Q U I C K S T A T S
Characters-⭐
Setting-⭐⭐. 5
Writing style-⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall rating- ⭐⭐⭐
// Content Warning: Blood / Death (of animal, child and parent) / Abuse (of child) / Murder / Violence / //
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Age group: Young Adult
Genre(s): Thriller
Pub date: September 21st 2021
P R E M I S E
Sixteen bloodless bodies. Two teenagers. One impossible explanation.
Summer 1958—a string of murders plagues the Midwest. The victims are found in their cars and in their homes—even in their beds—their bodies drained, but with no blood anywhere.
September 19- the Carlson family is slaughtered in their Minnesota farmhouse, and the case gets its first lead: 15-year-old Marie Catherine Hale is found at the scene. She is covered in blood from head to toe, and at first she’s mistaken for a survivor. But not a drop of the blood is hers.
Michael Jensen, son of the local sheriff, yearns to become a journalist and escape his small-town. He never imagined that the biggest story in the country would fall into his lap, or that he would be pulled into the investigation, when Marie decides that he is the only one she will confess to.
As Marie recounts her version of the story, it falls to Michael to find the truth: What really happened the night that the Carlsons were killed? And how did one girl wind up in the middle of all these bodies?
M Y R E V I E W
I've been looking forward to this book as soon as the cover was revealed. The good news: pretty cover. The bad news: I had to read the premise to understand what the fuck was going on.
Set in 1958, this book follows Michael, a wannabe journalist who finally finds the big story he had been looking for in order to gain experience when a chain of murders take place in his small town except the only problem is that he had to coax the truth out of Marie, the suspected murderer who insists the supernatural was at play and firmly believes in her innocence.
With the stakes raised high and time running out, Michael finds his patience wanning as Marie continues to blame the supernatural, always saying 'he' did it without ever providing a name (no, she never does provide a guy's name because she believed names are almost never real). Despite the day of her trial approaching, she refuses to provide even a false name to buy herself some time and Michael here is torn between wanting to bang his head on a stone countertop and leaving the town without his big story because as much as he wants to save her, he grows tired of everything.
But as the story progresses, we find him starting to question himself on the authenticity of her claim. What if she's telling the truth? What if she's telling the truth but none of us believed her and we're next? What if she's trying to warn us?
There was no character development. At all. I was quite disappointed in this spectrum of the novel because as much as the author tried to prove they were unique, I could not for my life find any differences between them besides the very obvious ones like one was a murderer and the rest were not. However, I liked how there was no romance element because as cute as it might have been, I would have found it very concerning because a) Marie could probably murder Michael in less than a microsecond without thinking twice and b) the relationship would be more like a 'fuck you' to the nation because Michael is the sheriff's son.
Talking of plot twists; was there even a plot twist in this one? Or any kind of twist? I enjoyed the first half of the book (basically the build-up). The more the novel progresses, the more I found myself hoping the climax would justify the growing boredom. But sadly, whatever point the author tried to make went unnoticed because I absolutely had no fucking clue what went down. Besides the poorly executed ending and bland characters, I couldn't bring myself to rate this book 2 stars because the writing was lucrative and addicting which was a sore disappointment given the fate of second and final act.
BONUS CONTENT: THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THIS BOOK
Although Marie's story is entirely fictional, the author draws inspiration from the series of murders committed by a young man aged 19 at the time (named Charles Starkweather). To provide some background information; Charles Starkweather was boiling with anger because his girlfriend, Caril Fugate, (who was 14 at the time mind you) broke up with him. He had gone over to her house 3 days later a while before she was due home from school and had been received with severe disapproval from her parents (obviously). This kid had serious anger issues because he killed both of them, and Fugate's half-sister who was only 2. Now this is where the story gets divided because there were 2 sides to this story: 1) she had gone with him willingly and been his accomplice during the murders and 2) (this is Fugate's story) when she came home from school, she was told to obey his orders or else her family would die and he held her captive as he took to the streets a couple miles away to the town of Nebraska (where this book takes place!) when her suspicious grandmother called the cops on him. Her family was rotting on the other side of the property and she didn't even know (I think) because she was told they were alive. During the few days they were free from the cops, Starkweather killed more people for a multitude of reasons and his total ended up with 11 and 2 family dogs.
Apologies if the history lesson was too long. Well, no because if you chose to read it, it's on you.
S I M I L A R B O O K S
You'll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus
NOT THA DOGS! WHY THA DOGS! 😭😭 (PS. condolences to the people he killed, but why the dogs.)