14 Ways to Die

read for bookoplathon 48 hour round, may 2022: spooky & ya book

this book was very fast-paced but i found it a bit juvenile even for a ya thriller, i don't think the social media aspect was bad but i didn't particularly enjoy it, and it was super unrealistic. going from reading really graphic, amazingly written, adult thrillers, it just dampened my experience of this book. i did really enjoy the reveal of the killer at the end but that's really it 

This was the first book I've finished in pretty much one sitting in a while. For being a YA thriller I really didn't have high expectations for this one, but it was pretty good! It was a little more intense than I had expected. I really enjoyed the social media reality show aspect of it, and I LOVED the short chapters. This book kept me flipping the pages because each chapter was no more than 5 pages long. I wasn't too blown away by the reveal, but it was still fun 

I originally brought this book because I was Hailey Hughes' Booktube religiously and she raved about this book and also ended up giving it five stars. I take a lot of her recommendations, so I jumped at the chance to give this one a try. Even though I didn't love it as much as Hailey did, I very munch enjoyed it and read it in a record three days, which I haven't done in a very long time. It is very reminiscent of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, although it didn't quite reach that same level for me as A Good Girl's Guide to Murder did.

To begin with, 14 Ways to Die is about a girl who's mother was murdered when she was a child by a serial killed known as The Magpie Man. Ten years later she applies to be on a Youtube reality show with the goal of catching The Magpie Man once and for all. I have read quite a few serial killer books but the reality show aspect is definitely new for me and I liked the uniqueness that that added to a pretty typical trope. I also loved the super short chapters because they got to the point and kept the pace of the story really well. I had a hard time putting this book down and the pages flipped themselves it seemed like.

Further on, the characterization was great overall in this book. I most of all liked how deeply we got to know the heroine's father and his grief really transcended the pages and made me sympathize with him. The main heroine goes through a character arc and I loved seeing her change and mature, even if some of the choices she made were pretty questionable to me. Hey, she's her own person and it made sense in the context of the book why she would do the things she did. The only reason I gave this book four stars and not five, is because I wanted the book to go a bit darker. I understand that it's a Young Adult novel but I feel like it just lightly brushed the dark potential that this book could have delivered. But hey, I really can't say enough good things about this novel, especially it being a YA one.

Finally, the writing style was a little over simplistic in my opinion but I still loved every second of it. I think it would be just as easy for a younger reader to comprehend and get into the story as it was for me. I will definitely be reading Ralph's other books because this book definitely helped get me out of a reading slump and it was a breath of fresh air.

In conclusion, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys serial killer thrillers and even though it wasn't the most amazing serial killer thriller I've ever read, I still immensely enjoyed it. It could have had a bit more twists and turns but because the chapters were so short and the pace of the book was so fast, I didn't mind that as much as I usually would.