Title: The Lonely Dead
Author: April Henry
Published: January 29th, 2019
Pages: 240
Quick synopsis: A killer is on the loose, and only one girl has the power to find him. But in this genre-bending YA thriller, she must first manage to avoid becoming a target herself.
For Adele, the dead aren’t really dead. She can see them and even talk to them. But she’s spent years denying her gift. When she encounters her ex best friend Tori in a shallow grave in the woods and realizes that Tori is actually dead -- that gift turns into a curse. Without an alibi, Adele becomes the prime suspect in Tori’s murder. She must work with Tori’s ghost to find the real killer. But what if the killer finds Adele first?
Goodreads Rating: 3.49
My Rating: 5.0
Would I recommend?: YES!
Why?: This book is the main reason you should never ever judge a book by its cover. You look at the cover and you think, “That’s not even a YA book...and it’s probably not even much of a mystery novel.” At least, that’s what I thought! Amazingly, I was proven wrong on BOTH counts.
It was definitely YA considering it followed Adele, a high-schooler, just trying her best to get through high school. The Lonely Dead had just enough mystery-thriller to keep you on the edge of your seat, but not too much where it was excessive and disturbing.
This was such a fun read! Despite it being a quick read, the story immediately pulled me in and held my attention the entire way through. The writing was fantastic, and the storyline was so well organized that every scene had a purpose. I loved the whole story of how Adele can speak to dead people, but everyone thinks she’s just schizophrenic, and she has to prove to people that she is not the killer.
I cannot recommend this book more to people. If you want a quick read, pick this up. If you love mystery-thrillers, pick this up. If you just like YA, PLEASE pick this up. This book needs to be made known to the world!
Thank you to MacMillan Publishers for providing me with an Advanced Readers Copy of this book.
