With Malice

By: Eileen Cook

Narrated by: Whitney Dykhouse

Eighteen-year-old Jill Charron wakes up in a hospital room, leg in a cast, stitches in her face and a big blank canvas where the last 6 weeks should be. She comes to discover she was involved in a fatal accident while on a school trip in Italy three days previous but was jetted home by her affluent father in order to receive quality care. Care that includes a lawyer. And a press team. Because maybe the accident...wasn't an accident. Wondering not just what happened but what she did, Jill tries to piece together the events of the past six weeks before she loses her thin hold on her once-perfect life.

©2016 Eileen Cook (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Didn't live up to the hype

This book was listed as a mystery thriller and yeah it was a mystery but not so much a thriller. It's about two besties who get in a car accident abroad and one ends up dead. The other is suspected of murder but has no memory of the events leading up to or right after the accident. The story itself was pretty good and moved along at a steady pace. By the middle I had a good idea of the girls friendship dynamic and had basically figured out the gist of what had happened. I'm a fan of books that involve memory loss and piecing the past together but the overall plot in this wasn't as exciting as I had expected. Maybe it's because the book was pretty hyped up before I read it. Oh well. The main character Jill was kind of bland. I didn't connect with her. I found myself more just wanting to find out what happened than actually caring about the outcome for her. At least it was a quick listen.

My opinion...

Story was good, but not great, I love mysteries& even ya mysteries, but when this ended...I was like what?! I even double checked my chapter list to make sure. It was getting really good, I was very into to it & then poof! It was over. I'm not sure I even know what really happened. It's not a bad story at all, just wish it hadn't ended so quickly, I feel like there was more to tell. The performance was great, lots of characters & believable accents, just feel a little cheated at the end.

Engaging

I liked the pace and the ending! The voice actor’s choice to try to do an Italian accent was embarrassing 😬

Great

First half of the book was good, but I dont like the ending. Still a great book

How to piece together the past

I enjoy unreliable narrator stories although they also annoy me. Part of me knows to question everything – and part of me wants to believe the best in the girl/woman. Jill is 18, so she straddles the line. She’s a senior in high school, but is also graduating in a few weeks. When she wakes up in the hospital with no memory of the pas six weeks, she struggles to make sense of her life. Of what happened. Of how she’s going to cope with her new life.

I wanted to like Jill. I certainly understood the desire for perfection, and the need to win at any cost. I try not to be competitive like that, but little moments creep up on me. I also knew Jill wasn’t all she appeared to be. So I tried to hold her at arm’s length.

I didn’t see the ending coming – although maybe I should have. The signs were clearly in the book when I looked upon it retrospectively. I don’t read a lot of YA, so some of the maturity of the characters surprised me – I wasn’t so knowledgeable at eighteen, that’s for sure. More a sign that kids today live in a different world.

I want to mention the narrator, Whitney Dykhouse. I’m not a huge fan of high voices but this Ms. Dykhouse had the perfect voice for the story. I enjoyed this book and will be heading off to listen to more.