REVIEW 〰️ WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT 〰️ BY DEANNA CAMERON 〰️ SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 〰️ WATTPAD BOOKS 〰️⭐️⭐️⭐️
TRIGGER WARNING: SEXUAL ASSAULT

A boy is dead and only two girls know why— the killer and her little sister. ▪️

One of the things I really liked about this book, which someone pointed out in the author’s insta takeover of @wattpad’s stories today, was that this was more a “whydunit” than a “whodunit”. We know from the very beginning who killed Griffin Tomlinson, but it seems like no one really knows why. It’s a fairly straightforward answer after a few pages but things get a bit more complicated as the story progresses. I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll just talk about how I felt about the book. ▪️

▪️ A couple of the scenes seemed to not quite translate on page. For example, near the end, I didn’t realize where we were and it threw me off when it was mentioned. It felt a bit jumpy. It may have had to with my own reading ability right now, but a few things just didn’t click.

▪️I felt like some things dragged just a little bit. I know it was about growth and a lot of that isn’t as “juicy” as parts of the book, but it felt like some of it was repeating.

▪️ LITTLE SPOILER BUT I THINK IT’S IMPORTANT: As this book contains sexual assault, I thought it was important to either write and explain the whole thing or fade to black completely. There were a few times after the initial scene where I kept thinking, “wait, did he full on rape her?” Everything he did was disgusting, it’s true, but I kept wondering what the extent was. It was cleared up later, but I would have liked not to wonder.

▪️ I really loved the last couple of chapters of this book. I felt like they explained everything and they felt very fleshed out and real. ▪️

I have read a lot of books on this subject matter and it was a good book. I would definitely read another from this author in the future. I just wish things were a little bit more defined. ▪️

#Netgalley provided this book in exchange for an honest review.