Book Review: Find Me by Romily Bernard

A killer’s closing in…
And two little words are the only clue…
“Find Me”.

If you missed Romily Bernard’s guest post on the blog earlier this week you can check it out here.

Anyone who follows my blog will know that I don’t read many YA thrillers, because usually I find them sort of disappointing, but when I heard about Find Me I knew I had to give it a shot: how many YA books have you come across with a female hacker for the protagonist?  Yep, that’s what I thought.  Anyway, I’m pleased to say that Find Me was a great surprise all around.

Wicket Tate’s as unique as her name.  She grew up on the bad side of town, abused by her dad the local criminal mastermind, and now at seventeen she’s in the foster care system – staying with squeaky clean parents Bren and Todd.  The thing is Wicket knows nothing lasts forever, and when Bren and Todd wake up to who Wicket and her sister Lily really are, they’ll need money, so Wicket hacks.  She investigates guys for concerned women – trolls through their emails, bank statements, mobile phone records, Facebook accounts, the whole nine yards.  Then, on the day of Tessa Waye’s suicide a diary arrives on her doorstep with the simple note ‘FIND ME’.  And suddenly Wicket’s secret seems to be out – someone knows what she does with her external hard drive and her spare time.  But who?  And what really made Tessa Waye jump?

I think my favourite supporting character by far was Griff, I haven’t crushed so hard on a guy with a motorbike since Jesse met Rob in Meg Cabot’s When Lightning Strikes. Griff’s not your typical hunky quarterback either, he’s popular-ish sure, but he’s also wiry and intelligent and complicated… in a good way.  I just hope there’s a sequel (which I’m currently anticipating would be called Remember Me thanks to a great last line) so we get to learn more about what a normal Wicket and Griff relationship would look like.

Now, onto the mystery.  When did I figure out for sure who it was?  Literally thirty seconds before Romily told us.  Now that my friends, is a well written mystery.  Also, I never could quite predict what was going to happen next, chapter to chapter, which kept me flipping pages even when I should be doing other things like say, eating.  I do have quite a busy life, but I still managed to read this in only three sittings – quite unusual for me.  (I do work for a living!)

The best part of this novel for me was probably the dialogue and Wicket’s wicked wit.  Every line gave me a great and consistent image of the character concerned – not something every author can achieve – and Wicket’s mental acuity made this a smart and entertaining read.  I wish I’d had more friends like her in high school, it would have gone faster!  The extracts from Tessa Waye’s diary at the start of each chapter were great additions to the story as well and some of them literally sent shivers through me (I will never look at scrap booking the same way again, unfortunately).

So, if you want a intelligent, engaging YA mystery/thriller, with a large dollop of originality – that doesn’t punk out at the very end but rather increases its pace and ferocity – then check out Find Me, releasing September 24th from Harper Teen.

My Rating: ☼☼☼☼