
author: Jessica Goodman
published: 7.27.2021
publisher: Razorbill
genre(s): thrillers
pages: 330
source: library
format: hardcover
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | BookBub | BookHype | StoryGraph | Goodreads
rating:

the blurb
A thriller about two sisters vying for the top spot on their cross-country team--the only way out of their stifling small town. But their dreams are suddenly thrown into peril when a new girl threatens to take away everything they've worked for... until she disappears.
Stella and Ellie Steckler are only a year apart, but their different personalities make their relationship complicated. Stella is single-minded, driven, and keeps to herself. Cross-country running is her life, and she won't let anything get in the way of being the best. Her sister Ellie is a talented runner too, but she also lets herself have fun. She has friends. She goes to parties. She has a life off the course.
The sisters do have one thing in common, though: the new girl, Mila Keene. Both Stecklers' lives are upended when Mila comes to town. Mila was the top runner on her team back home and at first, Ellie and Stella view her as a threat. But soon Ellie can't help but be drawn to her warm, charming personality. After her best friend moved away and her first boyfriend betrayed her, Ellie's been looking for a friend. In a moment of weakness, she even shares her darkest secret with Mila. For her part, Stella finds herself noticing the ways she and Mila are similar. Mila is smart and strong--she's someone Stella can finally connect with. As the two get closer, Stella becomes something she vowed she'd never be: distracted.
With regionals approaching and college scouts taking notice, the pressure is on. Each girl has their future on the line and they won't let friendships get in their way. But then, suddenly, Mila goes out on a training run and never returns. No one knows what happened, but all eyes are on the Steckler sisters.
- a few notes
- my review
- the good & the bad
content warning: ❗domestic violence, addiction, obsession, teen pregnancy❗
POV: 1st person; multi
keywords/phrases: running, murder, sister dynamic
tropes: red herring, protagonist as suspect, troubled protagonist, unreliable narrator, twist ending, framing
spice: 0🔥
language: 🤬🤬🤬🤬
read this if… you enjoy dark, twisty thrillers.
the good
- There was a good selection of potential perps to keep the reader guessing.
- The vagueness about the protagonist’s history added to the suspense of the story.
- I loved that there was diversity among the characters. Race, gender, sexuality, etc.
- There’s a heavy feminist tone at times, pointing out the very different lives of girls verus boys. That’s important!
the bad
- The author really wanted the reader to know the focal point of the story was a cross-country team, to the point where it felt overdone. Yes, it was important, but it was still excessive. This took a half-star for me.
- With so much attention paid to the cross-country aspect, it was hard not to notice that there were some factual inaccuracies that just didn’t fit with the cross-country thing, especially in the training.
- It took a long time for the story to really get going. Once it did, it went, but it definitely took some time to get there, This took another half-star for me.
- The ending. It just seemed unfinished and implausible.
This was a slow burn to get started, so slow that at times I was pretty frustrated. There is such a heavy emphasis on cross-country that it almost overshadowed the rest of the story. While, yes, cross-country was important to the story, it often felt like I was being banged over the head with it. Nor did it help that there were a lot of factual inaccuracies surrounding the sport.
There is also a cast of characters that isn’t always terribly likeable. But while there are those who don’t like that unlikeability, especially in a protagonist, I enjoyed it. It added to the suspense of the story, with the protagonist potentially an unreliable narrator. I don’t have to like a character to find them complex and interesting, and they were definitely that.
But the big reveal… it felt rushed and incomplete. It’s difficult to explain without potentially spoiling the ending, which I will not do. Suffice it to say that some of the storylines felt hastily wrapped up in ways that felt implausible and incomplete. But did I guess at the killer? No, I didn’t. So that’s good.
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