Margaux Froley

Escape Theory My first thought upon finishing Escape Theory? Whoa. This book is like a runaway train and a wonderful soap opera mixed together. Friendship, secrets, scandal, it's all here and Margaux Froley has written a book that is hard to put down once you start. Be warned my friends, this is a book you'll read straight through in one sitting.
 
Devon has always been an observer. The one who watches rather than participates. The one who listens rather than speaks. After the death of Hutch she decides to put it to good use by becoming a counselor. I really liked this aspect of the story. It allowed Devon to dive deeper into the people who surrounded Hutch while he was alive, and therefore allowed me to slowly unravel the mystery. Oh, and what a gorgeously written mystery it was. You won't see the ending coming at all.
 
I'm getting ahead of myself though. Really, what kept me reading more than anything was the relationship between Devon and Hutch. This isn't a story of a girl who is utterly distraught over the death of her boyfriend. Instead, the relationship between these two is more complicated and yet infinitely more interesting. Devon is strong, but you can still see the cracks in her facade. It makes her more human and, in my opinion, more likable. The stakes are high for Devon as she tries to figure out what really happened the night Hutch died. I felt myself really connecting with her, and it made me love this book so much more.
 
When I said this book is like a soap opera, I meant it. It can feel a little over the top at times, but the characters are bright and vivid, the scenery perfect for a mystery of this magnitude. This is a story that you'll eat up from start to finish and, more than likely, your mouth will be hanging open at the ending. I adored Margeaux Froley's Escape Theory and I honestly can't wait for more.… (más)

Devon is back at school following the holiday break, but she hasn’t been able to extricate herself from the repercussions of her first case. That task might be easier if she hadn’t been knocked out cold in the sole security blind spot on a yacht on New Year’s Eve. Devon is convinced it was no accident, but the lack of evidence to support her claim brings an end to the police investigation and leads the new school psychiatrist to believe that Devon is struggling with PTSD-triggered paranoia. Determined to learn the identity of her attacker and his/her motive, Devon starts her own investigation, one that has consequences far beyond what Devon can imagine. Fans of the first Keaton School book (Escape Theory) are sure to enjoy Hero Complex. Devon is still the sharp, tenacious, and resourceful protagonist we first met, and readers will root for her as she follows every lead while trying to repair old friendships and navigate new ones.

Rachel H. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

… (más)

Devon Mackintosh, a scholarship student at an elite boarding school on the California coast, never really felt like she fit in. Now a junior with her sights on Stanford’s psychology program, she starts her duties as a peer counselor. These duties are far more challenging than she anticipated when one of the most popular guys at school, Jason Hutchinson (“Hutch”), dies of an apparent suicide. As she counsels Hutch’s friends and recalls a memorable night she spent with him during their freshman orientation week, Devon becomes convinced that his death was not a suicide and is determined to unearth the truth. This psychological thriller is given emotional depth by memories of Devon’s night with Hutch, and the cast of potentially complicit characters are well drawn. Escape Theory is likely to appeal to fans of the television series Veronica Mars—Devon’s tenacity for the truth in the face of social and institutional disapproval and her ability to consider anyone a potential suspect will strike a familiar chord. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to Devon’s next case.

Rachel H. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

… (más)

This book reminded me a bit of the detective procedure in Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express because a good chunk of the information that Devon gets is through interviews. In this case they’re not police interviews but counselling, but some people lie, others tell the truth and others only half truths and it's up to Devon to figure out what's true and what's a lie.

It was in general a nice story, but it dragged a bit for too long at first, because there's nothing that suggests that Hutch's death was anything other than a suicide until much later. We know there's more to it if we read the summary, but there's no way that Devon would know it. She didn't even know Hutch that much. It's more the hope that the boy that was nice to her once years before was as good as she thought what keeps her investigating his death.

Other than this, the story did get interesting once some people's secrets were uncovered because not everything is as nice as it looks like and many people are hiding things.… (más)