"Lana used to know what was real.
That was before when her life was small and quiet.
Her golden step-brother, Ben, was alive, she could only dream about bonfiring with the populars, their wooded island home was idyllic, she could tell the truth from lies, and Ben’s childhood stories were firmly in her imagination.
Then came after.
After has Lana boldly kissing her crush, jumping into the water from too high up, and living with nerve and mischief. But after also has horrors, deaths that only make sense in fairy tales, and terrors from a past Lana thought long forgotten: Love, blood, and murder."
The Telling by: Alexandra Sirowy is probably one of my favorite books I have read this year! The Telling is a thrilling and chilling ride, with twists and turns that you never see coming. This book follows Lana who previously lost her step-brother, Ben. Lana used to be an outsider, a goody two shoes and she only had one friend, her best friend Willa. After her step-brother died, her whole world shattered, and the girl who planned every step of her future dies along with him.
Lana starts hanging out with the popular crowd at her school, "the core". One day, when they are swimming in a spring, they find a dead body. They become suspects in the detectives' eyes and they also become the killer's pawns.
This book was a mixing pot of a horror, thriller and mystery. Some Young Adult books with elements of mystery in them seem to be very predictable, but this book had me constantly turning the pages to see what will happen next. I was hooked to this book from the very first page and I tried to figure out what would happen next or who the killer was, but every event would be a surprise to me.
This book really brought me back to what high school was like. Lana is just like every other teenage girl dealing with constant humiliation from other teenage girls and trying to find her place in the world. Except, her life isn't normal at all and there is a murderer that has her and her friends on a thread.
I found Lana's character very unique. She wanted revenge from all of the people who did wrong to her and her step-brother Ben and she keeps on saying that they deserved to die because how horribly they treated her and Ben. However, I think no one deserves to be brutally murdered, no matter how much of a horrible person they are. I still rated this book 5 stars, because I thought the vengefulness of the main character, Lana, really helped to add suspense and mystery to the plot.
I also found it amazing that Lana became friends with "the core", who spread rumors about her and made her first years in high school a living hell. One of the main themes in this book was forgiveness and I think this comes to show that Lana is capable of forgiveness, and that every teenage girl wants to belong in the crowd.
I didn't see the ending of this book coming and I didn't even see the events that happened in the distance. I was so shocked and literally read the same words on the same page about five times. I kept on thinking, "Did that really just happen? No way that happened".
I felt like after I read the last words on the last page of The Telling, that I was in shock and denial. A good and unpredictable suspense, thriller or mystery, always leaves you in shock. This book was different threads of the elements you need to have a good book, woven together. If you want a thrilling ride, that is also a coming of age story, and that will constantly surprise you, I highly recommend The Telling to you!
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