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WISH YOU WERE DEAD by Todd Strasser



copyright date: August 2010
primarily marketed for: young adults (14 and up)

This was a deliciously creepy mystery.  It is reminiscent of the Christopher Pike books I used to read when I was younger.  Just as bloody and just as edgy. 

I Wish You Were Dead begins with blog posts from a mystery blogger wishing Lucy Cunningham were dead.  The story continues by describing Lucy’s kidnapping without giving away the culprit.  Immediately, I was hooked. 

Then the action switches to following Madison Archer, a high school student who was friends Lucy and was one of the last people to see her alive.   Most of the story is told through Madison’s perspective, but interspersed with her story are the blog posts, the crime scenes, and the voice of the kidnapper.  

This is a mean girls story mixed with romance, suspense, blood, gore, and the elements of a classic mystery.

The language and the crime scenes in this book are definitely targeting mature readers, but none of it ever crosses the line. 

If you like drama and clues that help lead you to solve the crime (or at least allow you to think you’ve solved the crime) before the characters do, you will love this book.  It is the first in a Thrillogy series by Strasser, though the books don’t seem to be related other than by genre (the setting, storylines, and characters seem unrelated from what I can tell). 
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Comments

  1. Ms. YinglingFebruary 23, 2012 at 5:24 AM

    Yeah, the others are only related by genre and cover. They've been very popular, but it's been hard to get copies of them for some reason.

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