What a horrifyingly intriguing concept! I picked up this book solely on the cover/title alone and had no idea what it was going to be about, but wow! I'll for sure be reading the two others that come next in this series because I have to see how it ends.

I can't resist a book that goes hard into left field and just runs with it, and #MurderTrending is one of those stories that you go into knowing it's either going to be a home run or a total wipeout (not sure if my baseball metaphor just fell apart there, but you get the point). For me, it was a home run. It's creative, and clever, and the format is weird in the best possible way. It's not a story you're going to be bored in, that's for sure. It's got some major "Breakfast Club" vibes, but it gives them a totally new set of digs and really owns it until it becomes its own thing entirely. 10/10 for creativity, and I can't wait to see where the story goes next!

**3.5-stars rounded up**

Gretchen McNeil's futuristic YA Dystopian novel #Murdertrending drops you straight into a world where the federal government has privatized part of the prison system. After that decision was made the Postman app was launched. Essentially the app turns capital punishment into a lucrative business by broadcasting death row as the ultimate reality show. <i>Survivor</i> has nothing on this, trust.

In addition to following the inmates, viewers can also follow their favorite executioners, collectively known as the Painiacs. There's fandoms involved. It's a whole thing. The executions are also broadcast, with each executioner coming up with their own creatively brutally ways of taking someone out.

We follow Dee, who after being convicted of killing her step-sister is sent to Alcatraz 2.0, the most famous prison island, to serve out the last of her term. She is set to be executed, but you never know when it will happen. That's half the fun, am I right?

The inmates in Alcatraz 2.0 live fairly freely on the island itself. They have jobs and can socialize with one another. Because of this, Dee ends up making some friends. The friend group is dubbed DRBC, the Death Row Breakfast Club, through social media. Since they all claim to have been wrongfully convicted, they desire to uncover the truth behind Alcatraz 2.0, but what is the truth?

#Murdertrending is a unique and interesting read. I enjoyed the themes explored regarding the criminal justice system and social media's effect on society. It did take me a wee bit to get my bearings with this one because you are literally plopped down in the middle of Dee's world. I just had to relax into it and trust that McNeil would ultimately reveal everything I needed to know about the world and she did.

I enjoyed learning about the inmates and executioners. The executioners all had special names that reminded me of the type of punny names people use in roller derby, which added to the air of over-the-topness. It was fun. I also enjoyed the mystery surrounding the Postman app. You can tell there is some sort of conspiracy happening, but how far does it reach? I tend to enjoy evil corporation vibes and this one definitely channeled that.

Unfortunately, I wasn't crazy about the final reveals. I really wish it had gone in another direction, but that is simply personal taste. With this being said, even though it lost me a bit in the end, I am so happy that I finally made time for this one. I don't think that I will be continuing on with this series, but am still happy to have read this one.

Thank you to the publisher, Freeform, who actually provided me of a copy to read and review back in 2018. My apologies for not getting to it before now. I should have because honestly, I had a lot of fun with it!

This isn't my normal type of read, but I often get asked by (mostly) my teen girls for thriller/murder books and I kinda wanted to see why. I usually perfer to watch these types of tropes and storylines but I did enjoy myself. It kept me engaged and interested in the ending.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of #MurderTrending by Gretchen McNeil.

Holy dystopia batpeople! This was nothing like I expected it to be.

Dee has found herself convicted and sent to Alcatraz 2.0. But this isn't just some normal prison. It's a reality show, and the prisoners are picked off one by one by the terrifying actors, assigned to kill them at anytime. There are unwritten rules that Dee has to follow in order to survive longer, as well as an unlikely gang of other prisoners, who would sooner throw her to the wolves than risk their lives to save her. But with each day that goes by, something isn't sitting right with Dee. The show has changed, people are missing, and the wrong people are being convicted. It appears that there may be something even more sinister happening at Alcatraz 2.0.

Ok, the premise of this was so ridiculous and far fetched, but the author went for it so hard without a single hesitation that it totally worked. I was super into this griiiiiizzzly dystopian game show story. Do not let the YA title get you, some of the violence will turn your stomach inside out. But I loved the girl power, and back story. Very fun.

I LOVE THIS BOOK! LOVE LOVE LOVE. I also love the author and have met her in person and fangirled so hard. This was such a different,unique story. I find myself rereading this book every year. I also love the next books, too.

I tried to read this book several times and unfortunately I could not connect with the chaarcters and story :(

I had to DNF this book because of too much gore and detailed violence. It is set in a not so futuristic world where Alcatraz has been turned into an island full of serial killers hired by the government to track down and kill convicted criminals for sport, while every thing is on a live televised feed for fans. So people are watching people get killed in very gruesome ways for fun. The main character is framed and sent to Alcatraz 2.0 and is trying to stay alive. Disturbing, dark, plot is pretty poor. Diehard horror fans may enjoy it, but other than that, I wouldn't recommend it.

This was a YA thriller version of Black Mirror. It is fast paced and kept me engaged the whole way through. It is a bit violent, but I never felt like it went too far. YA thrillers have been on trend lately and #MurderTrending fits in perfectly.

I don’t even know where to start with this. In a not-too-distant future, convicted criminals who have received the death penalty get shipped to a Survivor-style town, where they work minimum-wage jobs, hang out with their fellow criminals, and get hunted down on live television by celebrity assassins. Dee didn’t murder her stepsister, but she was convicted anyway, and pretty teenagers are always popular additions to the cast of Alcatraz 2.0.

There’s no real character development in Dee or her friends in the Death Row Breakfast Club (I’m not making that up), and while the serial killers’ murderous methods are described in gory, painstaking detail, there’s no real character development on that end either. I wouldn’t mind that so much if the plot held together, but it’s such a crazy mess: Wait, this whole thing has always been about Dee and getting Dee specifically to Alcatraz 2.0? Doesn’t that seem a little — complicated? — for a revenge scenario? I mean, there are actual laws that had to get through Congress to make this happen, which seems like a lot of work to get revenge on one teenage girl. How many years would that take? Did this whole plan start when Dee was in kindergarten?

I’m on board for a good accused-criminal-proving-her-innocence arc, and I’ll happily ruminate on the evils of reality of television, but this book was a mess. Which maybe would have still been okay if it had been an entertaining mess. Alas, it was not.

An interesting read! Purchased for our YA library collection. I encourage all library's with a YA collection to add this book (and the series) to their collection, especially for readers who appreciate a fast-paced story. I wouldn't go as far as to call this a true horror, but it was definitely a fun read.

#MurderTrending was on my TBR for a while so I was excited to finally get the chance to check it out! I loved the idea of the novel and thought it really had a lot of potential. It ended up being a little cheesier and more childish than I was imagining and that was a bit disappointing. I think there was a lot of potential in this novel, but it missed the mark a little. The characters were fun and entertaining, but I think the entire novel felt a little rushed and underdeveloped. All in all, it was entertaining but didn't really leave me wanting more. Thank you to NetGalley and Disney for sending this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Rating 2.5/5

This book took me a long time to finish, largely because I found it so. very. boring. This was especially bad since the book is marketed as a dystopian thriller. If a book is marketed as a thriller, the plot shouldn't be so slow and uninteresting. I had to restart this book so many times that I kept forgetting what had already happened. Overall, a very unmemorable book, BUT I will say that the cover is one of the coolest I saw all of last year.

I did not like this book at all. It was very slow and overall boring. The first parts were kind of okay but just acceptable. But, as of the rest of this piece, it was all over the place. The characters did have their personalities, but they were all just repulsive and I did not connect to any of them.

I am sorry for not reviewing fully but I don’t have the time to read this at the moment. I believe that it wouldn't benefit you as a publisher or your book if I only skimmed it and wrote a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for not fully reviewing!

Dee Guerrara wakes up in the worst possible situation. She has been convicted of a crime and will serve her time in Alcatraz 2.0. This subdivision of the Department of Justice is run by the Postman, who has set up a system in which stylized, branded killers target island inmates and issue the ultimate sentence. The Postman records the events on Alcatraz 2.0 & showcases them in an app, establishing a full fandom around each killer & occasional inmates. After Dee accidentally kills her killer on her first day, she becomes a fan favorite and key target. But the inconsistencies from her trial, and a number of scary coincidences on the island lead her to wonder if Alcatraz 2.0 is even more contrived and terrifying than she originally thought.

#murdertrending is a thrilling page turner with such a unique setting that you can help but be engrossed in Dee's story. The details and systems of Alcatraz 2.0 & the Postman app are half the fun. What a clever setup! Each killer has a ridiculous name and persona (Molly Mauler, who uses wild animals to tear apart her victims; Gucci Hangman, who stages an elaborate theatrical scene for his murders & always uses an expensive scarf as his weapon) & a dedicated fan base. Dee and her fellow inmates, aptly dubbed the Death Row Breakfast Club by app fans, are endearing and easy to root for. The themes and tone of this book are tremendously dark, but for a book filled with killers and murder, it was really fun. I'm concerned about myself for saying that, but the book is so outside of the realm of reality that I never took it super seriously and just enjoyed it for what it is - a suspenseful, fast-paced mystery. Grab this one if you love One of Us is Lying or The Purge movies.

An action-packed story with lots of twists and turns. I really enjoyed this book but recognize that the violent nature may not be for everyone.

A Hunger Games on steroids style fight to the death reality show with a KILLER plot. Sets up for sequel, #murderfunding , coming 2019

This book was MINDBLOWING! I love the characters, the details, the plot, that was very... unique and well-written. A little bit too fast in the beginning, i think. But I STILL LOVED IT!

Actual rating: 1.5 stars
I struggled through this one. I really wanted to DNF it, but I did request it from Netgalley and felt compelled to stick with it. It had all the elements of things I thought I would enjoy in a thriller/dystopian type book, but it just didn't work for me. I didn't like any of the characters at all. I didn't connect with any of the characters at all. Everything seemed so outlandish when I think it was meant to be somewhat believable. Some of the parts are like if Cube had a baby with Saw and then took elements of Gore from Hostel. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this read. I started it back in July if that hints towards how much I struggled to get through it.