Rock, Paper, Killers by Alexia Mason
1 Star / YA Thriller / Review Copy

Well here we have it, my first one-star review of the year. Honestly, I’d have DNF’d this one at the halfway point if it didn’t tick so many reading challenge boxes for me so late in the year. Dear God this was dull. A bunch of privileged teenagers spend three weeks at an Irish summer school - which of course is housed in an old asylum - and someone dies at the end. By the time we got to the death, I didn’t care about any of them and there were so many characters I’d lost track of who was who anyway. Strongly don’t recommend this one unless you need something to put you to sleep at night.

The book would have been perfect for a point horror addition.
I loved the addition of the Gaelic however I did find the flashing forwards/backwards a little jarring and didn’t build suspense as I think it was expected to.

I had high hopes for this book with it being compared to Holly Jacksons and Karen M. McManus. However it did not live up to these expectations, not one bit. This is the most disappointing book that i have ever read. I would talk about the plot of this book, however it had none. Absolutely nothing happened other then teenagers being asses until the last chapter. And the last chapter was rushed and i had no idea what was happening at any point.

This was an incredibly interesting book, with a great cover, and a mystery that was filled with twists and turns. The writing was immediately gripping, and the end left me shock.

This was a book I’d seen people get excited for over and over so I purposely took it this morning when I couldn’t sleep post new years celebrations but couldn’t get up to write either due to the fear of waking our poor dog who was up way too late last night!!

It is the story of a group of teenagers who go to the Gaeltacht, a kind of summer Irish college where people have to speak Irish the whole time to help them improve the language. We followed these teens with their demons and worries as they navigated the drama that being on your own in a converted asylum with your phone away brings!!

Even given that, this was a somewhat light read more about building tension and making you wonder what would happen. Extremely enjoyable. Thanks to Netgalley for the book in return for an honest review.

Rating:4/5

Unfortunately this was a DNF.
I didn't DNF because I wasn't enjoying it, not by any means, but instead it just wasn't the right time for me to read it as I fell into a massive slump. However I'm definitely going to pick this back up again at some point in the future as I have so far enjoyed what I have read.

This was a quick paced story following 5 teenagers who are attending a summer boarding school. I enjoyed the writing style and that we saw the story from each of the perspectives of the children. However, the pacing of the storyline felt a little off for me with all of the action happening right at the end. There were twists and turns and I think this book would be great for a reader who is newer to YA.

Unfortunately I really did not enjoy this book. I found the writing to be jarring but not in a stylistic way, and then the way mental health was handled by the author was somewhat distasteful. It was a real disappointment.

welp decided not to publish my review on GRs because this is garbage, totally not what I or anyone expected... it's a shame...

I was looking forward to this book when I initially received it. However halfway through the book I still didn’t know which character I was meant to be rooting for or was I meant to be rooting for one? I wasn’t really sure where it was building up to.

None of the characters were likeable and at times I found the plot difficult to follow.
I know that the setting for the plot is Irish college but shouldn’t it be taking more of back seat to the drama that should have been unfolding.

This book needed a main character. An unreliable narrator. There was too much hopping between the characters to get any grasp on what was going on with any of them. I know that this is YA but these teenagers were beyond irritating, maybe Rupert was the least irritating of the lot.

This book had great potential if more breadcrumbs were dropped from the start of the book to give us a hint of what was going to happen. The story was too chaotic to care if there was a victim and a killer.

Hopefully this author gets better guidance on their next venture. I do see potential. And this book had great potential from the blurb.

I was immersed hooked. I loved how easy it was to read and liked the unique situation the students were in. It was satisfyingly gripping and a good summer read.

I wanted to like this, as the premise sounded super, but much like all the other reviews, the story just wasn't gripping. The characters were unlikable, and the plot was a little muddled.

Rock Paper Killers is a chilling thriller but absolutely compelling and one you will not want to put down as there is never a good time to stop reading it.

Sometimes with YA I don’t get along with it, probably because I’m not the target audience- this was an example of this. Can totally see the appeal to young adults but not for me!

It took me ages to get into this (hence the delay on posting a review) because I found the characters so obnoxious and entitled in the opening chapters and I wasn't keen on the thought of spending an entire book with them! Some of the them grew on me as book went on but I could never really fathom why any of them would be friends with someone as 2D AWFUL as Kelly and consequently the story didn't really work for me. The pages did keep turning but I was bowled over. I think teen readers will love it, though, and I'll recommend it to my students who are desperate for their next thriller.

This book sounded right up my street from the description. I also thought the title was killer. Unfortunately, it was incredibly boring and I really struggled to finish it.

The setting was interesting, I guess; Irish language summer school. But the plot was nothing more than characters pottering about having mindless conversations while you were waiting for one of them to hurry up and die already - which didn't actually happen for the longest time!

And speaking of the characters, they were little more than vague outlines; each one's voice sounding exactly like any of the others. Since we didn't have a main character to bond with it was vital we had a diverse bunch of interesting characters in the ensemble, but this couldn't have been further from the truth.

There was a vague attempt at foreshadowing but it was so brief and so subtle you'd blink and miss it. It was not nearly enough - where were our breadcrumbs to follow?

I don't want to keep harping on but, basically, this book needs major work. I can see it's already garnered a very low average score on Goodreads and I can see why. It's simply not ready for public consumption yet. It has zero suspense, zero thrills, 2D characters and hardly any plot. It reads like a bad first draft.

1 star ★
ARC received in exchange for an honest review.
Find this book on Goodreads

I really wanted to enjoy this one, and I feel like I would have absolutely adored it if I was 12-15. I think I am a bit old and read too many thrillers to fully appreciate the story and the twists. The characters were well written, I hated one specifically but that was the whole point of it 😂. I would definitely read a book by this author of they were to release an adult novel, or even if they did another YA as it was such a quick and easy read for me regardless of the plot being not exactly to my liking.

For anyone who loves a good mystery thriller. The title really grabbed me from the star, Rock, Paper, Killers was such an interesting title and drew me in instantly. But i wasn't really hooked when I started.

Sadly, I couldn't get sucked into the book< i found the plot quite hard to delve into and really couldn't grasp my interest in it.

Sadly I really didn't enjoy this book.

Normally I love YA but this just felt quite juvenile. I didn't like any of the characters even the ones that I felt I was meant too, there was no warmth to them.

I did like the setting, it added a great atmosphere to the book and for a younger reader would have made it quite eerie.

I enjoyed the setting and the premise, though its implementation was rocky and somewhat confusing in places. The characters were mostly quite annoying. That said, it was a reasonably entertaining thriller.