by Anna Bailey
Publisher: Atria books
Pages: 384
Format: eARC
Buy the Book: Amazon
Goodreads: The town of Whistling Ridge guards its secrets.
When seventeen-year-old Abigail goes missing, her best friend Emma, compelled by the guilt of leaving her alone at a party in the woods, sets out to discover the truth about what happened. The police initially believe Abi ran away, but Emma doesn't believe that her friend would leave without her, and when officers find disturbing evidence in the nearby woods, the festering secrets and longstanding resentment of both Abigail’s family and the people of Whistling Ridge, Colorado begin to surface with devastating consequences.
Among those secrets: Abi's older brother Noah’s passionate, dangerous love for the handsome Rat, a recently arrived Romanian immigrant who has recently made his home in the trailer park in town; her younger brother Jude's feeling that he knows information he should tell the police, if only he could put it into words; Abi's father's mercurial, unpredictable rages and her mother's silence. Then there is the rest of Whistling Ridge, where a charismatic preacher advocates for God's love in language that mirrors violence, under the sway of the powerful businessman who rules the town, insular and wary of outsiders.
But Abi had secrets, too, and the closer Emma grows to unraveling the past, the farther she feels from her friend. And in a tinder box of small-town rage, and all it will take is just one spark—the truth of what really happened that night—to change their community forever.
Kritters Thoughts: Abigail and Emma are best friends and one night Emma watches Abigail go into the woods and that is the last anyone has seen of her. Throughout the book, the author takes us back and forth through time to find out why these characters ended up here and to reveal all the details of what happened to Abigail.
For me, this one wasn't one of my favorite reads of my recent reads and it was all about the characters. I couldn't connect and get interested in any of them and for that I had a hard time keeping my attention on this book. What kept me turning pages was wanting to figure out what happened to Abigail and I can say that without that wonderment I am not sure if I would have finished. Not only were the characters just a downer, so was the town and while I can handle unlikability, this one just went beyond that.
A debut novel and because of this I am still intrigued to read another by Anna Bailey. I would never want to judge an author based on only one book and especially a debut. I hope that in the next book I can connect with a character and have more excitement about following them on a journey.
Rating: enjoyable, but didn't leave me wanting more
Ebook 2021 Challenge: 93 out of 100
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one copy of this book free of charge from Atria Books. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
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