"As long as something was a mystery, there was still the potential for amazement. Maybe that's where I went wrong before. Some riddles weren't meant to be solved."

This book is really something else, and I don't think I mean that as a compliment. The story has a lot of potential to go in so many different directions and ultimately I found myself underwhelmed and disappointed that there wasn't a more to this. This book also tried to deal with really serious content, but I can't help but feel that it was handled very poorly.

This book gives up all the vibes of being some thrilling tale about a missing girl, Lizzie, and instead it's about some self-centered girl, Hawthorne, who is obsessed with the Lizzie for reasons that are never really explained to the reader.

Spoiler

Even when it is later revealed that Lizzie committed suicide the story focuses on Hawthorne who had no real connection to Lizzie at all. It just made no sense to me that even with that realization that the story still talks about Hawthorne? It felt like the author used a messy plot to have some big dramatic moment where she could talk about even the happiest people can be depressed. Or like she just wanted to end the """"investigation""" and tossed Lizzie's death in here to keep the plot moving. Either way it was handled very sloppily, and did not fit in with the tone of the rest of the story.

This should be a story about Lizzie who is missing but ends up being all about Hawthorne who is rude, ridiculous, and so self absorbed that it was actually frustrating.

I keep trying to explain my issues with this book but end up going off on rants that take me back to the idea that this book had a lot of potential and focused on all of the wrong things. Basically it was a huge disappointment. The only redeeming qualities were Vernon, Sundog and Conner (who absolutely deserved better).