I rarely read YA thrillers but this got me with this 👇🏻

Best friends Syd, Rain, and Brie grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in the stifling California desert, desperately wishing for a way out.

In the end, each of them will escape—but not in the way they expect. One will do it by dying, another by lying, a third by taking the fall. A deadly fire is set two weeks before the end of their senior year of high school and nothing will ever be the same.

What specifically got me was the dying, lying and taking a fall part, SOLD! So I liked this one ok but didn’t love it, and I know I’m not the target audience here but I think even my younger self would’ve had some issues here. First it was a super slow burn, like very slow buildup and as much as I keep trying to have patience with these types of thrillers it just ends up annoying me, like get to the point already. But on the other hand I thought the writing was strong and the characters were well developed, as much as I can’t relate to a group of teenaged girls I felt like actual teenagers definitely would. There was also something mesmerizing about the atmosphere of this one as it’s set in a dry and super hot California desert town and the author had a lot to say about class and money issues. As far as plot goes this was decent for me, I did guess what would happen before but it was clever in its own right, just not very surprising for me. The ending is where it really lost me, I’m not a fan of open ended, leave things wide open things so I didn’t love that aspect. Overall this may work better for you if enjoy slow burns that you can really sink your teeth into.