I enjoyed this super fast read. I liked that the mystery was mysterious. I liked that there was no romance. Sometimes teen novels spend time hypothesizing about wild possibilities, but then the teen has to just face reality and deal. I liked that this one allowed for the wild possibility, and was not disappointing like Paper Towns. ( )

This book did not WOW me with the mystery at all. I kept waiting for something to shock me and it never happened. I love the writing and the comic pages such a cool idea but the mystery was not strong enough for me. ( )

Libby and May's friendship was something I dreamed of having as a child, I still wish I was able to become such good friends with someone that if something happened to them that well I would still be reminded of them no matter what. It was heartbreaking to think of Libby's passing in the book and how everything May went through, how she also lost Princess X, the story and drawing that May and Libby created together, that very same week.

Suddenly years later it just appears again, causing May to get pulled along in search of someone who she thought was lost forever, but is this Libby? Or is this someone who has taken their precious character and now has creative control? The story itself while you would think is far fetched actually isn't and Priest is an author who keeps you turning each page wanted to find out more, leaves you hoping (alongside May) that we could solve this mystery and have closure.

It's been a while since I've read a book that has so many up to date references that it was slightly refreshing to read. Usually so much pop culture in a book has me rolling my eyes, but more of these are said in passing or taken as a everyday thing. Priest's writing didn't feel forced, but organic and had the story flow really well.

One of the things I loved was the lack of romance, this was a mystery and friendship book and Priest did not try to force two characters into something that would have stuck out like a sore thumb, and would have been obvious that it was added for the purpose of just having a romance. I like that she leaves it to your imagination if you wanted two characters (which surprisingly I did) to develop romantic feelings.

There were two things that stopped me from giving this review a full 5. One was that it took a little while before May actually started to get anywhere in her investigation, I would have liked her to start things up a bit sooner and maybe add a bit more action into some of the elements. While it was not devoid of any action, there were a couple of scenes that were really action packed and had me continue reading (despite my bed time), but I felt there could have been more. Another thing was the ending, while it wrapped up the current story it still left me feeling like I didn't have enough closure, what will happen to these characters? I need to know if everything would be okay!!! I don't think Priest will be writing a sequel, it would be hard to picture what it could be about. For Priest's first YA book I think she did a really good job ( )

3.5 Stars

CW: kidnapping, murder of parents

Well that was a quirky little mystery!

I loved the concept and thought May was a relatable and engaging character. It wasn't an overly exciting book but I think the graphic novel sections within were positioned well as they were little pops of colour and interest throughout the story. It felt like quite a light-hearted story despite the reasonably sinister nature of what actually happened which makes it great for juniors in a high school who want a less menacing mystery. ( )

Fun and compelling mystery. Completely believable? No. But who cares! I don't read for news, I read for fun. This was a fun run through Seattle. ( )