Lauren Myracle

When her best friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover the culprits in her small North Carolina town.

Shine

Jeannette Ordas

I liked this book, though I did have some issues with it. Lots of church stuff and talk about religion but once I realized I was reading a story set in the South, I could forgive all of that. A spunky little mystery where you can smell the culprit a mile away, but still a nice little read.

Stefanie  Uwah

This is gonna have to be 2.5 stars for me. I wanted to love it but it just didn't meet my expectations :(. But I do recommend that you read it!

Nicole Dykeman

This was amazing! I absolutely blew through it because I couldn't put it down. I always had questions about the characters and what was going on and the questions were all finally answered by the end of the book. Some characters I loved, some characters I hated, but all of them were very well-written! A fantastic read for anyone really, but especially if you're a mystery fan!

Amanda Kordeliski

I liked this book but it was different than I thought it was going to be. More of a whodunit mystery than a typical YA realistic fiction book. A candid look at poverty in a small hill town in North Carolina. Myracle does not pull any punches with her portrayal of abuse, neglect, bigotry and drug use in this small town.

Addison Degginger

Why I chose this book: This book is currently on Oklahoma’s High School Sequoyah Masterlist for 2014. I saw it at the library and was reminded of my New Year resolution to read more LGBTQ lit. I picked it up and finished it within a few days. While this easily is a book I could knock out in 24 hours, I had to stop and read other things because parts of it were so damn heartbreaking. 

3 Things You Need to Know About this Book:

1. This book is not for the faint of heart. While I knew that this book was centered around bigotry, I did not realize how dark this book would go. While the protagonist Cat searches for the attacker that put her best friend in the hospital, she personally deals with issues of sexual molestation and abuse that come back to haunt her. On top of all this, the town that Cat lives in is plagued by meth. Cat’s friends are either suspected of using it or dealing it. Either way, the story she unravels is heartbreaking, for not everything is what it seems.

"I loved everyone who said yes to the world and tried to make it better instead of worse, because so much in the world was ugly - and just about all the ugly parts were due to humans. I counted myself among those pitiful ranks. I didn't slam meth or get stinking drunk or go off and molest anyone, but that didn't let me off the hook. I hid in the shadows, but hiding had the power to hurt, too."

This book has been on my Kindle for several months - at least. I kept putting off reading it because of the difficult subject matter it dealt with. I hate reading about the worst in human beings. But, I finally decided to read it a few days ago. I finished it relatively quickly and have been thinking about how to rate/review it since the moment I finished. 

I didn't grow up in the south, but I did grow up in a very rural area in Pennsylvania. The description of rural America was spot on. (I'm generalizing here. I know not everyone who lives in the south or a rural area is a bigot.) Small towns all too often come with small minds. The setting was so-well written that I could almost identify it as home and I could believe something this truly awful potentially happening there. 

The characters were very complex. I identified with Cat straight off. Her dedication to finding out who attacked her friend and bringing them to justice was so very powerful and believable for me. If, god forbid, something like this happened to one of my friends, I think I would do exactly this. She obviously grappled with the bad things from her past and how she pulled away from her friends after what happened. I loved learning about Patrick throughout the book. He was a powerful character, though he was unconscious for the majority of the book. 

Ok, now the not-so-great things. I'll try not to give anything away. Cat confronting the meth dealer? Really? I can't imagine someone being that dumb. The big climax scene was borderline ridiculous to me. You could almost see it coming a mile away. The love story for Cat was absolutely unnecessary in my mind. The other relationships in the book were so powerful that it didn't need that added dimension. 

The thing that infuriated me beyond belief was how things were handled once the attacker's identity was revealed. I know, I know, it took care of itself in the end, but the forgiveness and acceptance was unbelievable to me. After committing actions so reprehensible, I believe it should have been made known. 

So, all in all, I really did appreciate this book. All that said, however, I think it will be a long time before I read another book about a subject quite this heavy.

Shine

Reviews