With Malice
For fans of We Were Liars and The Girl on the Train comes a chilling, addictive psychological thriller about a teenage girl who cannot remember the last six weeks of her life. Eighteen-year-old Jill Charron's senior trip to Italy was supposed to be the adventure of a lifetime. And then the accident happened. Waking up in a hospital room, her leg in a cast, stitches in her face, and a big blank canvas where the last 6 weeks should be, Jill comes to discover she was involved in a fatal accident in her travels abroad. She was jetted home by her affluent father in order to receive quality care. Care that includes a lawyer. And a press team. Because maybe the accident...wasn't an accident. Wondering not just what happened but what she did, Jill tries to piece together the events of the past six weeks before she loses her thin hold on her once-perfect life.
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Community Reviews
I received this book for free from The Publicist in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
I've seen a lot of love around the community for With Malice, which added to my excitement to read it. I'm a mystery girl, so I had high hopes for it as a whole. Sadly, the ending had me throwing ALL THE THINGS.
From the first page, I was sucked into the book. Eileen's writing is engaging, smooth and hooks you from the start. I love how the story was written and pieced together; from Jill's POV after an accident, as well as police interview transcripts, emails, blog posts and the like. It paints the picture nicely but leaves you with a nagging feeling that you are missing something. The picture that Jill paints is vastly different than the one that is painted around her, so it really makes you think.
What I find most in YA mystery/thrillers is a lack of connection to the characters. Majority of thrillers are for me, plot driven, and this never really becomes an issue. However, it was a small issue with me in With Malice. It could be because Jill is such an unreliable narrator, or because we don't see her before the accident, but something was just not RIGHT. I didn't believe a word she said; I didn't believe a word everyone ELSE said. And maybe that's the point, but I don't know.
Now, as the pieces of the puzzle start filling in, we start to see what happened between the two girls before the accident during their trip. What bothered me the most was how anticlimactic it all was. We have this HUGE build up, about 310 pages, and then BAM! I was... just floored and literally said out loud, THAT'S IT?
While I enjoyed the build up, the back and forth keep me guessing on the WHY not the WHO, the ending fell flat and left me disappointed. Still, I recommend With Malice if you are new to the genre, but not for seasoned mystery/thriller readers.
I've seen a lot of love around the community for With Malice, which added to my excitement to read it. I'm a mystery girl, so I had high hopes for it as a whole. Sadly, the ending had me throwing ALL THE THINGS.
From the first page, I was sucked into the book. Eileen's writing is engaging, smooth and hooks you from the start. I love how the story was written and pieced together; from Jill's POV after an accident, as well as police interview transcripts, emails, blog posts and the like. It paints the picture nicely but leaves you with a nagging feeling that you are missing something. The picture that Jill paints is vastly different than the one that is painted around her, so it really makes you think.
What I find most in YA mystery/thrillers is a lack of connection to the characters. Majority of thrillers are for me, plot driven, and this never really becomes an issue. However, it was a small issue with me in With Malice. It could be because Jill is such an unreliable narrator, or because we don't see her before the accident, but something was just not RIGHT. I didn't believe a word she said; I didn't believe a word everyone ELSE said. And maybe that's the point, but I don't know.
Now, as the pieces of the puzzle start filling in, we start to see what happened between the two girls before the accident during their trip. What bothered me the most was how anticlimactic it all was. We have this HUGE build up, about 310 pages, and then BAM! I was... just floored and literally said out loud, THAT'S IT?
While I enjoyed the build up, the back and forth keep me guessing on the WHY not the WHO, the ending fell flat and left me disappointed. Still, I recommend With Malice if you are new to the genre, but not for seasoned mystery/thriller readers.
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