Review for Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas 
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release: 18th July 2013
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Thriller
Source: Received from the publishers in exchange for an honest review




Amazon Summary:

"It's Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives. But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations. As Anna sets out to find her friend's killer; she discovers hard truths about her friendships, the slippery nature of truth, and the ache of young love. As she awaits the judge's decree, it becomes clear that everyone around her thinks she is not just guilty, but dangerous. When the truth comes out, it is more shocking than one could ever imagine..."

Review 
As is with any good murder mystery the enigma surrounding Dangerous Girls is one of the best things about the book, the less you know – the better! So straight off the bat I’m going to say that if you love edgy YA contemporary or gripping thrillers you will NOT want to miss Dangerous Girls which promises to be *the* YA thriller of the summer. Although I’m going to keep this review spoiler free, if you like the sound of this book and are just after my personal opinion I loved it and I encourage you to stop reading right here and go buy it because the less you know about it the better this book will be for you. However if you’re not completely sold yet and need a little more info feel free to read on without fear of getting spoiled.

Dangerous Girls is told in various different forms from television transcripts to crime reports but the majority of the book is told in a first person narrative from Anna throughout different stages of her friendship with best friend and murder victim Elise. I absolutely loved the way this book was written; every chapter gives you a piece of the puzzle that you put together as the book goes on. Each character has a dark side and their own secrets that get revealed slowly throughout the book and because of this you’re never sure who to trust, who is lying, or if these secrets connect to the murder.

One of my favourite things about Dangerous Girls was how it shows that in a certain light anyone of us could look like we’re capable of murder. From an argument with the victim, to an “I could just kill them!” text message after a hard day, we’ve all done it, we’re all guilty. It was scary how the investigators would take such mundane things and twist them into something sinister. Anna is your typical teenage girl yet so many little things she’d done in the past got twisted around. I loved Anna as our protagonist and felt horrified and scared along with her at the terrifying situation she’s put in.

Dangerous Girls was a book that I couldn’t put down, I’d read it long into the night and at every chance I could get and it kept me guessing until the very end. The way the story was unveiled was perfection, the pacing was fuelled by an intense need to know what happened on that fateful night, and the characters were wickedly complex as was their tangled relationships with one another. I could not get enough of this book and the ending blew me away. Basically Dangerous Girls is one of the best YA thrillers I’ve ever read and is a must read for this summer!