Dead Ringer

PLOT TWIST SURVIVAL: A RECIPE

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Ingredients:

1. patience (3 tbsp.)
2. coffee (40 ounces)
3. comfort blanket (1)
4. nightlight (1)
5. optional: blanket fort

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Recipe:

1. Take a tablespoon of patience prior to starting this book. Depending on your reading tastes, the writing style might take some adjusting to, but said adjustment is easily tempered with patience. (Make sure not to go overboard immediately and to space the 3 tbsp. out throughout the first 30% of the book.) As Laura Rivers begins her time at a new school, her struggles are partly expected: she is "the new girl" and has expected a lukewarm welcome. The other part of her struggles, however, come straight out of left field: Laura, others explain, looks eerily like the school's first-ever suicide victim 2 years prior, Sarah Castro-Tanner. (Emphasis on eerily. This will be a running theme.)

2. Take another tablespoon of patience. Wash it down with your first cup of coffee. As Laura adjusts to her new life in the unexpected high school spotlight and struggles to unravel the mystery that was Sarah Castro-Tanner's life, so does the reader trot along in her wake. Laura is promptly befriended by the, Charlie Sanders, star athlete and resident jock in school, to the dismay of Charlie's friends. No one, his friends reason, should want to be associated with that face after Sarah's suicide. Laura's mere presence is a daily reminder for everyone of the tragedy that once befell the school. And soon enough, this reminder will take on a life of its own...

3. Take your second cup of coffee. This is the last time you'll need it to keep you alert. (Soon enough, the plot will be doing that for you.) While there's little about Sarah people are willing to divulge, Laura will soon find that there are plenty who remember her doppelgänger's life all too well. Once a young hacker named Sasha gets wind of the renewed interest in Sarah Castro-Tanner's case, she begins to wonder if Sarah's death was truly a suicide at all. On the other wise of the school gossip, Laura is wondering the same.

4. Add a comfort blanket. Thus the cat-and-mouse game begins. As Sarah's life is bared for the world once more, a game of cat-and-mouse begins between the people who are out to avenge her death, and those they deem responsible. And in the midst of it all - Laura Rivers, the dead ringer for the dead girl. Students, teachers, parents, hackers, friends and babysitters all converge to unravel what happened that fateful night two years ago, why everyone seems to think Charlie Sanders and his friends are responsible, and what their relationship with the dead girl was.

5. Turn on the night-light. Because if you think you know where this story is going, chances are that you don't. If you think of it as a run-of-the-mill mistery where this big revelation is taking place around the 90% mark - think again. If this all feels like a story you've read before - yes, up until the point you might have. But from that point on, Dead Ringer is something quite unexplored in the world of YA Mystery.

6. Retreat into the blanket fort. You are now scared, confused, mildly alarmed by the author's mind, utterly alone and mindblown. You will, however, survive this plot-twisty ending. The nightlight will keep the fear at a manageable level. The coffee and the shock will keep you awake, so you don't have to fear being mangled in your sleep. And the blanket fort will serve as protection against evil spirits you are now seeing everywhere.

7. Repeat until the next book in the series. Nowhere does it say that Dead Ringer is anything other than a standalone. But believe me when I tell you - it most definitely is not.

Ok more like 4 1/2 stars... The only reason why 1/2 a star is missing is because HELLO that ending was brutal. That was a cliff hanger above a sea of zombies. (yes I related it The walking dead) Ok so now about this book. This was an insane read. I started this book and was instantly drawn in and couldn't drop it for about 6 chapters. I just couldn't stop reading. Then I hit a block. Now this block I hit is more so for me and not because of the writing. So let me explain. I am hispanic & nosy as all hell so when I start getting impatient with something I take a break from it and then come back to it. So because of my characteristics I was slower in the middle of the book. Not at all because of the writing because every time I went back & picked it up I would get sucked in just a tiny bit more again and then I would get impatient with myself. Every time I would get impatient I would step away because I didn't want to be that person to skip to the end and read backward for the sake of answers. Boy am I thankful that I didn't read it backwards for answers because it made the WTF moments that much better. I found myself actually screaming "WHAT THE FUCK" at the dining room table while stuffing my face with a double cheeseburger from McDonalds so it probably sounded for like "Gwuat ga fugggg" and yeah the family looked at me like I was crazy. In that moment I knew that I needed that next book asap and that this book was awesome! this was such a good read and wow the PLOT TWIST are like WOAH I had to take a snack break to continue. This was full of mystery and the way that its written already makes your wonder "what is going on?" You are reading 3 different peoples POV. You have Laura, Charlie, & Sasha! Its up to us the reader to try to put things together. So now to the important question Jessie Rosen when is the next book coming out? Don't make us wait long. So many futures are hanging in the air and and so many pasts need to be uncovered still. Amazing ride with this one and I can't wait for the next book. So many answers!!!

Dead Ringer by Jessie Rosen is a chillingly devious novel with numerous gotcha moments. It really starts to make you reconsider your thoughts on who would normally be a villain.

I received this copy of Dead Ringer by Jessie Rosen from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Ohhhh Jessie Rosen, how I hate you right now. You sell me on this mediocre story, I putz along, meandering through the sights.

Then you drop this HUGE FREAKING BOMB of a twist, and suddenly I'm running along this winding trail trying to keep up with you, looking wildly at everything to make sure I don't miss anything else coming at me.

And then? When I'm all pumped up and waiting for the ending to end all endings?

You leave me with a cliffhanger. I giant, gaping cliffhanger that I can't cross and can't puzzle out and I am SO MAD at you for doing this to me. I didn't know this was going to be a two-parter. If I had known, I wouldn't have gotten so riled up and gung-ho about the whole thing. I wouldn't have been in such a rush to finish it last night when I could have been watching The Walking Dead instead.

Dead Ringer is intense and twisty and awesome. I still don't know the answers to two mysteries, and it's driving me crazy.

What I DO know, though...holy crap. Laura's path through the muddied waters of Englewood's high school elite is one hell of a trip. It ends up being much more than you expect it to be, and for that I give a standing ovation to this author.

If you're REALLY dying to know.... read the book. Normally I'll stick the big reveal in a spoiler tag and then talk about how awesome it is, but in this case, you just need to read it. No spoilers here. You have to travel down the same path I did.