools, Armtiage Academy; at least she did, until she was murdered that is. The story opens with Claire dead, her newborn baby missing, and a faculty that didn’t even know she was preggers. Enter, Matt, alumni who went the path of blue-collar worker, ie. town cop. Along with his partner Vernon, he attempts to intermingle with the closed mouth students and staff. And speaking of staff, Madeline, the faculty member that least fits in with the status quo begins doing her own investigating. She stumbles upon this secret society that’s nothing short of a bunch of rich girls bullying the underprivileged. Perhaps the girls in her dorm are upset for more reasons than just a death.

The Thoughts about It
I seriously thought this would be a book that I would run into the blogging world and shout from the top of webspaces READ THIS READ THIS NOW.

Unfortunately. It. Is. Not.

This book humbled me. I had to realize that just because a book might have all of the elements in a story that grabs me (in this case, a private academy, secret society, and a mysterious death), it doesn’t mean that I’m going to like it.

So what were the flaws? Okay, this is difficult for me to actually point the finger at. I suppose part of the flaw was my expectations. When I read the summary, my mind associated it wit Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman that I freakin’ adored. So, already, it is competing in my head with a previous love. This never comes out good.

Also, you know how in elementary literature courses, they always talk about character-driven novels compared to plot-driven? Well, I s’ppose this one was plot-driven, except I found it to be all over the place. And the plot was really there just to carry the author’s agenda along…which was quite obvious “rich people get away with murder” (hahahaha, yes I realize what I just did there!).

At best, the book was trying to do what Tana French does in her novels – fall into this category of literary fiction meets mystery genre. French made it work. I didn’t really feel that here.

But you know, read it. Prove me wrong.

Tired of reading romance novels? Looking for a change of pace? Give this novel a try! This book is more than just a "who dun it" mystery. While it does have a well planned plot, it also is a commentary on the privilege of the wealthy and provides a glimpse into their world. It also has it's share of "mean girls", quirky adults and self involved parents.
Charlotte Bacon has an elegant writing style that is easy to read. She uses beautiful imagery that brings each scene to life. It's the perfect read for those lazy summer afternoons!
My only criticism is that the story seemed to slow down in the middle of the book. Without spoiling the story and giving too much away, I felt that certain parts of the plot should have resulted in an urgency to solve this mystery and I just didn't feel that from the characters that were investigating the death of Claire. Towards the end of the book, the pace picked up again. I thought I had the ending all figured out, but watch out for a few surprises!
Thanks to Voice Publishers for allowing me to read and review this novel.