An interesting approach to a YA thriller that just didn't work out for me overall and came out feeling a bit average. The premise is good, but the execution was maybe a little too overthought.

The read was really well paced and had some excellent plot structure, but the writing and character interactions just felt like they were trying too hard. Several characters were really over the top and cringy while others were too cookie cutter. I will say she nailed the ending and there was some fantastic tension created throughout the plot. The final third of the book was intense.

There are a lot of serious topics presented and for the most part I felt they were handled well. It's a quick and decent read that would possibly read more realistic for the intended audience (I would place this at the older YA/younger NA set due to some graphic violence and sexual scenes). In my particular case, it felt like the author was holding the reader's hand and leading them through the story rather than letting the reader come to their own conclusions.

Along those same lines, the protagonist's guilt was really piled on and the adults in her life were a bit overly absent. It was stated several times how good they were as parents, but that didn't really show through the narrative. Her choices were often rather illogical and seemed to just be there to further the plot rather than feel believable.

The narrative itself was mildly predictable. There were a few decent twists and one stellar one. The attempts at a red herrings were well considered, but presented in a way that laid it on a bit thick, making them more obvious. Also...it resulted in some characters really coming off as serious red flags even though in the end it was clear that the author intended for them to be "good". I'd specify more, but it would result in several major spoilers.

All in all, this book shows excellent promise for the author. This is a debut novel and she does have the framework for a really good novel. This was by no means a bad book. A little tightening and maturing of the writing along with giving the reader's understanding a bit more credit should result in some intense thrillers to come from Sloan Harlow.