be careful what you wish for

Author : Chris Whitaker
Title : All The Wicked Girls
Published : 24/08/2017
Pages : 448
Format : Kindle
Publisher : Zaffre

     Everyone loves Summer Ryan. A model student and musical prodigy, she's a ray of light in the struggling small town of Grace, Alabama - especially compared to her troubled sister, Raine. Then Summer vanishes. Raine throws herself into the investigation, aided by a most unlikely ally, but the closer she gets to the truth, the more dangerous her search becomes. And perhaps there was always more to Summer than met the eye . .

     Going in to this book I was unfamiliar with the authors previous work. Tales set in Alabama all ways peek my interest as I spent a few week there way back in the day. It seems like the perfect setting for a crime story. I'm fairly sure if you mention it to any one they will have an imagine appear in their minds. Over the past few months I have come to have a real apparition for the mixing of Y.A novels and Crime, Mystery. I think it's a combination that works well together. So to the book a hand.

 

     Raine may not be the biggest or bright student unlike her sister but that doesn't mean she's not will to fight. Through out the book we see her bravery and strength of will shine through. Not content with the progress others in her life make in trying to solve the mystery of her sister disappearance she takes on the challenge her self. The bond she shows for her sister never wavers as she will go to hell and back to find out what happened. Even if she may not like what she comes to learn.  This is not to say that the other characters the other gives us a lacking in any way. He has amassed a selection of people for us to become engaged with. From small town sheriffs to the local preacher they all bring this story jumping off the page. You will feel like you could walk in to a town very much like this and not feel lost. Along the way she get help from to fellow school friends Noah and Purv. There interactions play well and believable for a small band of teenagers trying to face the darker side of the world they live in.

 

     Whitaker delivers an amazing piece of fiction to us. I found my self getting lost in the feel of this town. Which is not to say that he doesn't bring a dark and foreboding plot to cling to your bones. The addition of the satanic elements twist there way in to the story. Shadowing true events from the eighties in America. When a fever pitch swept the nation although nothing was ever really proven to be true and some where based on regression therapy also prove to be hokum. This was also some what of an odd one I found my self at times getting lost in his descriptions of small town Alabama. With it's hot lazy days and peacefully nights only to be ripped back in to one of the most disturbing story's I've read this year. The author gives us a book dripping with atmosphere and disturbing twist and turns leading us to our final destination.  a lot takes place between the 448 pages of this book and I had to keep my mind in place to keep track of the comings and goings of all those involved. That's is not to say this is a bad thing some times we need a book like this one to get the old grey cells going. In some ways it's hard to review this book with so much going on I would be hard pushed to not spoil it for those who are about to read it. So with that in mind I shan't.

 

     This was a book I came to admire greatly. It's ability to get inside you head is one that has out shone many in its genres. In all likely hood I will be checking out his previous book in the months to come and look forward to what he may deliver in the future.