From Mullholland Books: "A pulse-pounding psychological thriller based on the popular Dutch tradition of blindfolding and dropping teens and preteens in the middle of a forest - and what happens when it goes horribly wrong."
Well, it's a real thing! What a great premise to weave a story into.
Siegal tells this story from two points of view in alternating chapters - that of twelve year old Karin and her mother Grace. I liked Karin - she has all the attributes you want in a plucky young protagonist - a thinker and ready to act. She's twelve, but I did find her to be a young twelve - a bit too trusting. Initially I thought Grace was okay - she and Karin are part of a new blended family. But as I read further, my opinion changed. She's got rose colored glasses on and seems determined to not take them off. If it happens once, it will happen again.
The plot starts off good. There's some conflict within the dropping group, but what could have been some Lord of the Flies territory ended quickly. I found the forest scenes of Karin's journey just too farfetched for me. The wolf scene. C'mon. Really? The 'scary' people in the forest. The plot was pretty predictable after a certain point as well. The final why is a bit of a stretch, but still plausible.
I found the writing a bit stilted and choppy. I thought perhaps it was a translation thing, but no, it was written in English. The other thing I checked was what target audience was - adult or YA. It was adult. I found Karin's chapters to be quite juvenile (because she is juvenile, I know), but they just didn't grab me. I wanted 'pulse-pounding', but it never hit that mark for me. Just okay for this reader. Here's an excerpt of You'll Thank Me For This.
2 comments:
Interesting. It almost seems like this would be better served as something targeting a younger audience. Such a shame given the promise of the premise!
That's exactly it Ethan. Or make the girl older.
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