Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight
If you're a Pretty Little Liars fan, you should probably pick up this book. If you're looking for a fairly juicy thriller, go ahead and put your name on the hold list. If you're looking for the next award winning title, eh, this might not be it. But let's be real, sometimes you just want something entertaining. This was right up my alley when I finally hit my window of getting to pick my own reading material for the month. I wanted something fairly quick, a bit salacious, and new. Reconstructing Amelia won't be published until April 2, 2014 so I'm a bit ahead on this one. I got an advance copy at the library and thought I should actually try and read it before it came out! I'm glad I did because I think this will be a fairly easy book to recommend to patrons.
This "Mean Girls"-type thriller is definitely an older teen crossover. Kate gets a phone call saying her daughter, Amelia, has been suspended only to get to the school and find that she's supposedly jumped off the roof and killed herself. None of this makes sense for the straight A student but Kate accepts it until she receives a cryptic text saying "She didn't jump". So starts the chase to figure out what actually caused Amelia's death. What made this book more interesting to me was the format of the story. It goes back and forth between Kate's current day chase to find out what happened and the months leading up to the event from Amelia's point of view. Turns out, there is much about Amelia that Kate was unaware of and it isn't pretty. I explain this as a "Mean Girls type thriller" due to the fact that a large part of the storyline is based on a secret high school club with some brutal hazing plans...I enjoyed Amelia's voice a bit more than Kate's, as Kate comes across a bit too unhinged at times. I never really felt like I knew exactly what was going to happen but I had a good time making my different guesses as I read!
I'd recommend this to women looking for a thriller and older teens who are fans of the Pretty Little Liars series. Due to the sexual nature of some scenes, I would set a minimum age of 16 for this one...chapters are a little longer so it's not super speedy but it's definitely an engaging, fun read!
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