It takes a lot for me to not like a private school mystery that's been compared to Twin Peaks and The Secret History, but this did it. ( )

CW: Rape, murder, suicide, graphic sexual content ( )

I'd so looked forward to reading this book, but the problems only mounted and snowballed one upon another as I kept going with it.

The first problem was a lack of suspense--what turned out to be the mystery didn't seem to be a mystery at all in the beginning, so that I spent 70 or so pages wondering what genre I was reading, and where/when the suspense would even come into play. The fact that the narrator wasn't particularly likeable or engaging didn't help. Soon after the mystery became understood, though, other problems became more prominent. The narrator and those around her would reach conclusions that didn't make sense based on the book itself and the known facts--they made sense based on what the author was clearly building toward, but not based on the facts. I don't really mind characters jumping to conclusions (people do jump to conclusions, after all), and I don't mind characters being of only average intelligence (not all people are so smart as the average mystery protagonist, after all), and I don't even mind an occasional coincidence if it doesn't seem to come out of left field. BUT, when you have characters (that's right, plural, characters) jumping to the correct conclusion over and over again, without any apparent reason to do so except for the fact that the author hasn't bothered to include enough steps to allow them to reach logical conclusions and uncover mysteries, beyond just knowing them, AND all of the primary characters are a bit dumb and a bit boring, AND there are a fair number of coincidences... well, let's just say that I'm less than interested.

The funny thing is, I kept reading because I wanted to know the answer to the mystery, but it turned out that the author had a lot more fun flinging up red herrings that meant absolutely nothing, and pulling together soap-opera-type drama to the extent that it became more laughable than believable, than plotting what might have been a really enjoyable novel.

So, no, I don't recommend this book, and I won't be reading anything else by Anolik. This could have been a good book, based on the bare bones plot. Instead, it was needlessly complicated and still, somehow, not all that interesting. ( )

Dark Rooms is a mystery about Grace Baker, a college student who returns home months after her high school graduation and her sister Nica's murder. After a long investigation, her murderer is found to be a longer who loved her and killed her, then himself. Grace no longer believes that and, with the help of local bad boy Damon Cruz, she starts her own investigation.

This one gets 3/5 stars from me. I might have made it 4 if not for the utter stupidity of the police. Can't say much more without spoiling it but you'll know when you read it. Other than that it was a phenomenal story. Had some uncomfortable moments but I believe they were meant to be uncomfortable as that's how Grace is most of the time. A fun read. Give it a shot. ( )

3.5 stars.

This is a good debut fiction novel. ( )