Review: What Happened That Night by Deanna Cameron
Print Length: 328 pages
Publisher: Wattpad Books (September 17, 2019)
From Goodreads.com:Griffin Tomlin is dead. And Clara’s sister killed him . . .
Four months after the murder, the entire town of Shiloh is still in shock. For Clara Porterfield, the normal world has crumbled around her in a million chaotic pieces. Now Clara lives in a new reality, where her sister awaits trial for murder, her mother obsessively digs in a dead, frozen garden, and her father lives and breathes denial. At school, Clara is haunted by her classmates' morbid curiosity—and all of the unspoken questions they won’t ask.
But none of them knows what she knows . . .
Now Clara's sister wants something from her—the one thing in all of this that Clara isn't ready to face: the truth about what really happened that night. Because this story didn't die with Griffin Tomlin. There's another story that needs to be told. And sometimes, the lies we're told are nowhere near as deadly as the lies we tell ourselves . . .
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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5
This was one of those stories that with a few more rounds of editing could easily be four or five stars. The story was interesting enough, although I believe the synopsis should come with a trigger warning and not just the forward once you begin reading.
Part of the problem with this story is that it jumps not only from place to place but also between what is happening and what happened before. While the "now" and "before" passages are clearly marked, it's the going from place to place that got to me. One minute they are in school, and the next they are somewhere else entirely.
Then you get into characters. None of them felt as fleshed out as they could be. Clara understandably has issues. There were parts of her that felt real. And then there were parts that had me going REALLY? She seemed to want people to believe her without question when she finally told the truth, but couldn't give them the same courtesy.
I wanted to like Aniston. Her over the top personality coupled with the fact that she was like a dog with a bone was intriguing. However, the fact that she somehow managed to solve a crime that didn't even happen near where she lived? It was a bit out there. The same could be said for the fact that Kolby. Griffin's BEST FRIEND, couldn't when it counted, recognize not only that is wasn't Gryffin's brother he saw, but that the girl he was with was the girl that Kolby claimed to have been in love with?
Overall, there is a lot of potential in this story. And I do think that it will appeal to people who enjoy novels that don't pull any punches when it comes to describing things most people find unappealing, however, for me, this one just fell short of where I think the author was trying to go.
This was one of those stories that with a few more rounds of editing could easily be four or five stars. The story was interesting enough, although I believe the synopsis should come with a trigger warning and not just the forward once you begin reading.
Part of the problem with this story is that it jumps not only from place to place but also between what is happening and what happened before. While the "now" and "before" passages are clearly marked, it's the going from place to place that got to me. One minute they are in school, and the next they are somewhere else entirely.
Then you get into characters. None of them felt as fleshed out as they could be. Clara understandably has issues. There were parts of her that felt real. And then there were parts that had me going REALLY? She seemed to want people to believe her without question when she finally told the truth, but couldn't give them the same courtesy.
I wanted to like Aniston. Her over the top personality coupled with the fact that she was like a dog with a bone was intriguing. However, the fact that she somehow managed to solve a crime that didn't even happen near where she lived? It was a bit out there. The same could be said for the fact that Kolby. Griffin's BEST FRIEND, couldn't when it counted, recognize not only that is wasn't Gryffin's brother he saw, but that the girl he was with was the girl that Kolby claimed to have been in love with?
Overall, there is a lot of potential in this story. And I do think that it will appeal to people who enjoy novels that don't pull any punches when it comes to describing things most people find unappealing, however, for me, this one just fell short of where I think the author was trying to go.
DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.
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What Happened That Night is available from Amazon.com
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