Friday, January 11, 2013

The One I Left Behind

The One I Left Behind, by Jennifer McMahon
Series? No
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Date: Jan 2, 2013
Source: free Advance Reader's Copy from the publisher via Shelf Awareness for my honest review.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
GoodReads | Author | Publisher

It's been years since I've read books in the mystery/suspense genre on a regular basis, but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It took me a while to finish, but that has nothing to do with the book itself and everything to do with having too many other things going on in my life right now! It was truly killing me to not be able to read this one quicker, and I found myself thinking about the story quite a lot, even when I wasn't reading it.

Typical to the genre, this is a book where clues are revealed slowly and, as a reader, you will likely suspect many different people before discovering the true identity of "Neptune," the notorious serial killer whose been at large since the summer of 1985. The main character, Reggie, is the daughter of Neptune's final victim whose body was never found all those years ago. The plot flips back and forth between the summer Reggie's mom was taken and the present when her mom mysteriously reappears, alive. Needless to say, things get very interesting from there.

For anyone you enjoys YA fiction, I think you'll especially enjoy McMahon's portrayal of Reggie and her friends as teenagers. Their relationships are complicated, they each have their share of demons and problems, and on top of all that, there is an allusion to something awful they were collectively responsible for. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who hasn't read it, but the combination of a murder mystery, a killer on the loose, and the tangled histories of the characters makes for a truly compelling read that I highly recommend.

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This book counts toward my reading goals for:
2013 ARC Reading Challenge
Embarrassment of Riches TBR Reading Challenge 2013

4 comments:

  1. I enjoy reading mystery/suspense novels but I never seem to read enough of them. Sometimes I am so picky about selecting new books to read by new authors, so after reading this review I think I will check this one out! Thanks for the review and a new mystery/suspense book I can try. I should really read those more.

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    1. Glad to help you find a new author - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. There are other books written by this author as well that I'm going to have to check out myself!

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  2. Sounds good! This is on my tbr; I just loved her "Dismantled".

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    1. This was the first I read by this author, so thanks for the recommendation. I would love to check out some of her earlier books.

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I'd love to hear what you think :)