Title: Truly,
Madly, Deadly
Author: Hannah
Jayne
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Fire
Publication Date:
7.2.2013
Pages: 272
Genre: Contemporary,
Mystery
Series: No
Source: eARC
from publisher
Rating: C-
Summary (from Goodreads):
Sawyer Dodd has it all. She's a star track athlete, choir soloist, and
A-student. And her boyfriend is the handsome all-star Kevin Anderson. But
behind the medals, prom pictures, and perfect smiles, Sawyer finds herself
trapped in a controlling, abusive relationship with Kevin. When he dies in a
drunk-driving accident, Sawyer is secretly relieved. She's free. Until she
opens her locker and finds a mysterious letter signed by "an admirer"
and printed with two simple words: "You're welcome."
Review:
In Truly, Madly, Deadly Hannah Jayne attempts
to tell the story of a girl trying to unravel the mystery of who killed her
abusive boyfriend.
Yes.
I said attempts.
There
were several things about this that just didn’t work for me. The first was that
I never really got a feel for the dynamics of Sawyer’s relationship with Kevin.
Maybe I would have cared more about his murder if I understood what went wrong
in their relationship. And I felt like Sawyer was never really clear on how she
felt about him—did she love it? Did she fear him? Was she relieved he was gone?
Happy he was gone? Totally indifferent one way or another? Maybe there was just
too much emphasis placed on this from the synopsis, but I felt this really
needed to be explained more.
There
were several other murders/attacks that led me to the obvious conclusion that
Sawyer had a stalker, not someone just trying to help her. But these attacks
and murders just felt … forced. There was little fluidity. At one point early
on, Sawyer is sexually harassed by a teacher at her school. This just came out
of left field and I felt like there was no
resolution to this at all. It was never brought up again after it happened. I
know this was done to villainize the teacher (I hate being vague, but I’m
trying to keep this spoiler-free), but that could have been done if the teacher
was just needlessly harsh with grading. It felt like the sexual harassment was
dismissed and it shouldn’t be. If you’re going to bring up a subject as
volatile and complex as a male teacher blatantly abusing his power over a
female student for sexual gain, you need to address it and follow through.
Truly, Madly, Deadly is a relatively short read,
which was good as I often found my attention waning. My initial like of Sawyer
grew to apathy by the end and while the unmasking of the killer was mildly
surprising, I ended this just wanting more.
There is a very real possibility a lot of people will enjoy this thriller and
that’s fantastic. This just didn’t work for me.
Buy: Amazon
I felt much the same way about this one Hannah! I thought there was such potential in this story given the abusive relationship, but we didn't get to see any of that at all. We're told she was ashamed, but I never felt it, and the flashbacks we got of her and Kevin were almost all during positive moments in their relationship, so I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be upset he died, or if I should be happy Sawyer was free of him.
ReplyDeleteBummer! I was really looking forward to this one. I am not a huge fan of forced plots. Hopefully I will still enjoy!
ReplyDeleteAshley @ The Quiet Concert
Why would she want to solve the mystery of who killed her abusive boyfriend? Just leave it to the cops and move on with your life, girl. Ooh, and the teacher thing would just irritate me. Just make the teacher an ass rather than a predator. There are plenty of asses out there, not so many pedophiles as the news would have you think (*shudder* the whole thought just grosses me out!).
ReplyDelete