Dangerous Girls

Update April 30th: Yeah, I'm bumping up my rating to a 5. Read it 2 months ago and I STILL think about it at least once a week.

ARGH I don't know how I feel. CALLED IT. But also. . . I wish I had been wrong? Maybe? I DON'T KNOW. I so, so don't know with this book. That was. . . wow.

I feel like this book has seriously flown under the radar. I read on the author's blog that it only managed to sell around 450 copies in hardback. And that is a shame, because this is one of those books that I completely devoured . This made me think of something Gillian Flynn would write if she

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wanted to do a YA novel.
On the Young Adult side, Dangerous Girls does a brilliant job capturing the feelings of awkwardness and isolation, toxic friendships, all consuming first love, and teenage debauchery. It really delves into the darkness of obsession, jealousy, and co-dependency that runs in some friendships and relationships.
As for the murder and resulting trial, I found it hard to trust any of the characters in play. I suspected pretty much all of them at some point. It seriously made me anxious to watch how easily events could be manipulated to make someone look guilty. If you've ever followed the media coverage of a high profile murder trial and felt strongly about someone's guilt, this book will turn everything on its head. There were parts of this that honestly made me feel anxious.
This was such a wild, dark, and unexpected ride. I'm sad it hasn't received the attention it deserves.

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Holy crap! This book was amazing. I picked it up yesterday because my son had confiscated my kindle and I wanted something to read. I never imagined I would get so wrapped up in a book so quickly.
Dangerous girls tells the story of a group of friends on vacation in Aruba when one of the girls is

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brutally murdered and another of the girls Anna is accused. The story evolves by going back through the girls friendship and the court case. I know how powerless you feel in a court case. The lawyers tell you to be quiet and act a certain way and you just feel so power less to help yourself. Your life is in the courts hands.
This story just blows you away because a quote from the books says "Wouldn't we all look guilty, if someone searched hard enough?"
The ending came along and shook me to the core. Great writing!

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This is one of those books that I hated and regretted reading the moment I finished it, but until that last page, I couldn't put it down. How do you rate that? Most people are going to love Dangerous Girls--it's well-written, and you'll keep turning pages to find out what happens.

Warning:

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Spoilers

But like Gone Girl, I felt gross after reading this book. It was salacious, manipulative, and ultimately cared more about outsmarting the readers than anything else. That Anna was guilty all along, that the friends who turned on her and the psychologists who said she was a sociopath were right...it felt cheap. Not even the idea of the twist, but the way it played out, left me feeling used and faintly disgusted. Oh well--at least it was a quick read. I need to check out some soothing, lighthearted fantasy to wash this book away.

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A quick summary before I begin my raving on how much I loved this book: Anna, her best friend Elise, Anna's boyfriend Tate, and a group of their friends are in Aruba for Spring Break. Then one day, Elise is found murdered, stabbed to death in the beach house they were staying in. Anna, the narrator

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of the book, is targeted by the police as the killer.

Haas draws on the Amanda Knox case most heavily for inspiration, as well as the Natalie Holloway case. She explores the way the media can spin evidence, as well as the intensity of high school and the relationships formed there, and the feeling of being trapped with no control over your future. Having Anna as the narrator really forces the reader to feel everything she is feeling, from watching crime shows portray her as a sociopath, to fighting for sleep in a tiny jail cell.

And then there were those two words. Those of you have read this book will instantly know which words I refer to. This book has a twist, a solution to the mystery, that packs such a wallop it leaves you reeling, and stays with you even when the book is closed.

If you loved this book, I would definitely recommend you check out Cartwheel by Jennifer duBois. It's another fictional take on the Amanda Knox case.

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This book has been compared to Gone Girl and I can see the similarities, but it just doesn't have the same complicated, twisting plot that is impossible to figure out in advance. It is a YA novel and is worth reading if you like the Gone Girl type of book. I liked the format of telling the story

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through the perspective of the main character, Anna, interspersed with texts, television show transcripts, etc.

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That was freaking intense!!! Soooooooo good!

Dangerous Girls takes you on a roller coaster ride through high school, the anatomy of best friends, boys and an of course, a murder trial. Told from the point of view of the prime suspect, Anna, we are thrown into her world and the universal search for justice in the murder of her best friend,

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Elise. There is a toxicity to their friendship, and this plays a vital role throughout. Dangerous Girls has so many layers and twists that even when you think you've figured out who did it, new details emerge and you are left questioning everything. Furthermore, this book has you reexamining all you see and hear on TV in regards to real life cases. As Anna says, "Wouldn't we all look guilty, if someone searched hard enough?" The story is not told in chronological order, but I found the switches between past and present to be seamless and perfect for the narrative at hand.Haas writes a great book, full of suspense and psychological thrills.

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An excellent young adult mystery/thriller that I couldn’t put down.

Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and some other friends go on vacation to Aruba. Everyone is having the time of their lives until Elise is found brutally murdered. Now Anna finds herself as the main suspect and to

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make matters worse all her friends think she actually killed Elise. Told in the perspective of Anna, the author takes the readers back and forth between the past and present to see what really happened. The truth may shock you.

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This was my first Abigail Haas book, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. I read it in only a few nights. I do not read many mystery/thrillers, but so many people listed this as one of their favorites so I decided to give it a try.

Normally I am not a fan of books that jump from one time and

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place to another, but this one works! It jumps from the trial, vacation, before, and after the incident. Some of the chapters are longer and some are only a page or so long. You get glimpses of the past, court scenes, TV scripts, and interrogation notes. They all work together though, and I found myself actually loving it. This keeps you guessing on who killed Elise and you will not want to put it down. The ending!! I was like what? I feel it was a really unique way in saying who the killer was without really saying they did it.

Overall, this was such fun read. I cannot read the next book by AH!

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Find this review and more at On The Shelf!

This was quite an exciting read and it was very fast paced. However, my mind was not blown like I hoped. I saw a few reviews where people were really shocked by the ending, but I was not shocked and I think that some of the possibilities I was thinking up

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were so much more out there than the actual ending that when I finally finished it, I was like “oh, okay, yeah sounds right.”

The beginning was just a little confusing at first since there were so many people in there group, but eventually you get everybody straight. All the characters were really well written and seemed like real people and I think that the media was portrayed well with how things can get skewed and misinterpreted. Several times I found myself wanting to strangle the reporters.

Elise was somebody I liked sometimes and didn’t like other times. She was a good friend to Anna, but as a person she wasn’t the best and she slept around a lot, but she was there for Anna when nobody else was. I liked Tate at first, but it didn’t last too long.

The storyline bounces around a lot from the vacation to the trial to the time she is waiting behind bars and so on, so if you get confused by back and forth changes be warned. I think the bouncing around added to the drama and the frenzy of what was happening. It was a very enjoyable read and it kept me turning the pages, so it was quite interesting, just not shocking. I recommend it to people who like a good murder mystery and a twist ending.

Fast paced, full of tension, good characters, not as shocking as I hoped.

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I've been in a reading slump recently. I've started and put aside at least eight books because I couldn't get interested in them. In desperation I googled 'books to end my reading slump" and this novel was recommended on more than one site, so I decided to give it a go.

From the first page, which

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was a transcript of a distressed emergency call heralding a vicious crime, I was hooked! The story then jumped between various timelines including before and after the murder, and the actual trial.

Despite "I'll Never Tell" being suspenseful and twisty, keeping me guessing the whole way through, I must say I hated the main characters. They were extremely shallow and their actions were reprehensible and dangerous - sex, drugs and alcohol were constantly abused. The only character I had any time for was Lee and he only made an appearance midway through the book.

However, I did feel sorry for the way Anna was portrayed by the prosecution and media, and I thought the author did an excellent job capturing her anxiety and turmoil throughout the trial. As for the ending . . . wow!

"I'll Never Tell" was a fabulous crime thriller for older teens.

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A spring break trip in Aruba ends when one of the friends, Elise, is found dead. Her best friend, Anna, is accused of the murder. Anna continues to say she isn't guilty. Evidence mounts against her, but the prosecution is a bit too zealous in going after her and disregards several suspects. Secrets

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are revealed and the ending is a twist. I had my suspicions, but didn't expect the way it ended. Well written. This is billed as a teen novel, because the main characters are teens, yet it is a good read for adults, too!

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While the culprit isn't difficult to identify, there is a giant school of red herrings swimming through this book. I couldn't help flashing back to the sensational murders in the Caribbean and in Italy a few years back that had to have flavored this. It was a quick and satisfying read.

The most interesting part was the twist at the end. The premise had a lot of potential, but ultimately the non-linear narrative and epistolary feel were techniques used to disguise a shallowness of character and motivation.

Rating: 6/10
Gay-0-meter: 4/10

Teens go on spring break vacation, one ends up murdered - they blame the best friend. Was it really her, could it be any of the friends, could it be an Islander the victim met? Anna was the best friend and is accused of the murder and has to go on trial in Aruba.... the story is from Anna's POV - I

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don't like the ending - I didn't like the motive (it's called being a teenager) - if this teen had anger problems as stated in trial, shouldn't she get some psychiatric help? Quick read -

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