December Park

I've got kind of mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, the writing was very atmospheric and immersive. The immersion of it didn't focus on the murder mystery itself – although it was included – but rather on the time period we were in during the book. I felt like I was living in a small town in the 90s, with teenagers doing stupid shit and people just living their lives day-to-day. I enjoyed that aspect of it and the creepier aspects, when they were included, did hit fairly well, especially near the end of the book.

But the things I didn't like about this book outweighed the things I did like, so that's why I can't rate this higher than a 3.75. First and probably the most benign is that there is a LOT of stupid, immature teenage boy stuff that happens given that it's a group of them the book is focused on. I'll acknowledge that it could've been a lot worse given that this book is set in the 90s and written in 2014, but there's only so many fart jokes you can read without getting exasperated about it. Some sprinkling of bigotry in there as well which wasn't pleasant to deal with but again, not as bad as it could've been. 

The book was also 100 pages longer than it really needed to be. I got through this in fairly average time for me but there were parts of the book that really dragged, and with the overall slow pace of the story it made getting through it a bit of a struggle at times. There were a lot of superfluous details and scenes that could've been cut out without affecting the story.

I also wasn't a fan of the twist. I don't think it was set up well and it seemed bizarre after 0 buildup. I also generally don't like when the twist of a thriller/murder mystery involves mental illness. I think it's a tired trope and it often leads to lazy writing.

Overall I didn't dislike this book but I'm not going to give it a reread.