Andrea Contos: "Throwaway Girls" (ARC Review)

Title: Throwaway Girls [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Andrea Contos [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Thriller/Mystery, Contemporary
Year: 2020
Age: 14+
Stars: 3.5/5
Pros: Tense and intense. Doesn't employ the classic "mean girls" trope all too often included in the YA thriller package.
Cons: Requires some suspension of disbelief, especially when it comes to the lack of consequences for the final showdown (that doesn't seem to impact the characters much, by the way).
WARNING! Killings/dead characters. Underage drinking, smoking and drug use.
Will appeal to: Those who are looking for a fresh approach to teen thrillers.

Blurb: Caroline Lawson is three months away from graduation day. That's when she'll finally escape her rigid prep school and the parents who thought they could convert her to being straight. Until then, Caroline is keeping her head down, pretending to be the perfect student even though she is heartbroken over the girlfriend who left for California. But when her best friend Madison disappears, Caroline feels compelled to get involved in the investigation. Caroline has some uncomfortable secrets about the hours before Madison disappeared, but they're nothing compared to the secrets Madison has been hiding. And why does Mr. McCormack, their teacher, seem to know so much about them? It's only when Caroline discovers other missing girls that she begins to close in on the truth. Unlike Madison, the other girls are from the wrong side of the tracks. Unlike Madison's, their disappearances haven't received much attention. Caroline is determined to find out what happened to them and why no one seems to notice. But as every new discovery leads Caroline closer to the connection between these girls and Madison, she faces an unsettling truth. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: this title was up for grabs on NetGalley (in the Read Now section). Thanks to Kids Can Press for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

TOGETHER WE STAND

I'm always on the lookout for a good YA thriller that doesn't employ the usual "all against all" or "you can't trust literally anybody" plot device, and even more than that, the old "mean girls" trope. For some reason, it seems that, in this genre, catty classmates and petty fights are a must - and of course, there's nothing wrong with them if you like that kind of narrative, but I don't enjoy it at all. Throwaway Girls sounded like the happy exception to the above rules, and I'm happy to report it delivered - though some late mistrust between friends ensued, and painful secrets were uncovered along the way...but without any of them, there would likely be no mystery at all 🤷‍♀️. It was refreshing how certain secondary and even minor characters were able to take on a real supporting role, though I'm not saying that none of them had ulterior motives. It was especially refreshing that girls were sticking for each other - at least some of them - and that, despite its focus being the disappearance of a privileged white girl, the story also brought to the forefront the "invisible ones" most people give up on (though, to be honest, at first they were mostly instrumental in finding Caroline's friend - but she ended up genuinely caring for them). [...]

Kate Harrison: "Soul Storm"

Title: Soul Storm [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Soul Beach (3rd of 3 books)
Author: Kate Harrison [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Afterlife, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2013
Age: 12+
Stars: 1.5
Pros: As with Book 1 & 2, peculiar, potentially killer idea. Fancy a colourful, exotic setting? you get 130 pages of that. A slowly developing love story? check. Sweet sibling episode toward the end.
Cons: Again, execution of said peculiar, potentially killer idea ends up being stretched beyond believability. Also, you get a few loose ends, convenient incidents and implausible demeanors.
Will appeal to: Hardcore romantics who also happen to be ardent supporters of social networks and virtual reality.

Blurb: Someone is stalking Alice Forster. She's sure it's her sister's murderer, but her parents think she's cracking under the stress of Meggie's death. Only in the virtual world of Soul Beach - an online paradise for the young, the beautiful and the dead - can Alice feel truly free. But there's trouble in paradise...Clouds are gathering. A storm is brewing. The killer is about to strike. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: After the slight improvement in Book 2, I was hoping that a trend was set, and that I would like this final installment more - despite the two lovebirds on the cover (you know me and romance, right?). Alas, by any means, no. And it's not even the lovebirds' fault.
I've debated with myself if I was being disappointed because of my age. If this series simply was more juvenile than I could bear. If I was being harsh on it because I had stuck my nose in the wrong place, and now I was blaming the books for that instead of me. But honestly, I'm not convinced it's the case. And I would do a disservice to my younger mates if I thought so. The main problems I have with this series are that 1) in many respects, it's too simplistic and 2) it tries too hard to weave supernaturality with reality, and it ultimately fails. I can suspend disbelief with the best of them, but you have to give me something to hold on to. I can overlook small plot holes, but you have to tie all the major knots together in the end. Which is not the case here.
The book starts off right. Alice's family seems normal again; she's getting her driving license, and looking forward to what the future has in store for her. Freeing her sister is still her top priority, also because she's convinced that Meggie's killer is after her too - but apparently, she's not obsessing over Soul Beach like she used to. She even admits to herself that - maybe - Danny was right and they're going nowhere. Wow, brilliant deduction.
Alice grows more and more certain that she knows who her stalker (and Meggie's killer) is - but while she's concocting a strategy to uncover the truth, the killer plays a trick on her, and her family is convinced she has finally lost it. (Now, I have issues with this part...but then again, I'm not a parent). So Alice has only a choice left...to confide in Lewis. Which is problematic, because he's a rational young man, and what she wants him to believe is totally off the wall. In the meantime, something horrible happens to the Beach. Whose fault is that? and can Alice get both Danny and Meggie back? 
Now, telling you what doesn't work with this last installment might end up in a huge, gigantic spoiler. Let's try to, anyway...(warning: long post coming). [...]

Kate Harrison: "Soul Fire"

Title: Soul Fire [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Soul Beach (2nd of 3 books)
Author: Kate Harrison [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Afterlife, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2012
Age: 12+
Stars: 2.5/5
Pros: As with Book 1, peculiar, potentially killer idea. Book 2 benefits from being more rooted in reality though. Also, there's more action and more mystery.
Cons: As in Book 1, execution of said peculiar, potentially killer idea ends up being stretched beyond believability. Also, some things don't add up.
WARNING! Some underage drinking.
Will appeal to: Hardcore romantics who also happen to be ardent supporters of social networks and virtual reality.

Blurb: Alice Forster regularly talks with her dead sister, Meggie, in the virtual world of Soul Beach - an online paradise where dead teenagers are held in limbo. Alice has learned that if she can solve the mystery of someone's death in the real world, then that person is released from the Beach. Meggie needs Alice to solve her murder so she can be free, but as Alice is getting closer to discovering the murderer, the murderer is getting closer to Alice! (Amazon excerpt)

Review: The second installment in the series is more focused on Alice's search for Meggie's killer - and on her attempt at freeing Javier from the Beach. Surprisingly enough, this makes for a better book in my opinion. Or maybe not so surprisingly, since 1) I wasn't able to suspend my disbelief at the next level of experience that Alice was granted when on the Beach (see end of Book 1); and 2) her love story with a dead guy really turned me off, so I was happy to have other things on my hands ;). A statement like "Danny isn't the first boy I kissed, but this is the real thing" ends up being unintentionally comic, in her predicament. 
The book opens a few months after its predecessor, and almost a year after Meggie's death-day (which, coincidentally, is also the day Alice will turn 17). A couple of major things happen...the main suspect for Meggie's murder appears on the Beach, and a website called Burning Truths starts campaigning for his innocence, claiming that he didn't commit suicide out of guilt, like most people (and the police) think. Also, Alice's mother, fed up by her Internet addiction (though she still doesn't know what her daughter does on there...), ban her from going online. Just a couple of remarks here. 1) Alice's parents realised that she has been spending an awful lot of time on the net, but apparently, they never actually walked up on her talking with the dead kids in all those months...2) In Book 1, Alice's mother was spending the whole weekends online herself, logged into a site for mourning relatives...so her attitude sounds a bit out of character now. Also, I found both Alice's parents a bit dysfunctional (especially her mother). They grieve, they leave the house giggling for a restaurant dinner; they (well, the mother) are big on Alice coming to terms with what happens when the supposed killer is found dead, they (well, the mother again) don't even leave their bedroom the day after... [...]

Kate Harrison: "Soul Beach"

Title: Soul Beach [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Soul Beach (1st of 3 books)
Author: Kate Harrison [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Afterlife, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2011
Age: 12+
Stars: 2/5
Pros: Peculiar, potentially killer idea...
Cons: ...whose execution ends up being stretched beyond believability though. Also, lead may generate mixed feelings.
WARNING! Some underage drinking. Sex on the Beach is mentioned.
Will appeal to: Hardcore romantics who also happen to be ardent supporters of social networks and virtual reality.

Blurb: When Alice Forster receives an email from her dead sister she assumes it must be a sick practical joke. Then an invitation arrives to the virtual world of Soul Beach, an idyllic online paradise of sun, sea and sand where Alice can finally talk to her sister again - and discover a new world of friendships, secrets and maybe even love...But why is Soul Beach only inhabited by the young, the beautiful and the dead? Who really murdered Megan Forster? And could Alice be next? (Amazon excerpt)

Review: I had high expectations for this one. (Original take on) afterlife novel? Check. Murder mystery? Check. Just my kind of stuff. So I decided to dismiss the tendentially cheesy covers as insignificant (also because, based on the cover only, I wouldn't have read that gem called Sweethearts by Sara Zarr). In addiction to that, being my usual have-to-read-the-complete-series-together-or-nothing self, I waited for the last installment to come out and bought the whole package without a second thought. Which, for someone who's always refining her TBR list, was proof of an unwavering commitment. After all, the Goodreads reviews were highly favourable, and the pet peeves someone occasionally mentioned weren't supposed to mean much to me.
Well, before I account for my disappointment, I just mean to point it out that this book is narrated by Alice, the dead girl's sister, but also gets the odd chapter where the unknown villain speaks. The first one of which I read on Amazon, and it made me think the book was better executed than it would have seemed to me later.
OK, the first problem I encountered was the massive amount of acronyms. I had to look most of them up on an online dictionary, but honestly, that wasn't my main concern (also, it's not Mrs. Harrison's fault that I'm Italian, and thus not familiar with them). It's just that I had never come across a book that spotted all those many. Around 20 of them or more in a 256 (small-size) page novel - too many, really. Not the biggest of deals, but still.
Then, there was Alice. At first I sympathized with her predicament - on one hand, Megan's tragic death had obviously struck her hard; on the other, finding that she could still talk to her via an exclusive website/social network for dead kids was of course a startling discovery, and having to live a double life because of that was distressing. But when she began to act like her own life was rubbish and the Beach was her reality of choice - even hinting at the supposed appeal of being dead herself in order to be reunited with her sister - she lost me. Also, do you need to have a boyfriend in order to feel compelled to apply make-up or (even) comb your hair? Is this the message Soul Beach passes to young girls? That if you're grieving but dating someone in the meantime, you have to make an effort to look decent, while otherwise it's acceptable not to? Because no one - from Alice's parents to her best friend Cara - really questions that. Of course, Cara tries her utmost in order to help Alice revert to her usual self...but never says anything about her going around like a crumpled bag - which, apparently, is the case. [...]

Diane Hoh: "Funhouse"

Title: Funhouse [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Diane Hoh [Goodreads]
Genres: Thriller/Mystery
Year: 1990
Age: 12+
Stars: 2/5
Pros: Clean, short book - an easy introduction to the genre for young, reluctant readers. No graphic descriptions...but see below.
Cons: Lacks substance. Requires suspension of disbelief on many levels.
WARNING! The outcome of the first "incident" might upset some youngsters.
Will appeal to: Those who are new to thrillers and mysteries.

Blurb: When the Devil's Elbow roller coaster goes off track, killing one teenager and maiming two others, everyone thinks it's just an accident...except Tess. She saw someone tampering with the track. Then another "accident" occurs in the Funhouse and Tess may have been the intended victim. (Goodreads. Forget the Amazon blurb...it gives you a false impression)

Review: Sort-of-disclaimer: I read the Italian translation of this book, so I can't really judge the writing style. Also, I don't know if any parts of this novel have been cut off in my version. 
So, I bought this book a while ago because...who doesn't love funhouses? Also, the blurb sounded promising. What I got, though, was a simplistic tale, a typical '90s product I guess, because YA has drastically improved since then (despite instalove, love triangles, abundance of vampires/creatures and recurring themes derivative plots doing their best to destroy the genre...). Mind you, I should probably judge Funhouse as a child of its time, and it would likely rate much better if I did - but I can't. It's an OK book, nothing wack, but nothing that good either.
Tess is a teen with a problematic family - and here comes the first issue I have with this book, because it all seems a bit overdone. Her mother died when she was 9; her father remarried 4 years after; now his second wife Shelley has recently left him, and Tess is living with said stepmother because her father has very little interest in her - while Tess' brother, Guy Joe, decided to stay with his father despite not even liking him, because he's "his real parent" at least. Also, Shelley decides to go on a long vacation with a friend, carelessly leaving Tess alone in their isolated flat. Talk about bad parenting. Not to mention that Tess and Guy Joe's relationship can only be described as dry.
Tess' friends are fairly typical, and some of them don't even get enough screentime for us to really get to know them. What's worse, they can't seem to give Tess the benefit of the doubt when the roller coaster "incident" happens and she thinks she may have seen someone tampering with it. The police is even less willing to give Tess any credit, which is short-sighted to say the least. (...And where are the C.S.I. anyway?...). Especially since further "incidents" happen after the first one. But of course, the heroine must remain isolated and an easy prey for the villain (see also: stepmother going on vacation). [...]