Book: Dangerous Girls
Author: Abigail Haas
Pages: 369
How Long it Took Me to Read: 3-4 hours (I was hooked!)
Plot Summary: 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.
What I Liked: I loved this book, let's just get that out of the way. It was well-written and had elements of 2 real life cases that I know well- The Natalee Holloway case and The murder of Meredith Kercher in which Amanda Knox was arrested and held in Italy. The basic premise of the book had me hooked and the decent writing and the swift pace of the book kept me turning pages late into the night.
This book may seem like a beach read, but it is actually well written and provides the reader with an interesting insight into human nature. It also looks at how the media covers crime stories and how some of that coverage often tends to be heavily biased and subjective. The book also spends some amount of time looking at how anything, a picture, a conversation, when seen out of context can be interpreted in as incriminating a way as possible.
I also liked how the cast of characters in the book were well crafted and clearly defined. Elise's friends, the various investigating officers, lawyers etc. were well crafted characters and stayed clear and well-defined in the readers mind as one went through the book. Elise and Anna's friends- Tate, Max, Chelsea, Melinda, AK and Lamar- are clearly written and distinctive. Also, their reactions to the murder and the aftermath are very real and nicely done as well.
The book moves from the very beginning of Elise and Anna's friendship- to the murder- to the vacation - to the trial and to the aftermath. In some books this jumping might seem jarring but it is handled very well and I didn't find any of the portions less interesting than the others. I in fact, liked the story moving from one point to another.
What I Didn't Like: There is nothing that I really didn't like in this book. The ending was a bit abrupt but honestly it didn't irk me. It needed to be abrupt to have the impact it has.
General Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book. I went with zero expectations and I loved it. From the first chapter my interest was piqued and the book moved fast and I was hooked. The book's ending was fantastic and I didn't really see it coming.
I really RECOMMEND this book it is very entertaining and at the same time thought provoking.
Rating: 4/5
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