I enjoyed this and flew through it but it wasn't quite what I was expecting/hoping for. Towards the end it felt like a movie I'd watch on Lifetime. If this ever did become a movie, I could picture it perfectly as a Lifetime movie. There are quite a bit of twists and turns towards the end of this book, some of which I saw coming and some that did take me by surprise. Unfortunately I don't feel that this book is all that memorable but I still enjoyed it at the time. ( )

Finally a YA Mystery that I loved!!! It wasn't 100% perfect, but it was SO interesting!! 4.5 Stars

A YA Mystery that sucked me in!!! I've been looking for a LONG time for a really good YA Mystery... it seems to be one of the hardest books for me to find anymore. I've read so many BLAH books, and then this one came along, and it's anything but BLAH. I was really hoping the serial killer angle would be that deciding factor, and I have to say I didn't even need there to be a serial killer for me to be into this book! It was just so addicting and suspenseful and the characters were strong!

The Mystery: I loved how complicated this book got. It went beyond just the idea that they may have put an innocent man behind bars. There was so much more going on than that. It was- Who Killed Lori? Why Is It Happening Again? Where Is Tessa's Mother? Why Did Tessa's Sister Change Her Name? I loved all the family secrets and drama going on simultaneously. It really made me want to read and read and read to figure out WHAT in the world was going on with these 2 families... and of course, who was killing people.

The Setting: I'm from Pittsburgh, so the area this book is set in is about 40 minutes south of me. I've been to Fayette County, and I'm always excited to see Western PA featured in books. The thing about the setting I didn't like so much was the negativity. I felt like this book gave off a really negative view of small-town life. Now don't get me wrong, I've been known to knock my small-town every now and again.... but one of the first things I learned in my college creative writing class was that people don't like to read about judgement. And this book was throwing the judgement around pretty harshly. Not everyone who lives in a small-town hates it. Not everyone ONLY lives there because they weren't able to make it out. Some actually CHOOSE to stay because they like the small-town life. Now it might seem like I ranted a bit here- but there was a LOT of little jabs about how terrible it was to live in Fayette scattered throughout the book, and I found it to be not cool.

The People: I really liked Tessa, Callie, Decker, and Callie's mom. I'm glad it didn't veer into the forcing-a-romance in category, but I can totally see Decker and Tessa getting together later on... or at least staying in touch as awesome friends. I loved that Callie was harsh and had her issues, but totally came around and showed me that she wasn't what she first appeared.

The Ending: Now even though this totally 100% fulfilled my need for a YA Mystery, that doesn't mean it was perfect. I didn't care for the extra turn that the book took to tie everything together. I know it was meant to be like a major WTF moment... but I thought it went a little too far into the yeah right category. I liked that it tried, but it definitely went about 10 steps over the line into crazy-town for me.

OVERALL: YES to this fast-paced, page-turning YA Mystery!! I've been looking for a YA Mystery that I clicked with, and I was so happy to finally found one! I think this was a big step up from [b:Prep School Confidential|13411546|Prep School Confidential (Prep School Confidential, #1)|Kara Taylor|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1362062511s/13411546.jpg|18668960].

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This book started out well, then 3/4 of the way through, I lost interest. It seemed that the plot keep veering off into various directions. It became difficult to remember the characters, then new ones were added.

In small town Fayette. PA, years before Tessa returned to say goodbye to her dying father who was in jail, a monster of a man dwelt among the people.

Killing young girls by strangulation, Tessa and her friend Callie lost a friend to the monster. They were instrumental in putting him in jail for life because they testified they saw his face and identified him as the one who took their friend away.

Because they were so young, now when they are older, they wonder if they fabricated their stories to match.

The culprit was in jail, or so they thought, until another murder occurred.

I finished this book, but cannot recommend it.

A convoluted thriller than will leave you wondering about the depths some people will go to get what they want. ( )