Review: DANGEROUS GIRLS by Abigail Haas

Title: DANGEROUS GIRLS
Author: Abigail Haas (aka, Abby McDonald)
Published: July 16th, 2013
Genre: YA thriller / mystery
Pages: 388
POV: 1st person present
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Format: Kindle eBook
Source: Purchased
Rating: The Royal Library, Top Shelf

Paradise quickly gets gruesome in this thrilling page-turner with a plot that’s ripped from the headlines and a twist that defies the imagination.

It’s Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives.

But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations. As Anna sets out to find her friend’s killer, she discovers harsh revelations about her friendships, the slippery nature of truth, and the ache of young love.

Awaiting the judge’s decree, it becomes clear to Anna that everyone around her thinks she is not only guilty, but also dangerous. And when the whole story comes out, reality is more shocking than anyone ever imagined...

You know how people slow down when driving past an accident, because they are so incapable of not taking a quick glance at the wreckage before them? Reading Dangerous Girls left me with that vibe, where everything is slowly unraveling into chaos, you don't know why you can't look away, you just know you have to see it unfold. Every moment flipping through Dangerous Girls is a thoroughly intriguing one, and the reveal in the end is undeniably a shocker.

Anyone who has ever been in a poisonous friendship will read Dangerous Girls and wait uncomfortably as the story unfolds. On the surface, Anna and Elise are great for each other. They have fun, understand one another, and together, they are simply unstoppable and wild. But underneath, their friendship is a bit less friendly than it should be. And, after Elise is found dead, Anna becomes the number one suspect. Her other friends, and even strangers, are quick to turn on her as Anna attempts to figure out who killed her best friend, and why. As the mystery of Dangerous Girls unfolds through alternating chapters, Haas makes every moment a thrilling ride.

Highlights: Anna is a very accessible protagonist, and it's easy enough to feel sorry for her as she faces such a difficult situation. While I'm usually not a fan of past / present POV chapter switches, it worked in this novel because it allowed a complete view of who Anna and Elise are/were and how this mess came to be. The writing flows nicely, keeping me hooked for hours and hours. Someone spoiled the big twist for me online, but even despite that, Haas still kept me curious, intrigued, and addicted from start to finish. 

Lowlights: It ended? 

Rating: The Royal Library, Top Shelf: Loved, 4+ out of 5. Despite the fact that I knew the twist ending before going into this novel, I still found Dangerous Girls to be captivating from start to finish. I almost let this story pass me by, and I'm incredibly glad that I decided to check it out. This novel was exactly the thriller / mystery I needed to read, and I loved every second of it. 

Review: CONVERSION by Katherine Howe

Title: Conversion
Author: Katherine Howe (@katherinebhowe)
Published: July 1st 2014
Series: N/A
Genre: YA thriller, mystery, historical
POV: 1st person
Pages: 402
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Format: Print ARC
Source: Vine Program
Rating: The Royal Library, Middle Shelf

It’s senior year at St. Joan’s Academy, and school is a pressure cooker. College applications, the battle for valedictorian, deciphering boys’ texts: Through it all, Colleen Rowley and her friends are expected to keep it together. Until they can’t.

First it’s the school’s queen bee, Clara Rutherford, who suddenly falls into uncontrollable tics in the middle of class. Her mystery illness quickly spreads to her closest clique of friends, then more students and symptoms follow: seizures, hair loss, violent coughing fits. St. Joan’s buzzes with rumor; rumor blossoms into full-blown panic.

Soon the media descends on Danvers, Massachusetts, as everyone scrambles to find something, or someone, to blame. Pollution? Stress? Or are the girls faking? Only Colleen—who’s been reading The Crucible for extra credit—comes to realize what nobody else has: Danvers was once Salem Village, where another group of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago . . .

Inspired by true events—from seventeenth-century colonial life to the halls of a modern-day high school—Conversion casts a spell. With her signature wit and passion, New York Times bestselling author Katherine Howe delivers an exciting and suspenseful novel, a chilling mystery that raises the question, what’s really happening to the girls at St. Joan’s?

Switching between Colleen Rowley's narration in 2012 Danvers, MA and Ann Putnam's recounting of her past experiences in Salem, Conversion is strange and spellbinding. In Colleen's chapters, her world quickly turns to chaots when the most popular senior girl in her class comes down with a mystery illness that soon spreads from girl to girl with varying symptoms. Colleen tries to deal the fiasco as best as she can, focusing on her goal of becoming valedictorian, attempting to gain admission to Harvard, and ignoring the strange text messages that urge her to read The Crucible. Ann, meanwhile, lives in 1706 and is confessing her past sins, portraying an incredibly familiar story in a slightly different light.

Howe skillfully builds the tension and mystery of Conversion. With each new girl who falls ill in Colleen's story and each new revelation Ann provides in her own tale, the the novel as a whole only continues to grow more intriguing and captivating. The parallels between both stories are fascinating, and Colleen's tale forced me to think differently about the Salem witch trials. I'm going to keep quiet on plot details and leave it at this –  Conversion is a story of friendship, family, secrets, and the lengths people are willing to go to in order to be seen. It's a fascinating story to watch unfold, and one that shouldn't be missed.

Highlights: Neither narrator is overwhelmingly likable, and I enjoyed that realism. Colleen is very focused on herself and her future, while Ann made incredibly foolish and deadly mistakes for selfish reasons. Howe builds each girl with flaws and attributes that make them seem even more realistic. Family is present, and Colleen's parents were extremely realistic and caring (which is surprisingly rare in YA novels). I especially loved the ending, and how it seems both final yet ambiguous. It's up to the reader, as to what really happened, and who to believe.

Lowlights: The beginning seemed a bit slow. It took a bit of time to get used to the switching between narrators, but soon enough, Conversion became a difficult book to set aside.

Rating: The Royal Library, Middle Shelf (4 out of 5). Conversion is fantastic, and has earned a spot in the royal library. I enjoyed this story very much, despite a few small issues, and would recommend this book to other readers.