Don't Look Back

So after reading and enjoying E Lockhart's We Were Liars I decided I'd stick with the Young Adult genre and try another of 2014's best reviewed books Don't Look Back. Another mystery style and with a much talked about twist at the end I hoped for something of the same quality as We Were Liars.

Armentrout's book starts with teen Sammy being found wandering around near the forest at her parents sumer home, she's clearly been in an accident her memory is gone and worst of all her best friend Cassie is still missing. We quickly learn Sammy is from a very wealthy old money family, she's the centre of her schools social stratosphere and she is the ultimate mean girl.

Which is where my boredom kicked up a notch, suddenly her loss of memory has her turning her life around, suddenly she's being super nice to everyone and falling in love with the poor boy who used to be her best friend, all interspersed with flash back's to what happened before Cassie disappeared. It was a book full of so many cliché's it became laughable. Now I know I'm not the books target audience in that I'm not a young teen living through this very situation in high school but I just cannot believe that teens could possibly not also feel the potential of this book has been dumbed down a bit by the obligatory plot lines that made it feel a bit formulaic.

The big reveal at the end of the book wasn't a big shock, reading between the lines throughout you could spot the guilty party from approximately a third of the way through. And knowing what I guessed part way through would have raised all kinds of questions that any competent police force would have investigated ages before and unless the detective was worse than useless could have pieced it all together.

I was disappointed by this book, I was literally so bored by the end I flicked through the big revelation which isn't good is it? I truly couldn't understand the hype it had received and probably wouldn't be rushing to read another book by this author.