I think I've just about learned my lesson concerning buying books on Book Outlet without checking reviews first. Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE Book Outlet, but I am coming to the realization that I need to be a little more selective, even when the books are so heavily discounted.
Thorn Abbey caught my eye because of the cover. So pretty. The synopsis also sounded interesting: MC Tess goes to private school where she starts dating a boy whose girlfriend drowned the year before and then creepy things begin to happen to make Tess think that the girlfriend may be haunting the place. I love a good ghost story, so I was hoping this wouldn't disappoint.
Unfortunately, all this book DID was disappoint.

What I liked:
1. The length:
The book was short. It is less than 300 pages, the type is large, and some of the chapters are very short, which makes this book speed by. I read it in just a couple of hours.
2. The cover:
Such a pretty cover. It definitely gave me that eerie ghost-story vibe I was looking for.

What I didn't like:
1. Tess:
What an insufferable character. This girl is dumber than a box of hair. First of all, her immediate obsession with Max was creepy, bordering on stalkery. She sees him in a class where he doesn't even speak to her and she leaves the class head over heels because he looked up at her and caught her staring at him. I wish I was joking. That was all it took for her to fall for him. After that, she follows him around, inserting herself into his life. All she thinks about is the two of them being together and their 'connection', which is almost entirely made up in her head. The entire basis of their relationship comes from one conversation where he corrects her as she's talking about constellations (something she is supposedly very knowledgeable about). He corrects her, and she is struck by their amazing similarities. SMDH.
This creepy stalker tendency continues as Tess decides that she just has to know everything about Max's dead girlfriend, Becca. She cyber-stalks her and goes through her new roommates belongings (because of course she just happens to be rooming with Becca's ex-roommate...naturally). She even goes through an old diary that belonged to Becca, which is a good thing because otherwise this idiot never would've figured out the mystery.
Also, she has zero self esteem. Her new roommate Devon, along with Devon's stereotypical and one-dimensional posse of mean girls, treat each other like crap. They treat Tess even worse than that. But instead of telling them to go screw themselves, she meekly lets them bully and criticize her so she feels accepted into their little gang.
2. The slut shaming:
Oh my goodness. There is so much of this nonsense in this book, from every character. All of the mean girls call each other 'tramp', 'whore', 'bitch', etc. as some sort of term of endearment. It's not cute. The things they say to and about other people are even worse. Tess herself is very judgmental about the way her roommate dresses, referring to her clothes as hooker-wear at least once. Max talks about how Devon has slept with half the school as a way of explaining why she broke up with her boyfriend. It's rampant in this story.
3. The 'romance': As I said before, Tess is a creepy stalker. But apparently, that's okay with Max, because he finds her endearing, for some reason I just can't quite grasp. We are never shown any real connection between them and I never get the sense that he has super deep feelings about her. Most of their dialogue is very flat, as are their actions. We are *told* things, but never *shown* them. There are many times where Max kisses her 'passionately' and 'deeply', but that is all the description we get. One of these supposedly life-changing kisses happens after she's been sick as a dog for days. He comes to her room and they make out on her bed...while she is still recovering. I'm sorry, but the last thing I want to do when I'm sick is make out. Just...no. It is one of the most cliched and lukewarm romances I've ever read.
4. The 'mystery':
You may ask why I didn't DNF this book if I disliked so much about it. I ask myself that too, looking back. But to be honest, I was mildly intrigued by the ghost story. I wanted to know how it, and the mystery surrounding Becca's death, was going to play out. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in this as well. There are a few genuinely creepy moments throughout this book. Tess seeing someone's face in the television when it wasn't on, Devon talking to someone in the middle of the night who Tess couldn't see, etc. But these few truly creepy moments are overwhelmed by many more cliched moments that are so poorly-written that they are almost laughable.
The thing is, Tess is an idiot. I know that's been previously stated in this review, but frankly, it cannot be overstated. She is just so damn dumb. The moment she starts reading Becca's journal, I knew that 'M' wasn't Max. It was painfully obvious. I didn't know exactly who it was yet (I didn't remember Killian's last name began with an 'M') but as soon as they said his full name again a few chapters later I knew. And how long did it take for Tess-the-Wonder-Sleuth to figure it out? 92 Freaking Pages! And literally the ONLY reason she figures it out is because she is reading in Becca's journal again and Becca refers to him by his full nickname, while also referring to Max as 'Mx', when any other time she EVER refers to ANYONE it's only by their first initial. And it STILL takes her another paragraph of the journal before she actually puts the pieces together. So. Dumb.
The other big 'reveal', about Becca influencing and ultimately taking over Devon's body was something that was obvious to the reader since the beginning of the book. And maybe I could buy Tess not realizing what was going on if this story wasn't being told through her perspective in first-person. But it is. Throughout the story, she has several strange things happen to her that were paranormal in nature. But after each incident, she just kind of goes on with her life. She accepts any crazy explanation Devon gives her about her erratic behavior, and just ignores everything else. It's infuriating, because it feels like the author thinks her readers are as stupid as her characters. When you drop 'clues' that are as blatant and obvious as the clues she was dropping, you can't wait over a hundred pages to pay them off.
5. The ending and epilogue:
I actually thought it was kind of ballsy to kill off the love interest in the story. However, I felt absolutely no emotions about it. I didn't feel like I really knew Max as a character at all. The only thing I knew about him was how Tess saw him, and that was a completely idealized version of a perfect boyfriend. Because of that, I never bought their romance. So when he died, I was surprised, but not sad at all. It didn't help that this part was so rushed. It was like:
Oh no, he'd dead. Sad.
I was really sad, but my mom got me on some meds, and now I'm okay.
Oh, it's three months later...Summer vacation! And the mean girls are being nice to me!
Yawwwwwn. Then somehow, because reasons...Max is able to inhabit Franklin's body after Franklin dies? I don't get it. How the hell is that supposed to work? When Becca did it with Devon, I kind of accepted it because it was obvious that Becca had been haunting and influencing Devon for months and actually caused her death...but why was Max able to do the same thing to Franklin. If Franklin was going to die, and taking over people's dead bodies is apparently a thing that can be done in this world, why wouldn't Franklin just take his own body back over? I guess the same could be asked about Devon...I don't get it.

I know that this story was inspired by the novel (and later movie) 'Rebecca'. I haven't ever read the book or seen the movie, so I'm not sure if the body jumping thing is a plot point in the story and if it IS a part of it, if it's explained at all.

This book was bad. Just plain not good. The best thing I can say about it is that it had a lovely cover and it was a quick read. I will not be picking up future books by this author.