Cover Image: Swipe Right for Murder

Swipe Right for Murder

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Member Reviews

This feels overly long and a little messy in places, but I did enjoy it, and will read more from this author.

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The writing, plot, and characters are unique and colorful in Swipe Right For Murder, where a teenage boy finds himself in the middle of some terrorists and the FBI after a dating app hookup goes wrong. The voice that Milman has in his writing is so strong, and I fell in love with his style. He brought the characters to life for me and I read the book in one day. I found some aspects to be a bit hard to believe, but I get over that pretty easily so i still enjoyed all the craziness. The book brings up so many contemporary issues in a really intelligent way. Homophobia and how to deal with it in our country is so relevant and needs to be talked about more. I appreciated the representation and diversity in the novel as well.

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Swipe Right for Murder by Derek Milman is a young adult LGBTQ+ thriller. The story is a fast paced, adrenaline fueled adventure in which a teen goes on the run. The main character, Aidan, finds himself alone in a hotel so he decides to swipe right and find a hook up for the night. Of course instead of a fun night Aidan ends up on the run when he’s suspected of murder.

Now normally I’m all about a fast paced book where I don’t get a chance to catch my breath before the next twist comes along. However, when it came to Swipe Right for Murder some of the action just seemed over the top causing a bit of eye rolling as I turned the pages. In the end I just found the story to be so-so with some things I liked, the pace being at the top of the list, but then of course some I didn’t.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Not my piece of cake, yet it I think for younger readers will be enjoyable! I didn't connect with any of the characters, and found myself skimming...but I could see a younger version of myself eagerly turning the pages.

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My friend read this book, and unfortunately I no longer want to read it. I just don't think it's a book I need to spend time on anymore, and I don't think my review would be positive. It just sounds like a bunch of choices were made that were... certainly interesting ones.

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Aidan is away at a boarding school in NYC when he accidentally gets mixed up in a cyberterrorist group targeting anti-LGBTQA people and groups.

This wasn't a bad read... but it was a little bit confusing at times. I often found myself having to go back a few pages, as the timeline or events just felt off. I don't think it was necessarily the pacing, but just felt like little things pulled me out of the story because I was scratching my head to figure things out a bit more than I would have liked.

I do like the character progression for Aidan and others though, and as a character-driven reader it definitely improved the book for me. I was able to overlook some of the things that left me scratching my head and focus more on the individual characters.

Overall, I give this a 3.5/5 stars, but will be rounding up to 4 on whole number sites, primarily because of the character development.

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So wow, so much about this book is just wow. I didn't even remember that I had this book on my tbr list until now and I've been pretty much binge read this book because I couldn't help but find myself sucked into this book. There is so much to process that'll leave you just as confused as Aiden. The suspense of wondering who was after him, who was the bad or good guy and wondering who to trust. Like my mind is in a jumble after reading this book, there was just so much to process and its not even a bad thing. I loved how this book turned out.

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I received this book in exchange for an honest review, which has not altered my opinion of this book.

Trigger warning: drug use, talks of suicide, panic attacks, adult/teen sexual relationship, alcohol

This book was addicting. I had planned on reading it over the course of a whole day and found myself sitting down and reading it in just a few hours. While the first half was a bit more confusing, I understand that it was because our main character was very confused as well. Which was an interesting way of doing things, I really liked it. Following Adrian throughout everything that was happening was heartbreaking but also felt so realistic, we really got to see him grow as a person and figure himself out.

I have to say that the rep in this story was very well done! I think the best (or worst depending) part was the anxiety rep and the feeling that Adrian got when he was having a Panic Attack. This is something that no one really talks about, but intense panic attacks can really feel like a heart attack, and are very painful and stressful and can get to the point where the cause people to pass out. Not only that, but it was refreshing to see a character who was flat out refusing drugs by the end when he had little to no inhibitions at the beginning. The growth was amazing and so realistic in the most unrealistic situation.

I do feel as though parts at the end were not needed, and went all over the place. However, it is a work of fiction and I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys the Bourne movies, mostly because this reminds me of a child who could end up in that world. Simply put, so much is thrown at Adrian and he is truly used by the people around him that he would be one to never trust a person of power again. It’s kinda messed up at points. Anyway, I’m blabbering. Overall, I give this book 4.5 out of 5 because it was an addicting story that I thoroughly enjoyed!

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This was a middle-of-the-road read for me. While I liked a lot of aspects, there were some things I disliked, and overall, I just didn't feel strongly enough about the book to really warrant adding an in-depth review to the blog.

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I wish I could have liked this book. I should have known better, since I generally have not liked any YA book with James Paterson’s name attached to it. But I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt. I DNF before 10% because it was just slow and too much filler with no inclination of anything to happen in re: the premise of the book.

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This book was not all what I had expected it to be. I guess when a book is given so much hype, its up to you to judge if it is in fact, all the rave. It was hard to get into and the characters were not relatable at all. It felt forced.

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This book promised a kind of Gossip Girl - meets - Alfred Hitchcock thriller, and I was ready for the ride, but while the idea was kinda irresistible, the execution was just eh. It felt like an 80s TV knock-off of a cinematic thriller, which was disappointing because the beginning had a lot of promise.

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There wasn't anything wrong with it per say. The content of the book just wasn't what I was expecting and I had a hard time connecting with the plot or the characters.

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I’ve had success with titles under James Patterson’s imprint so I was very excited to receive this from NetGalley and Jimmy Patterson in return for an honest review. ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The first 1/3 of the book sets up what I think would be a good PG-13 flick catering to the Fast and Furious crowd. The entire tale is fast paced and full of shenanigans but it gets a little too crazy for me. I did like the American Beauty vibes it gave off between the main character Aidan and the father of his friend but I wished it would’ve stayed more believable/suburban. It is technically YA after all. I see why it went off on all cylinders. ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Here’s the part I take issue with and the clincher for the rating. With an LGTBQ lead portraying some common circumstances not often spoken about and an ally person of color as his best friend, many opportunities to speak to the state of civil rights were not just missed but seemingly dismissed. It’s not a requirement for me to like the lead and Aidan is not particularly likable but at one point he calls strangers in a club “fucktards” for being overzealous. ⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Not a good look even in a book.

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Unfortunately, I did not get. the chance to read this ARC prior to its release--I'm hoping to work through my backlist now that we're home for the coming weeks!--but we did end up buying this book for the library collection.

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Ahhhh I loved this book, so much and it was totally unexpected! If you guys haven't read this yet, do yourself a favor and pick it up!!

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I was very excited to read this based on the description, but the writing and the plot weren't for me--I found too much of the plot far-fetched for my taste. I would recommend this for folks interested in young/new adult thrillers who want fast-paced action and don't mind suspending disbelief.

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Unfortunately I have to DNF this book at 23% read.

This is probably the first book I don't want to DNF and have no enjoyment of doing so. The writing style is fine and I have enjoyed the plot to this point, but every time I pick this up it makes me slumpy and then I can't get out of it. I'm really not sure why I'm not in sync with this book, but I'm not and the only logical thing for me to do is set it aside and not worry about forcing myself to read it.

I would very much like to come back to it and finish it at some point, but it will probably require the audiobook since I just can't get into it.

**Please note, I don't usually give star ratings to things I can't finish because it usually is reflected on my reading and enjoyment of the book, but for purposes of NetGalley I must have a star rating and since I couldn't get more than 23% into Swipe Right for Murder I am giving it 1 star. This will likely change if and when I am able to actually finish this book.**

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DNFing at 5%. I really wanted to push through on this book, but it feels like they're really trying to throw the fact that the main character is gay in your face. Not about it. I'm just not warming up to any of the characters yet and not into it. So disappointed - I had high hopes for this book.

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Swipe Right for Murder is a fast-paced, pulse-racing book that reads like a Hitchcock thriller for today's audience. I will readily admit that some of the cyber talk went over my head, but I was willing to suspend disbelief to go all in with this sympathetic narrator and the impossible situation in which he found himself. Absolutely loved the LGBTQ angle, and the unique way it was woven into the plot. A great, timely thriller.

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