Wish You Were Dead by Todd Strasser
Published: September 22nd 2009 by Egmont USA
Str-S-d:
I’ll begin with Lucy. She is definitely first on the list. You can’t believe how it feels to be in the cafeteria and turn around and there she is staring at me like I’m some disgusting bug or vermin. Does she really think I WANT to be this way? I hate you, Lucy. I really hate you. You are my #1 pick. I wish you were dead.
The day after anonymous blogger Str-S-d wishes the popular girl would die, Lucy vanishes. The students of Soundview High are scared and worried. Especially frightened and wracked with guilt is Madison Archer, Lucy’s friend and the last person to see her the night she disappeared.
As days pass with no sign of the missing girl, even the attention of Tyler, an attractive new student, is not enough to distract Madison from her growing sense of foreboding. When two more popular students disappear after their names are mentioned on Str-S-d’s blog, the residents of Soundview panic.
Meanwhile, Madison receives anonymous notes warning that she could be next. Desperate to solve the mystery before anyone else disappears, Madison turns to Tyler, but can she trust him when it becomes clear that he knows more than he’s sharing?
The clock is ticking. Madison must uncover the truth behind the mysterious disappearances . . . before her name appears in Str-S-d’s blog.
This book was a complete spontaneous buy! I saw it in the bookshop and, whilst I had never heard of it, I liked the synopsis. Whilst I enjoyed myself reading this book, it was relatively predictable and I had already known who had done what. There was one twist that I wasn’t expecting, but that was about it.
I think my favourite part about this book was the mix between the blog posts with the comments posted below, the short snippets of what the missing people were going through (which didn’t go into much detail) and the normal story that accompanied it. The anonymity of the blog posts and the commenters as well as the lack of detail in the snippets of the missing people helped keep this book a page turner. I had already figured out who was who (blog, commenters etc.) based on the comments and the actions of the characters in the usual story layout.
Whilst I didn’t mind the MC, I definitely lacked a certain empathy for her. I didn’t feel the connection that I would want to feel in a book like this – I didn’t feel the connection between any of the characters and I often felt like the interactions were almost superficial. I didn’t feel the guilt or remorse or any of the other feelings that anybody would be feeling under the situation that she was stuck in – it wasn’t convincing enough.
The plot was definitely a quirky one, despite the lack of originality. It was fun and I enjoyed myself reading it. Despite the fact that I had already guessed what was going to happen, I really wanted to know for sure, and that definitely kept me reading it. Having said that, I did have some questions left at the end of the book, which I know will not be answered because each book in this thrillogy is a standalone – which means that, whilst it belongs in the same series, they don’t have any connection to each other.
All in all, whilst I enjoyed this read, I thought it was relatively predictable and I am hoping that the other two books in this series will be less so. I gave this book 2.5/5 stars.
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