Thank you to Black Rose Writing for providing me with an eARC for this story. The book starts off fast paced. Within the first few pages you are given the “how” to the mystery, and the rest of the book to discover the “who” and the “why”. The story was good, I found myself staying up late at night reading to find out whodunit, however, there were two things that negatively impacted my overall enjoyment of the book.

The first being the way the characters spoke in their dialogues. The book is told through 3 POV’s, alternating between the chapters, and I felt each character had so much repetition. I don’t know how many times you can write “she’ll pay for this”, but I’m sure there’s a threshold and it was passed.

Second, the ending felt kind of disjointed. I can’t really imagine any real-world scenario where things would play out they way they did.

Overall, it wasn’t a terrible book, the story was promising. Some of the characters were intolerable, and it was weird because I’d say this book seems it was written for a younger audience, but the subjects in the book definitely aren’t. There’s instances of sex, drugs, alcoholism, sexual assault, and murder.. I just don’t know.

Thanks to Black Rose Writing for providing a digital ARC of The Dead Girl Under The Bleachers in exchange for an honest review.

I think this book's biggest issue is going to be being shelved as a mystery because its just not. This is a drama. Yes, it starts with a murder and yes, you spend the book guessing which of our 3 protagonists is the titular 'dead girl under the bleachers', but beyond that this just isn't a mystery. Mysteries involve clues and anything that could be remotely considered a clue is dropped at the very end of the book right before the murder. Its a lot of teen drama and fights leading to everyone thinking literally everyone else is the murderer. Its a lot of logical leaps. Maybe if you like soap opera-y books give this one a chance but if you're looking for a mystery you're going to be let down.

With a reshelving I think this book would easily find its audience but as is I anticipate its shelving as 'mystery' severely hindering reader enjoyment and ratings.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of THE DEAD GIRL UNDER THE BLEACHERS by Donna Zadunajsky in exchange for my honest review.***

3.5 STARS

THE DEAD GIRL UNDER THE BLEACHERS opens with a murder, but we do not know the name of the victim or the perp. The dead girl is presumably one of three high school seniors, Rachel the nice girl without a spine, Laura the outcast and Scarlett the mean girl. Secrets permeate THE DEAD GIRL UNDER THE BLEACHERS, not just with the teens, but some of their parents.

Rachel and Laura were both likable and easy to imagine as girls in any American high school. The story has a number of bad guys, so sociopathalogical that they didn’t feel real. Scarlett, her boyfriend Kyle and her stepmother Lianne were over-the-top awful. With the dysfunction in Scarlett’s family, giving her some humanity would have been easy.

I had a lot of theories about victim and perp and was completely wrong. Being caught off guard is part of the fun of thrillers. I wish the end of THE DEAD GIRL UNDER THE BLEACHERS also felt logical and within the realm of possibilities and reality.

THE DEAD GIRL UNDER THE BLEACHERS makes a fun beach read or any time.

I've looked at some previous reviews for this book and I feel like I have read something completely different to everyone else. I didn't enjoy this as much as I believed I would. The concept was interesting and I love stories that focus on women and their friendship and strong female leads but I felt this book was an overall mess.

I think my major issue with this book was that I didn't agree with the writing style personally. It felt stiff and forced and the reader was being told what was happening rather than it being described. I prefer feeling like I am in the setting rather than being told what happened.
I also thought the plot was painfully predictable. I wasn't surprised by anything that happened and found myself rolling my eyes a lot. I think this combined with the insufferable characters was just mind-numbing. I didn't like any of the girls, Scarlett especially. I didn't see much in the way of character development for anyone.

Overall, this is not a book I would recommend or read again.
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.