The Good
The premise for this sounded really good: a thriller with all the suspects gathered together in one place and the victim alive and ready to find out the truth. Also, the main relationship is between two girls, which is another plus in a book for me.

The Bad
Unfortunately, this book did not live up to its potential at all. Everything happens in one room while various cliché characters recount their memories of prom night. This might work out to be interesting, but in this case it’s just a bunch of talking heads, which ends up being very boring. The narrations have nothing to distinguish them form one another and it’s not very interesting to hear about the same events over and over.

The culprit was also painfully obvious almost from the beginning. I’m not very good at figuring out mysteries, so if my first guess was right, that means the mystery wasn’t too great.

The Verdict
I was excited for this one, but unfortunately it was a bit of a disappointment.

Without giving away the plot, let me say that I'm disappointed with who the killer was and how this person was described in this story.

The narration of this story is unlike anything I’ve ever encountered before. It had a shifting time line and is told from many point-of-views, mainly - Jenny, Gabe, Marissa, Liam, Kyla, and Ally’s. Some parts are told in third person but mostly its told in first person.

While this could’ve worked well, the number of repeat scenes, often word for word (copy and paste must’ve been used many times) wore thin and tested my strength to resist the urge to skim read.

The is a story reader’s will love, or not. For me, it had the underlying tone of Carrie by Stephen King. Ironically, early in the story there is mention of a character noticing someone reading a book by none other than Stephen King.

Although I suspected who the perp was early on, and I was right, it didn’t stop me from wanting to read on, mainly to find out what motivated her actions.

I selected this book as lesfic but it doesn’t have that vibe, sure a couple of the girls are bi-curious (their words) but due to being in the closet the heroines are all dating guys. Regardless of what genre this should be in, it most definitely is not a romance in my humble opinion

copy provided by the publisher, Bold Strokes Books, via Netgalley.

I really wanted to like this book. The premise seemed interesting enough and after coming off a bunch of fantasy books, a mystery seemed like a great break. Honestly, this book was one of my least favorites of the year. I had such high hopes for it, but there was just way too many problematic elements and the plot was just not that good. If you want to pick it up and check it out, I’m not going to stop you, but I think there are far better YA mystery books out there. I really wanted to like this one. I really did, but it just was not doing it for me.

For a full review, please check out my blog post here: http://coffeecocktailsandbooks.com/2017/08/16/the-girl-who-wasnt-dead/

I'm giving this one an extra star solely because this is not the type of book I'd expect from Bold Strokes Books--which is a GOOD thing--and I'd really like to see genre diversity like this from the publisher. But wow, after such a terrific premise, the delivery was a total bomb.
Taking away the murder attempt for a moment, it's the familiar premise of getting together 5 or so people who used to be close and have gone through some life event that they're now re-confronting as a group later in life. The problem here though is that only 5 months have passed since the titular "death" yet everyone is waxing poetic about how changed they now are since high school. Had the events taken place 5 years or 10 years, hell, even a year later, already we'd have a stronger story.
The whodunnit (and frankly, also the why) was painfully obvious from the beginning, and I wish an editor had spent more time with this author developing the idea of red herrings and depth.
But the characters are a painful mess of stereotypes and card board cut outs. Do I care about the "secret" relationship between the "trailer trash" and "most popular girl in the school"? Absolutely not--they never jump off the page and we never really see their relationship, it's only told to us. We know more about their nervous habits of chewing fingernails/lips, described ad nauseum, than how the two really relate to each other. On top of that, there's the drug-addled jock, the popular mean girl, the "fat girl" everyone makes fun of, and the pining (angry) best friend. Everyone behaves exactly the way you'd expect them to because you've read or seen that character a thousand times. There is nothing to differentiate them or make you feel for them or their suffering.
I wanted this book to be so much better; instead, I'm recommending it be skipped.

Really wanted to enjoy this book but ended up finishing it just because ....
The title is good and the blurb on the book really drew me in but it is a book for Teens definitely.
It's kind of an Agatha Christie 'Who Dunnit' with each suspect giving their version of the prom night and revealing each had a motive to kill Jenny. I enjoyed the different character POV which has put off other reviewers.
It touches on being bi-curious and very 'be who you are - love who you are - don't be swayed by being the popular girl' Hate the fat geekey kids etc - probably would have enjoyed it when I was 14 but too predictable for me unfortunately.

If you enjoyed Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver then this is for you (a group of high school kids realising how shallow they all really are )

"2 stars / would not recommend

Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read the book before it's release - it will appeal to someone but not me

**Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of THE GIRL WHO WASN'T DEAD by Samantha Boyette in exchange for my honest review**

On prom night, one or more of Jenny's friends kill her, except she survives. Now she gathers them together in a remote cabin to find out who. Not everyone will survive.

THE GIRL WHO WASN'T DEAD had one of the most exciting premises in recent memory. It was on my Amazon wish list and I was so excited to receive an ARC. Thought I wasn't immediately pulled in, I continued reading to about 60% before skipping to the end to find out if my theories were correct (they were).

PROS:
Great premise
Diverse characters

CONS:
Writing

Writing shifted POV with chapter headings listing each point of view. Points of view from various narrator shifted from first to third. I'm not sure why Boyette used both first and third POVs for each character, but this device didn't increase my understanding of the characters or plots. Additionally the narrators' first person POVs all had the same non-engaging voice.

I really wanted to love THE GIRL WHO WASN'T DEAD and write a glowing review. I tried to justify giving two stars to the book, but couldn't find a justification.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
After her dress was found in a river on prom night with no body in sight, Jenny is believed to be dead. Her ex-boyfriend and three classmates receive a text months later from Jenny, accusing them of killing her and saying she has proof.
I was interested in this book having just finished watching Pretty Little Lairs on Netflix and needed another mystery to take its place in my heart.
Sadly, this wasn't it.
Something about this book just didn't click for me, Jenny's character was just kind of meh, I didn't find myself completely absorbed in this book, I was just reading it to finish it but about 50% of the way through. Jenny was just kind of boring, nothing about her character really stood out and made me get behind her and say "I want to know who tried to kill Jenny". The other characters almost ran together in my head, I mean, I knew who each character was, but there was just something about them that didn't pull me in. The writing itself wasn't the best, the conversations that were going on throughout the book were cliched, the jocks calling each other bros, the popular girls calling each other bitch instead of saying hello. I don't know, I really wanted to enjoy this book but I only finished it in the end because I'd made it over half way. The book didn't have much suspense considering the basis for the story, with something just lacking, either the writing style, the dialogue or just the characters as a whole.
I loved the idea of this book, but there was just something about it that didn't hit the mark for me.
2/5 stars

I feel bad about this one. I wanted to love it. It has a great premise for a thriller but unfortunately I found it predictable and lacking tension. There's definitely something to be said for unlikeable characters but all of these were so horrible that I couldn't root for anyone and so I didn't really care what happened in the end.

To be spoiler-free, I'll just say that this book was not as suspenseful or thrilling as the summary had made me hope for. I wasn't scared for or invested in any of the characters at all, and even the twist didn't shock me. The stakes for the characters were too low, I think.

Jenny Lewis is dead, only she's not. She was assumed dead on prom night after her stuff was found and ruled as suicide with no body found.

Now, her friends are getting texts from her as she's alive and wants to know who tried to kill her that night.

Her friends are; Gabe a drug dealer and ex to her who was with Marissa a lot of Prom night, queen B Marissa who didn't like her much and made comments about her appearance a lot, Liam a guy who hangs around with Gabe, Kyla her could be girlfriend who she shared a kiss with before a situation between them occurs...

Ally is her old friend who came to fetch her when she saved herself that horrible night. She's also there helping figure out just what happened, but doesn't Jenny get that maybe those close are hiding something more?

Predictable unfortunately to me, however a great story behind the night with a Gossip Girl and Skins style edge with sex, drugs, overlapping relationships. She doesn't seem to realise that her friend could harbour a sour vengeance towards her. I would highly recommend!

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

I hate not being able to finish a book but infortunately I couldn't do it with this one. None of the characters were likeable and I had zero interest in the story .

THIS. WAS. SO. FREAKING. GOOD. Thriller, suspense, drama, ya, and crazy. Jenny was "killed" and now she is back to find out who tried to kill her and she isn't going to stop until she finds out. It was crazy, I couldn't put this book down for a second.

Please put this on goodreads, so I can write a review for it there! Thank you netgalley for the arc for an honest review. I loved it!!