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popthebutterfly 's review for:

Killing Time by Brenna Ehrlich
3.0
dark emotional slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Killing Time

Author: Brenna Ehrlich

Book Series: Standalone

Rating: 3/5

Recommended For...: young adult readers, mystery books, thriller reads, true crime like

Publication Date: March 8, 2022

Genre: YA MysteryThriller

Age Relevance: 17+ (death, animal death, language, sexism, gore, violence, stalking, sexual content, alcohol consumption, grief)

Explanation of Above: There is death and murder in this book and the book discusses a lot of it. There is one particular scene where an animal’s death is graphically described and it’s off-putting. There is some sexism and stalking shown in the book, as well as some briefly mentioned sexual content related to sex offenders and sexting. There is gore and violence in the book and some alcohol consumption. There is also grief shown in the book.

Publisher: Inkyard Press

Pages: 336

Synopsis: Summer in Ferry, Connecticut, has always meant long, lazy days at the beach and wild nights partying in the abandoned mansions on the edge of town. Until now, that is.

Natalie Temple, who’s never been one for beaches or parties in the first place, is reeling from the murder of her favorite teacher, and there’s no way this true-crime-obsessed girl is going to sit back and let the rumor mill churn out lie after lie—even if she has to hide her investigation from her disapproving mom and team up with the new boy in town…

But the more Natalie uncovers, the more she realizes some secrets were never meant to be told.

Review: For the most part this was an ok book. I really liked the premise and it seemed to be a good book at first. The book did good to show the two separate cases and present them well. The book also had me intrigued with the podcast angle.

However, I felt like the book was just bad. It had a lot of promise, which is why it’s a 3/5 and why I kept reading it instead of DNFing it, but I really did not like the book. The book has a back and forth between the past and the present and in a couple of chapters I noticed that sometimes we slipped into the past while we were in the present chapters, but overall the format was confusing and I didn’t really like having two separate stories going on at once. I felt like the characters, aside from the side characters, weren’t well developed and the world building was non-existent. I also felt like the pacing was just all over the place. I also very much disliked the animal gore that was shown in the book.

Verdict: It was not for me.