Jessica Warman

Alice and Rachel are twins, monochorionic and monoamniotic twins. They share so close a bond that when one disappears the other feels, right away, that something is wrong and when she starts experiencing physical trauma that she can’t account for, it accelerates her desire to find out what’s happening to her sister.

A few chapters into Beautiful Lies, Jessica Warman throws in a little twist and I had to re-read the earlier chapters to see if there were flags that indicated what was going show more on. The narrative is written in first person and a little further into the story I realized that the narrator is unreliable. I was not prepared for the unraveling of the mystery that happened after!

I would like to elaborate, but it’s difficult to review this story because I don’t want to spoil any parts. I can say this though, there is an unreliable narrator, twins who look so identical that even their family can’t tell them apart and a mystery that kept me turning the pages well into the wee hours of the morning. The tale that Warman weaves is tangled and complex, I wasn’t sure what to trust and what to believe. The ending, what a fabulous ending!

I know that some might be frustrated with this book - mostly because of the unreliability of the narrator - however, I thought that it was brilliantly written and fully engrossing and I found the fact that I wasn’t certain about what to believe and what not to believe added another layer of mystery to the novel. Warman did a great job in keeping the mystery thrilling by dropping little hints, enough to keep you guessing but never enough to give it all away.

The story stayed with me long after I was finished; I was not prepared for the way it gripped me nor the way it ended.

[Review of ARC from BEA] show less

YES!! Go read this book!!

This book is definitely going to be on my end of year favorites list. This is just the type of Mystery/Thriller I like, and I'm kind of mad it wasn't shoved in my face earlier!!

The first thing that jumped out at me was the setting. This whole thing takes place in a town called Shelocta, which is a real town located about 15 miles from where I live. I always find it fun to read books that are set in Western PA-- it gives me an instant connection to the book. Also, show more this was set in the 90's!! The references weren't enough to put my 90's nostalgia into high gear, but it was cool to go back in time a little.

Then, there's the characters. Remy, the boy next door, was my fave. I don't know why I like the kinds of book boys that are aloof, but you know that if the m/c breaks through their outer shell they'll be adorable, but I do. Remy is the kind of character that is frustrating, but worth sticking with. Sam wasn't someone I super connected with, but the mystery was enough to keep me with her.

The Mystery: I wanted to know what happened to the sister. I wanted to know why in the hell someone would dress as Santa Claus on New Year's Eve. If Steven was supposedly innocent, I wanted to know how/why there would be 2 people dressed as Santa Claus after Christmas. There was so much grief and pain to wade through to get the heart of what happened, but once we got there, there were more answers than I was expecting.

Bonus: Mixed in are police interviews and excerpts from a true-crime book about the case. I love a good epistolary element to break things up & these ones added a lot to the book.

I gotta talk about that ending!!! I won't give any spoilers, but AHHHHH. This ending totally messed with my head and freaked me out. I don't usually sit around thinking someone is going to break into my house, but the night I finished this, I jumped at every creak and shadow.

OVERALL: A YA Mystery/Thriller!! This is just the kind of Mystery/Thriller I like-- very character driven, deals with issues beyond the actual mystery, deep, and twisted. I totally, 100% recommend to anyone looking to get lost in a good mystery.

My Blog:
Pink Polka Dot Books
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When I received this book at BEA, I first thought it was another book - I’m not sure why, it was a long day - so when I brought it home and read the back of it and realised that it wasn’t a fantasy novel I was a bit cautious. While I step outside of fantasy novels every once in awhile, it’s mostly on recommendations or because I’ve heard great buzz about it, so going with no buzz and no expectation I started to read Between.

I was blown away.

Jessica Warman spins the tale of a high show more schooler named Elizabeth. Liz is pretty, rich, popular, dating a popular boy at school and at the top of the high school social food chain. Liz is a runner. Liz has a secret. Liz is dead.

When Liz awakes to her death she finds that she cannot remember the events leading up to her body being found face down in the water near her parent’s boat.

The biggest thing that struck me about Between was how much I disliked Liz. Yet, I still wanted to hear what she had to say; this is a balance that I don’t often find in books where I dislike the protagonist. Jessica Warman kept the mystery alive long enough to see past Liz’s superficialness and realise that she was a living and hurting teenager just like the people she tormented in her life. Joining her in her death is Alex, a boy from her school who died the year before. In her life she would never be caught dead with him - death is indeed the great equalizer.

As their time together unfolds, Jessica paints a portrait of the life of Alex and Liz through Liz’s eyes. After a point I started to like Liz as a character. She is more complex than we are initially lead to believe and these complexities all tie into the path that leads to her death.

The more I read, the faster I wanted to get to the resolution, while, at the same time, not wanting it to end. The writing is gripping, and as the mystery slowly unraveled, the depth of the players are revealed as well. Yes, you might be able to figure it out before the big reveal, but it was the character development and the emotions that came bursting through the pages that was the most fascinating part of this novel. I could almost close my eyes and see high school again.

Once the story was over and the book was closed I still carried the characters around in my head. It shook me a bit, how easily life can be taken away, how delicate a world we live in and how much the things we think matter don’t matter at all when we die. Sobering, Between is a must-read. show less

Fascinating book, narrated by a dead girl! When Liz wakes up on her dad's yacht after her 18th birthday party, she realizes that no one can see or hear her: and that's her own dead body floating in the water by the boat. A boy appears who CAN see and hear her, and it's Alex, a classmate she barely knew who died months ago in a hit-and-run accident. Together the two of them experience her memories--she can close her eyes and re-experience the memory but as an outside observer--as Liz slowly show more begins to remember what happened to her. Was it an accident? Or did someone--one of her friends?--deliberately kill her? And how does she know Alex? Why is he the ghost who can talk to her? We get to follow along with Liz as she follows the police investigation of her death, and as she watches her friends grieve (or not) for her. A suspenseful story, with some plot twists, and lots of "teen drama" between the friends and Liz, and between Liz and her stepsister, as well as some bullying. Liz starts to realize just how shallow a person she was in life. A few "f" bombs puts this in older teen territory. show less