Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Blood on My Hands by Todd Strasser YP FIC STRASSER

When Callie Carson finds her ex ‘friend’ Katherine (number one mean girl, queen bee in school) lying on the ground outside a party with a knife in her she assumes it’s another one of her mean spirited pranks. However, upon pulling the knife from Katherine she realizes:

1. It’s REAL!

2. Katherine is ding dong dead!

3. She isn’t alone!

Her picture is taken with a cell phone and is online faster than you can say, “Viral.” Now everyone thinks Callie is a murderer and has to find the real killer. But how do you find a killer when over half the school has a motive?

Okay, so right off the bat it is a little, tiny bit hard to feel for Callie after pulling such a bonehead play like assume a knife is fake and play Sword in the Stone with a dead body, BUT the book being from her perspective helped me warm up to her within a few chapters. Callie used to be a willing salve to Katherine’s evil whims and the book has loads of flashbacks showing how MEAN Katherine really was and giving Callie plenty of suspects. It reminds me of a faster paced and shallower version of Rosebush by Michele Jaffe (YP FIC JAFFE). It isn’t that it is completely shallow; just that Strasser’s recent thrillers are fun, suspenseful, quick reads and Rosebush succeeds in being something more. There are a good amount of twists and turns, a rekindled romance, and a nicely satisfying ending. The ending was more believable than a fair amount of teen murder mysteries and thrillers. The choice Callie makes at the end may leave you wanting to strangle her (I did!) or you may think she makes a good choice. If you want a good mystery and you enjoy teen thrillers, especially if you liked Strasser’s last thriller Wish You Were Dead, then you should have a fun time with Blood on My Hands.



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