Quicksand

Maja Norberg, an attractive and popular teenager, is a survivor of a mass school shooting. I don't want to give any more away about the premise of this up and coming YA thriller (despite the fact the blurb already gives much of it away...), because the opening chapter does such a good job of throwing the reader into the story with a bang, in a way that means you never feel fully comfortable again. I've read quite a few books similar to this in concept over the past few years ([b:Cartwheel 17857661 Cartwheel Jennifer duBois https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1375820584s/17857661.jpg 24998893], [b:With Malice 26153925 With Malice Eileen Cook https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1465546059s/26153925.jpg 46110542] etc...), books that explore murders involving teenagers, the consequences and attempts to discover the reasons behind the crimes, and honestly most of them have been highly disappointing. I'm happy to say this completely bucked that trend and I can strongly recommend it for YA and crime thriller readers! I was concerned at the start that it would just be the same old, Maja would turn out to be overly one dimensional, the twists unbelievable and ridiculous, but I was just more and more impressed with this thriller as it went on, racing through it in a matter of days. Not only is this a great page-turner, I also loved that it explored how teenagers manage to cope with various issues (or sometimes cannot manage to on their own). It's a story about failure, of many of the characters, but does failure make someone guilty? One of my favourite reads of the year so far!