Reviews with content warning for Blood - That Weekend

It truly hurts me to rate a Kara Thomas book below 5 stars. The Cheerleaders was the first book I read when I got back into reading and it blew my mind. As soon as this book was announced I pre-ordered the audiobook, and then forgot about it for almost 2 years.

So we follow Claire as she wakes up stranded in the forest. She is able to get help and winds up in the emergency room, the catch being she can't remember anything past friday night (the story starts on Sunday). Part 1 follows Claire and her quest for answers. I was so invested and devoured this first part of the story.

Part 1 ends after a body is found. The body being a local who hit kat's dad with a car and police presume he killed Kat and Jesse later tossing their bodies into the river. This felt like a very natural ending but since we still have 3 parts let I knew something more was happening.

Part 2 follows Claire after police have closed the investigation. Watching Claire grow and cope with her best friends death was so depressing. She then finds a missing piece of information that could open the investigation back up.

Part 3 & 4 were a pretty big let down. This follows the same plot that "Suicide Notes from beautiful Girls" by Lynn Weingarten. However I was really liking this take on it.

Claire finds out that her friends did in fact survive and planned the whole thing. At this point we follow Kat's perspective and find that her dad was abusive. This led to them faking her and Jesse's kidnapping to escape the abuse and get her families money. At this point Kat and Claire are now mortal enemies because they love the same boy, ignoring the last 10-15 years of friendship. Claire tracks down their location and finally finds out the truth. I was pretty over it at this point. Like there wasn't a moment where Claire was just happy that her bestfriend Kat was alive. It felt like the emotional growth we watched Claire have was just thrown out the window. I also HATE the ending twist of Jesse and Kat being siblings. I'm sick of that twist and have never once liked it. Also why would the grandma say "don't date him" instead of "He's your half-brother"? And the fact that Jesse knew before all of this happened was fucking disgusting.

One thing I was missing in this book was the secretiveness of the story. In The Cheerleaders there was a mystery that was never solved. We as the audience were told in the last pages but none of the characters knew. I was really hoping that would be a common theme across the authors novels. I am still so excited for "Out of the Ashes" and can't wait to read it.

Content Warnings

bookedandbusy's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I really enjoyed this one! It was a captivating thriller and I didn’t know who to trust. The ending felt a little abrupt, but other than that, this was a great read!

Content Warnings

beckyremillard's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

themoodreader's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

_chelseachelsea's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Something I really like about Kara Thomas is her skill for pacing. Many thrillers unfold too slowly - dragging out the mystery until the last possible second, then rushing through the explanation like a Bond villain - or too quickly, in a way that feels unrealistic and overly convenient. This was my second Thomas novel (the first being The Cheerleaders) and I continue to be impressed by the way she manages to balance tension with realism. That Weekend feels like a play, with a first act that lays out just enough information to draw you in, a second act that unravels with impeccable timing, and a finale that delivers satisfying answers. While the mystery isn’t necessarily jaw-droppingly clever or unique, I don’t think that’s a weakness. In fact, I‘m finding more and more as I read thriller after thriller that a believable story is infinitely harder to pull off than a ridiculous one.

For most of the book, I had a 4.25-4.5 star rating in mind. I loved the narrator, Claire, who we follow as she struggles to recall the events that led her to be found bloody and concussed on a mountain she doesn’t remember stepping foot on. Claire is smart, but stubborn. She is petty, but she cares. She feels like a real teenager, on the cusp of adulthood and unsure of who she wants to be. When her life is toppled by trauma her response to it feels true, not contrived, and when she starts digging for answers it’s not because she’s a scrappy hometown hero with a sudden burst of detective skills - it’s because she cannot move forward from her own grief without the answers she thinks will resolve it. Again, Thomas demonstrates a real understanding of loss.

The one complaint I have, which ultimately caused me to drop my rating to a 4.0, is that while the finale does give a satisfying resolution to the story - without tying it up too neatly in a way that feels cheap - there are a few “bonus” twists that I felt warranted more attention. One of my biggest pet peeves in a thriller or mystery is when a plot point feels rushed or thrown in at the last minute. By the time these shockers are dropped on us, the pages are drawing to a close. There’s no time to explore the meaning or impact of them. I found it frustrating that by the time we were really getting to learn more about these other characters, our time with them was over.

Outside of that peeve, That Weekend is an excellent novel about guilt, grief, and the burden of secrets - even the ones we must keep to protect ourselves.

Content Warnings

bibliorama's review

Go to review page

emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Enjoyment - 4.5
The audiobook narrator was quite good and brought a lot of emotion to the performance. I also liked the look at grief this book brings. Some of the tropes this book covers is memory loss, friends go missing in the woods during a camping trip, complicated friend dynamics.

Start - 5
We start out with our mc not remembering anything, and where she is initially found adds a lot of tension to the plot. There is a sense of threat to her, but based on her not being able to remember anything the feeling lingers.

Characters - 4
These were pretty rounded characters for ya mystery -- and I only say that not to rag on ya, but because right after this I read 5 Total Strangers. Now that was the opposite of well-rounded. Without giving away spoilers, I felt for the main character and by the end was like girl it's time for you to move on and find some new friends.

Atmosphere - 2.75
This was the lowest score simply because it felt like this plot could have happened anywhere, and there isn't anything super specific about the location or vibe that makes it stand out. Which is fine. The story was still enjoyable without that.

Plot - 4
There were some twists that I could see coming, but they were still executed well. And, there were some twists that I didn't guess entirely. How the main character found clues also felt natural and not out of thin air.

Ending - 3.75
I liked the final conflict between the mc and a few other characters. It didn't go down how I was expecting and yet it felt real to who the characters are. I think there was room for this story to push the thriller parts even further to make the stakes rise higher.

Style - 4
Easy and digestible without being too simple.

Overall - a solid 4

Content Warnings

More...