The Outliers
From the New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia comes a fast-paced teen series where one girl learns that in a world of intrigue, betrayal, and deeply buried secrets, it's vital to trust your instincts.
It all starts with a text: Please, Wylie, I need your help. Wylie hasn’t heard from Cassie in over a week, not since their last fight. But that doesn’t matter. Cassie’s in trouble, so Wylie decides to do what she has done so many times before: save her best friend from herself.
This time it’s different, though. Instead of telling Wylie where she is, Cassie sends cryptic clues. And instead of having Wylie come by herself, Jasper shows up saying Cassie sent him to help. Trusting the guy who sent Cassie off the rails doesn’t feel right, but Wylie has no choice but to ignore her gut instinct and go with him.
But figuring out where Cassie is goes from difficult to dangerous, fast. As Wylie and Jasper head farther and farther north into the dense woods of Maine, Wylie struggles to control her growing sense that something is really wrong. What isn’t Cassie telling them? And could finding her be only the beginning?
In this breakneck tale, New York Times bestselling author Kimberly McCreight brilliantly chronicles a fateful journey that begins with a single decision—and ends up changing everything.
- Missing Best Friend: Wylie’s best friend Cassie has vanished, leaving behind nothing but a string of cryptic, desperate texts.
- Forced Proximity: To find her, Wylie must team up with Jasper—the one person she’s sure she can’t trust.
- A Dangerous Road Trip: Their search for answers becomes a high-stakes journey deep into the woods of Maine, where they are not alone.
- Conspiracy Thriller: Finding Cassie is only the beginning, as her disappearance pulls Wylie into a terrifying web of secrets connected to her own family.
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Community Reviews
I didn’t really connect much with any of the characters, and since the pace is so quick, I’m not sure I felt I got a good picture of any of them (except maybe the narrator, Wylie). Wylie, in the beginning, is likeable and fragile, but I did have to suspend my disbelief a bit when she goes from being mildly agoraphobic to jumping into cars with strangers/etc. I realize that the driving force is supposed to be her need to save her friend Cassie from the inexplicable and nameless danger she’s in (a situation one might think is of her own doing, and so might feel a twinge less sympathetic to her plight)—but I guess I just didn’t quite see her growth as a character throughout the novel. It just seemed like she forgot about her fear about the outside and just kept going forward. I don’t feel it was adequately explained just by her memories of her mom convincing her she can do stuff based on the long, hard-established history she seemed to have with struggling with her issues.
Jasper, I liked but wanted to know more about. I suspect that he plays a larger role in future books.
But by the end, I think the plot just took a few too many turns and I was left feeling a bit unsatisfied with the explanations and not yet intrigued enough to want to take the leap into the next book. But just because it doesn’t float my boat, doesn’t mean it won’t float yours...
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