Review: Truly, Madly, Deadly by Hannah Jayne

Title: Truly, Madly, Deadly
Author: Hannah Jayne
Series: n/a
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: July 2, 2013
Source: received from publisher via Netgalley
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Sawyer Dodd has it all. She's a star track athlete, choir soloist, and A-student. And her boyfriend is the handsome all-star Kevin Anderson. But behind the medals, prom pictures, and perfect smiles, Sawyer finds herself trapped in a controlling, abusive relationship with Kevin. When he dies in a drunk-driving accident, Sawyer is secretly relieved. She's free. Until she opens her locker and finds a mysterious letter signed by "an admirer" and printed with two simple words: "You're welcome."

The potential for creepiness was off the charts with this book.  The title, the cover, those two eerie words.  All of this led me to believe that Truly, Madly, Deadly would be a great psychological thriller...the kind that would keep me up reading till all hours of the night and leave me with disturbing dreams.

Somehow, the execution failed to deliver for this reader.  First, the book was relatively short and I read it pretty quickly, so there was no need to stay up reading and invite nightmares of my own making.  But I think the book suffered because of the length.  The pacing was rather quick, pushing the reader toward red herring after another, and though my theory from left field came to fruition, I still don't like the why and how of it.

That's partially because the characters themselves, as well as their motivations, never made all that much sense.  For one, the main character is the girl in the horror film who runs upstairs instead of getting out of the house and calling for help when she realizes the murderer is in the house with her.  I detest that character.  She never once makes an intelligent, informed decision.  There was also insta-love which led to behavior that, considering the circumstances, was inappropriate at best and nearly deplorable at other times.  It left me feeling a bit skeeved out.

The plot itself was pretty meh.  Lots of stuff happens, but therein lies the problem.  Too much is packed into such a short novel and none of it was explored to my liking.  Things happened, there was a period of freaking out, and then the event was forgotten for the most part.  There's even a Mr. Fitz-type situation, and while I've accepted it on PLL, it was too much for me in this story.  Especially when the situation came out of nowhere, wasn't reported, and the main character delved no further into it when the next freak-out occurred.

Pretty much, if this book hadn't been so short, I would have DNF'd it.  I was already pretty certain who the "admirer" was early on, and I didn't have all that much interest in seeing if I was right.  But I saw it through to the end, anyway.  And here I am, still disappointed.  It almost makes me curious to see if the author's adult series is any better.  Almost...

Rating:   1/2

About the author:

Hannah is the author of the UNDERWORLD DETECTION AGENCY CHRONICLES from Kensington books and the upcoming young adult thrillers TRULY, MADLY, DEADLY and SEE JANE RUN available from Sourcebooks, Inc. When she's not battling the demons of the Underworld or tackling a murderer at Hawthorne High, Jayne kicks her feet up in her San Francisco bay area home and attempts to share couch space with two enormous cats.

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