The Weight of Blood

I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Weight of Blood is the story of Lucy, a girl from Henbane, Missouri (sounds like the most creepy town ever.. right?). Lucy is feels guilty for not trying harder to figure out what happened to her friend Cheri whose remains were found a year after she went missing. She starts working for her uncle and stumbles upon some evidence of Cheri's disappearance. Thus, ensues a search for the truth that Lucy discovers is connected to her own mother's disappearance and also very strongly incriminates her uncle.

I requested this book from NetGalley because the description sounded really thrilling and the setting of Henbane seemed like it would lead to a great edge-of-your-seat scare-the-crap-out-of-you read. Sadly, I was able to guess the ending in detail from the third chapter, and I only kept reading to see if I was right. And there was not really any suspense or thrill – this was not for lack of trying, but the author was just unable to create the mood she was going for. Super let down.

There were a few things I didn't like that I think really led to the lack of development:

1.The chapters switched between two main characters, Lucy and her mother (Lila), and they were both written in first person with the same voice. Therefore, difficult to distinguish and make into their own character. Also, because you are hearing the story from Lila's point of view the entire time, there's no suspense created besides the ultimate question of why she disappeared.
2.The love interest between Lucy and the guy who is helping her investigate is extremely young-adultish and detracts from the rest of the story.
3.The dialogue goes tries to sound hick... but it ends up being annoying. Mostly because of the phrase “fixing to”. No one says “cheer up darlin' ” and ”fixing to”. It's “fixin' to”. And it was all over the place.
4.There was no resolution of what really happened to Lila's mother. Just a vague answer to knowing whether she ran away or not. Extremely annoying!

Bottom line: This story looked intriguing and the idea behind it I still think could have been great. However, it just didn't work. There isn't much depth to the characters or plot. I honestly would not recommend this book.

The Weight of Blood will be released on March 11th, for anyone who dares to try it.