Skip to main content

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). 
Labels:

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.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TAKE WHAT YOU CAN CARRY by Kevin C. Pyle

copyright date: March 2012 primarily marketed for: young adults (12 and up) Despite the fact that the teacher in me sees so many lesson possibilities in Kevin C. Pyle’s graphic novel Take What You Can Carry , you should read it simply for the grace of its stories.   The artwork is as striking as the stories it tells.   Using artwork in two different colors and styles, Pyle tells the stories of two teenage boys living years and miles apart.   And yet, he communicates the universality in their experiences.   One boy is a Japanese American forced to move into an internment camp during WWII.   His family struggles to maintain their dignity and sense of peace under unbearable conditions. The other is a rebellious boy with an attitude whose reckless behavior causes him to wind up in trouble with the law.   To make amends, he finds himself completing community service hours in the most unlikely place.   I found my...
1 comment
Read more

ALL THESE THINGS I’VE DONE by Gabrielle Zevin

copyright date: September 2011 primarily marketed for: young adults (8 th grade and up) I wish I would’ve known this was the beginning of a series before I started this book.   Then again, I might never have picked it up if I thought I might be committing to multiple books… At any rate, this is not a story I will be sad to return to this fall when the sequel is released.   Anya’s story takes place in New York City, in the future.   Around the time you will be old enough to be grandparents. This is a sort of post-apocalyptic, dystopian kind of book in a mild way.   Basically, the United States has self-destructed, and yet life seems to go surprisingly similar to the way we live nowadays.   Except that water and paper are costly and hard to come by.   Chocolate is prohibited.   Caffeine is an illegal drug.   Which is all to say that the setting alone is intriguing. Add to that setting, the fact that Anya is the oldest daughter of the ...
3 comments
Read more

CROSSING STONES by Helen Frost

copyright date: 2009 primarily marketed for: middle school and up Helen Frost is one of my favorite authors.   I have adored every book I’ve read by her.   In fact, the copies of some of her books in our school library have disappeared because I am apparently not the only one who appreciates her work.   Her stories, told in poetic verse, are always moving and then I am always amazed to discover there is a specific format she follows when writing the poetry for each book.   You might remember her book Diamond Willow , which was a recent Caudill nominee.   Crossing Stones is the story of four teenagers during World War I (two sets of brothers and sisters who are neighbors).   The boys, Frank and Ollie, end up going off to fight in the war, while the girls, Muriel and Emma, each face their own struggles at home.   The voices of all four characters are threaded throughout the book with grace.   The poetry alternates viewpoints and includes...
2 comments
Read more