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A review by sarahanne8382
Wish You Were Dead by Todd Strasser
4.0
Warning! This is one scary book! I ended up staying up to finish this book because I literally couldn't sleep. Str-S-d starts a blog complaining about the popular kids in their high school and even starts to talk about how they wish some of them would die. When these popular kids start disappearing no one in the comfortable suburb of Soundview can believe this is happening in their safe little community. In the first of many twists, the story is primarily told from the perspective of "nice" popular girl Madison. She's friends with everyone who's disappeared and determined to find out what's happened to her friends before it happens to her too.
I liked that this one could have easily have become a book just about bullying or other issues of high school popularity, so I liked that when the whole story was revealed it was a little more complicated than that. At the same time, I felt like the book was such an adrenaline rush that I would have liked to go back and explore some of the social dynamics touched on in the story. Of course there's a reason that so many books, movies, tv shows, etc. are made exploring the complicated waters of high school hierarchies, so maybe we don't need another one.
It really surprised me how violent this book was, not graphically so, but events that occur are very unsettling. This is definitely a book for mature teen readers. I don't do well with horror movies and I think that's a big part of why, once I got to a certain point, I had to finish this book before I could sleep. Still, the story was solid and it wouldn't have scared me so much if it hadn't been well told. I definitely recommend this one to anyone who has the stomach for serious suspense.
I liked that this one could have easily have become a book just about bullying or other issues of high school popularity, so I liked that when the whole story was revealed it was a little more complicated than that. At the same time, I felt like the book was such an adrenaline rush that I would have liked to go back and explore some of the social dynamics touched on in the story. Of course there's a reason that so many books, movies, tv shows, etc. are made exploring the complicated waters of high school hierarchies, so maybe we don't need another one.
It really surprised me how violent this book was, not graphically so, but events that occur are very unsettling. This is definitely a book for mature teen readers. I don't do well with horror movies and I think that's a big part of why, once I got to a certain point, I had to finish this book before I could sleep. Still, the story was solid and it wouldn't have scared me so much if it hadn't been well told. I definitely recommend this one to anyone who has the stomach for serious suspense.