A Coming Of Age Story Full Of Secrets In 'Paradise'
Thank you to Readers First for sending me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This hasn’t in anyway affected my opinion of the book.
‘Parris, the island where it seems girls go to die.’
Promises of paradise, a history of disappearing and/or dying girls, whispers of a curse...naturally I was instantly intrigued by the premise of this book and I’m glad to say that, unlike my last two thriller reads, it delivered. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that, despite the mentions of a curse, this is purely a contemporary read; it doesn’t take long to realize no magic will occur within these pages. There’s a lot of emotional depth to the tale though and it starts to shed some light on a topic that rarely seems to appear in YA fiction.
Mystery wise I’d say this book mostly delivered. Throughout I was definitely more invested in the story than I was in my last two similar reads (one YA, one adult) and the end was the sort that can stay with a reader for a very long time. The particular mystery that this novel delves into had lots of secrets and lies to uncover whilst the climax really vamped up the suspense. I’m just a little disappointed that more wasn’t uncovered about some of the other past tragedies to have plagued the town. Although, simultaneously, given the way that things ended I can understand why they weren’t explored further. This book is Luca’s coming of age story ultimately.
The romance within this novel felt believable although I’m not too sure about how things happened towards the end. Luca, as the focus of the novel, is well developed although a few of the supporting characters could probably have been explored in a bit more depth. Intrusive thoughts feature in this novel which is definitely something that surprised me, having rarely seen them mentioned in YA fiction before. Truthfully I thought they’d have gone into a bit more depth with them than they did but it was still good to see one of the lesser discussed aspects of mental health featuring on the page.
Altogether I’d recommend checking ‘Bad Things Happen Here’ out, especially if you’re interested in the coming of age side of the story. I wouldn’t consider this a favourite in terms of the YA mystery side of things but it definitely delivered in terms of Luca’s development and featured the sort of ending that stays with you. In the future I’d certainly be interested in reading more by this author.
‘Parris, the island where it seems girls go to die.’
Promises of paradise, a history of disappearing and/or dying girls, whispers of a curse...naturally I was instantly intrigued by the premise of this book and I’m glad to say that, unlike my last two thriller reads, it delivered. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that, despite the mentions of a curse, this is purely a contemporary read; it doesn’t take long to realize no magic will occur within these pages. There’s a lot of emotional depth to the tale though and it starts to shed some light on a topic that rarely seems to appear in YA fiction.
Mystery wise I’d say this book mostly delivered. Throughout I was definitely more invested in the story than I was in my last two similar reads (one YA, one adult) and the end was the sort that can stay with a reader for a very long time. The particular mystery that this novel delves into had lots of secrets and lies to uncover whilst the climax really vamped up the suspense. I’m just a little disappointed that more wasn’t uncovered about some of the other past tragedies to have plagued the town. Although, simultaneously, given the way that things ended I can understand why they weren’t explored further. This book is Luca’s coming of age story ultimately.
The romance within this novel felt believable although I’m not too sure about how things happened towards the end. Luca, as the focus of the novel, is well developed although a few of the supporting characters could probably have been explored in a bit more depth. Intrusive thoughts feature in this novel which is definitely something that surprised me, having rarely seen them mentioned in YA fiction before. Truthfully I thought they’d have gone into a bit more depth with them than they did but it was still good to see one of the lesser discussed aspects of mental health featuring on the page.
Altogether I’d recommend checking ‘Bad Things Happen Here’ out, especially if you’re interested in the coming of age side of the story. I wouldn’t consider this a favourite in terms of the YA mystery side of things but it definitely delivered in terms of Luca’s development and featured the sort of ending that stays with you. In the future I’d certainly be interested in reading more by this author.