I had a hard time figuring out how to rate this book. On one hand as a Canadian it is so important for books like this to exist, on the other hand I felt that it tried to do too much. It isn't very often that an author puts spotlight on the widespread (yet under acknowledged) mistreatment of First Nations people. This on its own was an amazing thing to see especially as a Canadian. However the delivery sometimes felt clunky, there were parts of severe info dumping that kind of took away from the flow of the book. I felt it would have been better served to have had Jenny discover the information the way she did with the Starlight tours scene rather than looking it up online and having it thrown at the reader. It would have had more impact coming from character driven interaction rather than just being thrown out there. I did enjoy reading the book as a whole especially given the general content being something that the book world desperately needs to read. The simple idea of a country as a whole sweeping an entire group of people under the rug and hardly anyone gives notice is horrible. It is absolutely something very important that we as a people need to bring attention to and this book does that fairly well. I occasionally felt that the narrative lacked flow and seemed to just have things happen for the sake of it (such as Jenny's "romance") and the story would have probably benefitted without that there. A platonic relationship would have served the same purpose as the romantic one. As well the mystery of Chloe wasn't very mysterious, there was plenty of clues to determine the truth of the situation from very early on. I appreciate that the author went into how cruel high school can be and the devastating effects it can have on people, but I think if the focus was on either the First Nations people or the high school cruelty rather than trying to do both it would have flowed much better. Overall I loved the content but felt that the delivery wasn't everything it could have been.

**Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of THE LIVES OF DESPERATE GIRLS in exchange for my honest review**

The Canadian police are frantically searching for Jenny's white friend Chloe while all but ignoring missing, then found dead classmate and Native Helen. Jenny teens up with resident bad boy Tom to try to solve Helen's murder and hopefully in the process fund Chloe.

THE LIVES OF DESPERATE GIRLS is an example of a rich, multilayered plot gone wrong. First the positive. MacKenzie Common does a great job bringing Rape Culture, slut shaming, racial disparity in law enforcement, racism and sexism into the story. Jenny was a unique character.

Now the negative. When I read a mystery, I expect a quick pace the writing to be filled with tension. Common's tendency to tell rather than show, over-explain and her repeated use of passive verbs made the story drag while often dull. Jenny's narration called rape "sex" and slut shamed Chloe until nearly the end of the book when Jenny realizes and tells that the sex was actually rape. A better option would have been at least having Jenny question consent, if not have her the one who knew but couldn't stand up to the Rape Culture. Not having one character, even a minor one, recognize consent vs rape in 2017 is unconscionable.

I also never bought into why Jenny wasn't forthright with the police, but was willing to conduct her own investigation. The ending fizzled without a payoff.

Unfortunately, I don't recommend Common's well-intentioned story.