I need to read a book where the main character is a woman. Actually, that describes most of the books i read. Except I picked out "Reconstructing Amelia". I've read two chapters and it's very good but it's also about a teen suicide or at least an alleged teen suicide and I've discovered I'm just not up for that at the moment. 

 

So, I've dropping that book until after the world has stopped being in the grip of a pandemic and gone for "A Bad Day For Sunshine" in the hope that it will be light and because I like listening to Lorelei King.

One of the best books I have read this year. I couldn't put it down from the minute I picked it up. The book received an excellent review in Entertainment Weekly so I gave it a try and am glad I did. I look forward to more from this author

 

 

Kate Baron is in an important meeting with a law client when she receives a call from her daughter Amelia's private school, Grace Hall.  Amelia is being suspended from school, and Kate must pick her up immediately.  Any further information about the situation will not be given over the phone.

 

When Kate arrives at the school, something terrible has clearly happened.  Police are present, and Kate sees a pair of girls' boots near a sheet that covers something--or someone.  A police officer tells her there has been an "accident"; her daughter has fallen from the roof.  The death is quickly ruled a suicide, but Kate has doubts.  Receiving an anonymous text that "Amelia didn't jump" convinces her to ask police to take another look into her daughter's death.

 

Along with Kate's perspective, the story is told from Amelia's point of view and also through texts, email, journal entries, and Facebook status updates.  10th-grader Amelia has had certain secrets she's kept from her mother and from her best friend Sylvia, though she has also wanted to reveal them.  Amelia has been "tapped" to join a secret club that requires certain hazing-type activities and its leader knows just how to emotionally manipulate the students she "taps" to follow through on them.  The stakes grow, and amid them, Amelia receives troubling texts from a blocked number, dropping hints about the identify of her father, who has never been a part of her life.

 

Without giving anything away, I will say that I enjoyed the way the mysteries are unraveled and Amelia is "reconstructed" via her mother's process of pursuing the facts.  There are some interesting twists and turns, as expected in this genre, and well-rounded characters it's easy to care about.

Kate Baron is a single mother to fifteen-year-old Amelia. As a litigation lawyer Kate works long hours and doesn't have as much time to spend with her daughter as she would like. When a phone call from her daughter's private school disrupts the meeting Kate is in with the news that Amelia has been caught cheating, Kate can't believe it. Amelia has been suspended and Kate has to leave work to pick her up. Her daughter is an intelligent, ambitious teenager who has never been in trouble a day in her life. But Kate will never get the chance to ask her daughter what's going on because by the time she arrives at the school Amelia is dead. The police and the school tell Kate that Amelia jumped in an act of spontaneous suicide, unable to cope with what she'd done. Kate accepts what they're telling her but doesn't truly believe that's what happened. When Kate receives an anonymous text saying that Amelia didn't jump, she is forced to sift through Amelia's texts, emails and facebook page to piece together the final days of her daughter's life in an effort to reveal the truth of what happened on the rooftop that day.

 

The book is told from Amelia's point of view and Kate's point of view as well as texts, facebook posts and a blog run by someone in the school who doesn't mind spreading vicious rumours. High school life is tough but add in secret clubs with members who want to ruin your life, unrequited love and no one to really talk to you have Amelia's story. I felt so bad for both Amelia and Kate. They did the best they thought they could do. Some things did seem a little convenient at times, but overall the book was good. I didn't believe Amelia jumped but as I read on I went back and forth between maybe she did, maybe she didn't. So I definitely couldn't wait to find out what happened and I wasn't disappointed.

This was overall a decent book. It kept a good pace and the tension continued to build until it reached a decent climax and a not so satisfying conclusion. The ending was pretty disappointing but there were several turns and twists leading up to it that I didn't see coming. This book is told from alternating points of view of past tense, 15 year old Amelia, and present day Kate, Amelia's mother, as she try's to uncover the truth behind her daughters alleged suicide. I would probably have given this a five star rating except I just stayed so annoyed with the brainwashed, spineless , Pollyanna persona that Amelia embraces throughout this book. Maybe she is an accurate example of a typical, weak minded teenager who just desperately wants to fit in somewhere but I couldn't find an awful lot of sympathy for her because she was just such a doormat and she had so many supporters around her that only needed to reach out to for relief. I found it unrealistic that she would have not confided in at least one of them while she was being bullied and manipulated. That was very frustrating for me but I still enjoyed the overall story all the same even though I think 3.5 stars would be more appropriate but since that isn't an option I guess I'm forced to round up to 4. I think if I'd gone into this book expecting a YA it would have been less disappointing but I didn't realize that was the case and thought it was a typical thriller/suspense that came with great reviews and a lot of positive hype which always seems to set decent books up for disappointment when the bar is so high...all that being said I really did like this book although I know this review might sound pretty negative... it wasn't a bad read it just wasn't as good as I was hoping or expecting...but they can't all be 5 stars can they?