Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
This really was amazing. I didn't realize it but I had been craving a mystery like this. I didn't think mystery was my genre but man did I love the mystery aspect of this. Especially the cliff hanger ending... man. I wanted to go to the bookstore right now (10:08pm) to pick up the next book in series. I'll probably get it before work tomorrow.
There were a lot of things about this that I really enjoyed. I enjoyed the characters, especially Stevie (clearly), and I liked that each of the characters had some background and extra details given to them. However, I still didn't feel super close or connected to any of them. This might be exactly what the author intended, just so you don't trust or get to know anyone fully, which I would respect if that was truly the intention, but if not, I think more could've been done to get a more connected feelings to the closer side/main characters; I'm not super sure how to explain what I mean, Stevie's friends, the ones she interacted with the most, whatever.
Something that I didn't expect to like was all of the detail throughout the book. I am not one for descriptions and extra long rambly nothings in a book. In this book, it wasn't rambly but it was just enough for me to be like hmm okay I know more about whatever is being described and I liked that. In a mystery I like to know what's going on, all the details and descriptions matter so it's important for me to have those. However, I did skim a few times just because I got so invested that I started plot chasing. So not a fault of the book because like I said I did enjoy the descriptiveness.
The beginning of the book to me felt really slow though. I know I said I enjoyed the descriptive parts of it and I clearly did, but I just felt like it took forever for the book to actually get going. It was just they traveled from here to here. Stevie did this and then she did this. Contributing what seemed like nothing to the actual story or plot. I got to learn about Stevie and her parents and the other characters but oh god the plot just never actually started, it was all just building and building and even more building. Again, I'm not complaining about the actual descriptions because I did enjoy learning what I did but I didn't enjoy how long it took for the plot to actual get somewhere. This was why the book isn't a five star read.
Once the plot did get going, man it got going. The alternating perspectives between what is current day with Stevie and the past where the original mystery took place was perfect. I loved learning everything about the mystery and the riddles and how everything just related. Something about the intrigue made it so incredibly enjoyable for me. I found myself trying to guess the mystery but I didn't guess the cliffhanger ending (although if I was looking for clues I probably could've, then again I may be giving myself too much credit).
This really was a great book and I enjoyed it a lot! Going to definitely pick up the next book tomorrow at work.
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