No longer interested in reading this. Clearing out old galleys.

Are You Still There was a thrilling young adult novel with plenty of twists and turns to keep you on your toes. The novel starts with a student planting a bomb on a high school campus and leading police straight to it. The bomber never reveals their self and the police are unable to determine who planted the bomb. Then, the bomber starts planting cards in students lockers and sent to the police, taunting further violence. A helpline is set up at the school which forms the heart of this story, made up of 8 students from every social circle imaginable. They have shifts every day after school and take turns in pairs, answering calls and texts from fellow students. But what happens when the bomber is still unhappy and gets really invasive and stalker-like with a student from the helpline, who happens to be the police chiefs daughter?

Centering a novel on a threat against a school is, at best, an iffy proposition. While its important to address such things, to ask kids to consider issues of reporting, privacy, police involvement, cyber bullying , and the like if the topic of school violence isn't well handled it can fall into sensationalism or become trite. This is particularly true when, as in this book, you have students investigating and a love element. In an overly convoluted plot, that is at the same time obvious in several of its twists, a ragtag group of kids from different cliques solve the mystery, even when the cops are at a total loss. It fails as a mystery and is only mediocre as a thriller. It tries to ranscent but fails.

Here's me, requesting a YA thriller to have something fresh to read, as it's a genre I don't normally read. Here's me, having the same crap flung at me that you read in every other book. If I wanted a book about boyfriend drama, I would've picked up a contemporary.

I thought this was going to be a suspenseful read, but the book actually focussed very little on the bombing. It's more a tale of how the princess perfect main character finds a naughty streak by dating a Latino kid. When it did focus on the Stranger, his logs were far from creepy -- they made me roll my eyes at how original it all was. "No one notices me, well they'll notice me now". Add some card game analogies. Heard it all before.

Then there's the big "reveal", which was the only reason why I kept reading -- because I wanted to know who the Stranger was. Which was massively underwhelming. If you're going to keep the identity a secret, at least make it exciting. Incorporate a twist.