Natalie D. Richards won her first writing competition in the second grade with her short story about Barbara Frances Bizzlefishes (who wouldn’t dare do the dishes.) Now she writes about awesome girls, broody boys, and all things dark and creepy. When she’s not writing or shopping her manuscripts, you can probably find her wading through the towers of dog-eared paperbacks that have taken over her bedroom. Natalie lives in Ohio (Go Bucks!) with her techno-wiz husband, three amazing kids, and a seventy pound dust-mop who swears he’s the family dog.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Let me start this review by saying…I loved this story. It had everything I love in a YA novel, a bit of mystery, some romance, and the politics of navigating high school. Richards created some interesting characters and a very realistic situation while creating a story that had me turning the pages to see what would happen next.
Piper is in her senior year of high school and just counting the days to graduation so she can get to the college of her choice and focus on her photography. She has always been at the bottom of the popularity ladder…not quite the bottom, but close enough. Piper’s closest friends are Manny and Tacey…both of whom are on the yearbook staff with her.
I loved Piper. She is smart, sarcastic/snarky, and really loves the people in her life. Yes, she has her flaws…one of them being the fact that she is fairly judgmental with good reason. All her life the popular kids have bullied or made her life hellish, which is part of the reason she can’t wait to get away. But with that in mind, it is very clear that as the story progresses that this is something that she is using to help justify the reasons why she does certain things.
As the story kicks off, Piper finds a mysterious notebook on the steps at school and while it happens to be in code, there is a lot of information stored in the notebook that Piper is uncomfortable having. Despite that, she doesn’t turn it in and this is the beginning of the mysteries that she works to unravel. That same day, Piper witnesses a verbal attack by the popular boys (Jackson, Tate, and Nick – in all fairness, the attack was by Tate and Jackson and Nick was completely taken by surprise) on Stella, one of the most popular girls in school. We come to find out that one of the boys is her boyfriend and he had just seen a video of Stella having sex with someone other than him. A few days later, it is found out that Stella was hit by a train and dies.
Stella’s death leads Piper to believe that she should have done something and opens up the door for all the guilty feelings she carries throughout the story. As the story moves forward, we also find out that Nick is feeling guilty as well. He has also been noticing Piper and even though Piper thinks it is fairly sudden that he is paying attention to her, he implies that it is only sudden because she is finally noticing him. I will definitely talk more about Nick in a minute but getting back to the story, because of her guilt, when Piper receives a mysterious text about getting some justice for Stella and this pulls Piper into something she never expected.
I loved the characters that Richards’ created in this story. In addition to Piper, there is Manny, her best friend. He has a tough life and it’s clear he is on a slightly different path than Piper. He is ok with it but she isn’t and this is one of the things in their friendship that creates tension and as they get closer to graduation, becomes even more of an issue. While there wasn’t much of Manny on his own, the friendship between Manny and Piper was great.
Nick is another solid character and I loved how the relationship/friendship between him and Piper progressed. While Piper had feelings, she was a bit leery about trusting him…mostly because he was one of the popular kids. I loved how he called her out on it though and the fact that he didn’t let her get away with it was important. I think Nick is one of those characters that everyone can love…he might be too perfect but I honestly don’t care. He is smart, athletic, and has a personality. Plus, he totally calls Piper out on her crap like this….
“Well, I guess we can chitchat about all the common interests we probably don’t have.” I’m trying for playful and coming off all wrong. I used to be better at this, I think.
He laughs anyway. “Well, I’m not sure how you could know since you’ve never asked about my intersts.”
Point to Nick for rolling with the punches. He smiles and it warms me all over.
“You’re right. What are you interested in, Nick?”
“You, for starters.” His smirk makes him look like trouble. It also renders me incapable of speech.
Outside of the characters and the budding relationship between Piper and Nick, there is a great story and mystery around who is sending the messages to Piper as well as who owns the notebook she found. As the story moves forward, we learn more about it all and our eyes are opened right alongside Piper’s.
If you are looking for a great story with a bit of mystery, some action, and some swoony parts, I recommend you check this one out. I was unable to put it down and despite guessing who was behind the text messages, I still found myself unable to put the book down. Definitely check this one out when you can!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy!
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