Book Review: The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:
Release Date:  June 11, 2013
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
224 Pages

“Take her out back and finish her off.”

She doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know where she is, or why. All she knows when she comes to in a ransacked cabin is that there are two men arguing over whether or not to kill her.

And that she must run.

In her riveting style, April Henry crafts a nail-biting thriller involving murder, identity theft, and biological warfare. Follow Cady and Ty (her accidental savior turned companion), as they race against the clock to stay alive.

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The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die starts off as this creepy thriller where you trust no one and question everything. Imagine waking up somewhere you don’t know with two people who you also don’t know discussing whether or not they should kill you. You’d be pretty freaked out, right? Oh, and what about seeing your fingernails not attached to your fingers? *shudders* I was instantly pulled in.

Who was this girl? Who were these people who held her? What information did she have? Why did they want that information? And most importantly, why did they want to kill her?

The story is revealed to us in a very smart way. Each chapter was fairly short and abrupt, all ending on a cliff hanger that all but guaranteed you would continue on. They reminded me of episodes of a crime drama honestly. It definitely kept up your frantic emotions to rival the MC’s.

But despite the good, there was also come bad. The characters themselves were just completely unbelievable to me and about halfway through, the books plot hit ridiculous. The situations our leads found themselves in were overdramatic and unrealistic and the characters were hard to relate to. For example: Ty. Now, I loved Ty, I really did. But he wasn’t real. Yes, there are people who help other people in need…but what Ty did, no teenage boy is going to do. And the parents, especially the mother, were really hard to swallow with how they reacted to the situations. 

So overall, even though it wasn’t what I wanted it to be, it did have a good writing technique. Kept me wanting to read, to find out what happened, even if I didn’t believe it when I got there. If you’re looking for a quick, fast moving book with a little bit of mystery, then you might enjoy this book as a fun little read.  

ARC Review: The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry

The blurb as seen on Goodreads:

Release Date: June 11, 2013

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

224 Pages

“Take her out back and finish her off.”

She doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know where she is, or why. All she knows when she comes to in a ransacked cabin is that there are two men arguing over whether or not to kill her.

And that she must run.

In her riveting style, April Henry crafts a nail-biting thriller involving murder, identity theft, and biological warfare. Follow Cady and Ty (her accidental savior turned companion), as they race against the clock to stay alive.

Goodreads.Twitter.Website.Facebook

Goodreads.Amazon.Barnes & Noble

I am not a big reader of mystery novels, but something about this book really piqued my interest. April Henry is one of the few young adult mystery authors that I've heard of, but until The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die, I'd never picked up any of her books. I've heard a lot of good things about Henry's previous books, so I'm not quite sure this was the best one to start with as I wasn't completely blown away.

The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die begins with our main character waking up to hear two men talking about killing her. She has no memory of who she is, what she's doing there or why this is happening to her. All she knows is she has to get out of there and fast. Her escape leads her into the arms of an surprising young man, who risks his own life to help her. Together they must discover the truth surrounding her situation and save those she loves most, before its too late.

This book started off excellently. The reader will immediately be pulled into the story because of mystery of the main character. That being said, the development of the characters was seriously lacking. Even after the novel was finished, it didn't feel like I knew and understood the main character. In fact, all of the characters felt very one-dimensional, even the antagonists, which was disappointing. None of the characters were well-formed which ultimately means they are forgettable, even for the author it seems because some of them just dropped off the face of the planet. (Where'd ya go, James?) Plus the relationships were so awkward… I mean, the behavior of the MC's mom was atrocious and pretty unbelievable. And what person would risk their life over and over for someone they don't know? That didn't fit at all. There were ways that relationship could've been handled that wouldn't seem so fake.

It's almost immediately obvious that this wasn't going to be a completely realistic story, but some of the twists made me raise a judgmental eyebrow. The setup of the story could've worked had the backgrounds of the characters been expanded and the twists not have been quite so condensed. The length was the main cause of the problems I had. The pace of the plot goes from zero to sixty in no time at all, which does the story no justice when it came to the story of the antagonists and their evil deeds. It really just seemed to get bizarre because the book takes a completely different turn than you'd expect. 

As for the things that I liked, the author's got a knack for suspense. It took all of my willpower not to skip forward to the end to find out the truth. Henry also has an excellent, descriptive prose. The fear the protagonist felt was almost palpable during much of the novel. That was a major plus. Henry's ability to project settings was fantastic as well. She's a great writer, really, she is. This novel just didn't show the full extent of her capabilities.

The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die really is a thrilling story. It just lacked the depth that it really needed. So while it's an entertaining read, it's tame compared to what it could've been. Even though I wasn't completely satisfied, I plan to read more of her work in the future. The story wasn't perfect, but the suspense and thrills were very much present and that's why I enjoyed the novel as much as I did. If you are looking for a pretty short mystery, with very little depth, it's a high probability that you will love The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher for my honest opinion and review.

Teaser Tuesday: The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die & Mortal Fire

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading!

To participate, all you have to do is:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can ad the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

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"Slowly, slowly, slowly I let the restroom door inch closed, careful it doesn't clunk and give me away. There's no place I can run."
Chapter 11, ARC Page 46
The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry

"'At the moment math is the only thing that excites you, so you're nosing around numbers as if numbers are life. But in two years you'll be telling me about some boy.'"

Chapter 2, ARC Page 31

Mortal Fire by Elizabeth Knox

What are you reading this week?

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