Vincent Ralph

Dead Fake is the first book in a planned trilogy revolving around a town suffering from a past history of brutality with several 'slasher' episodes in its past. The story features Ava, a teenager whose own family suffers with a notorious past, one that Ava is not sure she is in complete agreement. I really enjoyed this book, enjoyed the characters even though they could have used a bit more character development, and thought the ending set up the second book quite well.

I really liked Ava show more as a main character and enjoyed her character development as she faced new trials and tribulations with a possible new serial killer in town, one linked to her family's past. She is a bit of a loner due to her family's history, but has a solid friend group to help support her when events start spiraling out of control. Having taught high school for many years, I did think the cliques and the groups were realistic, and enjoyed the different dynamics that came into play as new classmates and characters were introduced. The way the author introduced the new characters also fed into the plot as it created tension and suspicion within the cliques and towards each other heightening the fear that was slowly spreading through the school community. Ava had to endure a lot of gossip and suspicion herself when events started happening and I have to give her credit for being brave and continuing to keep her head high as it would not have been easy.

The plot moved along rather quickly, and the author did a great job keeping the tension at a high level throughout the book. Because Ava's family has a dark past, there was this atmosphere that surrounded them all of the time, almost one of urgency so people didn't start turning on them. The new app situation in this book was kind of cool and I did wonder if I would have swiped it myself to see what my own situation would have been. I would like to think I wouldn't have, but as a teenager I hate to say it, but I probably would have considering my love of horror and mystery. The ending to this book was satisfying even if I figured it out. Definitely a lot of themes to explore in this book as well, trauma, friendship, loyalty, suspicion, death, lying, cheating, family, and so on.

Verdict
Dead Fake is one of those books that I can't really explain very well why I liked it, but it just resonated with me. It wasn't that it was wholly original or that I didn't guess the killer because I did, but I just empathized with Ava and her situation and liked how she had this strong moral code. Maybe it's because she didn't feel entitled to know everything whenever the police were involved, tried to stay out of dangerous situations, and was very loyal to her friends. The author did manage to create a slasher vibe with the story and the town and it just seemed to work. show less

This was a pleasant surprise, and not at all what I expected. I don't often have high hopes for YA slasher stories, because it's hard to get away with being descriptive and gory, which are some of the best parts of a slasher, when you're writing for a younger audience. I enjoyed this so much, I read it in one sitting.

This was a unique premise, I personally haven't read any mysteries / horrors / slashers about AI deep fake murders before. The violence and deaths were all written well, not show more overly gory or graphic, but they still left you unnerved. It helps that fake AI scams, murders, photos, etc. are becoming more prevalent and more of an issue in society today, which made the premise even scarier.

This was the first book I've read in ages where I never suspected the killer, not once. I would have probably guessed 8+ other characters before even thinking of this person, and I loved that surprise.

I do think the ending was a bit abrupt and we could have used more time to flesh out finding out who the killer is and the aftermath, but that's my only minor complaint. show less

One aspect of a good book is what I call 'pull power', the ability to grab you during the first few pages and maintain its hold until you resurface much later, see what page you're on and go "How in heck?!?" This is one of them. I started reading it when I crawled into bed and resurfaced at page 300. It combines mystery, the contemporary power of social media and how a very determined teen uses her grief and accompanying anger to flush out the serial killer whose first victim was her mom. show more Great tension and red herrings make is very satisfying. I very much look forward to more from this author. show less

Tom's blended family has just moved into their dream home, and Tom is still adjusting to...everything. Jay, his stepdad, seems like a genuinely nice guy, but his mom was in enough abusive relationships prior to him that part of Tom still expects things to fall apart if he gets too invested. He struggles with anxiety and OCD, and when he notices the odd little holes outside his and his stepsister's doors, everyone else dismisses his worries as probably nothing. But he swears they look like show more drill holes for locks. But they're on the outsides of the doors, so who were they meant to lock in? What happened in this house before Tom and his family moved in?

He gets a chance to start answering his questions when he meets Amy, a new classmate of his and a member of the family that just moved in across the street. Amazingly, Amy and her family were the ones who lived in Tom's house prior to them moving in - who moves out of a place only to move into another one right across the street? Granted, it's a bigger house, but Tom can't stop himself from digging for info, and it doesn't hurt that something in Amy reminds him of himself, sad and kind of broken. However, Amy keeps telling him that she's fine and that nothing happened in the house. Could he be seeing shadows that only exist in his own mind?

Despite the author's efforts to put doubts in reader's minds about whether Tom's own trauma was leading him to see monsters where none existed, I almost never expected anything other than the revelation of a giant secret on the part of Amy and/or her family. It was more of a question of what was being hidden, and each detail that was revealed ruined my past theories. I finally ended up with a reasonably decent idea that almost fit all of the clues - it turns out that I was partly right, but things were more messed up than even I guessed.

I really enjoyed the way the author built up the unsettling atmosphere and gradually revealed clues. For those who find themselves getting impatient, don't worry, you don't have to wait until the end of the book before finding out what's going on - the truth gets revealed in Part 3, starting on page 215. That might seem early, but there's more to this than just figuring out what's going on.

This is marketed as a YA thriller, but the thought occurred to me that it didn't read like it was written as a YA thriller, although I think teens could definitely still enjoy it. Despite the teen protagonists, it struck me as being more of a thriller aimed at adults. Everything it seemed like the author was trying to say between the lines was meant for adults - the responsibility that adults have in supporting and protecting kids and teens, keeping an eye out for cries for help that kids and teens might not have the words or power to verbalize, etc.

I wouldn't say the anxiety and OCD rep was necessarily bad, but to me it read more like a device designed to put doubt in reader's minds rather than good and nuanced mental illness representation.

Overall, I really enjoyed this, and I highly recommend that, when you get to Part 3, you make sure you have a large enough block of time set aside to read the rest of the book in one go. I couldn't put it down once I got to that point. That said, some of the stuff at the end is a little farfetched. It's kind of amazing that the characters let things get so bad before even attempting to turn things around, and one character's inaction in particular bothered me a lot.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less