Saturday, May 3, 2014

For Your TBR - The Body In The Woods

The Body In The Woods
By April Henry
Published: June 17th, Henry Holt

From GoodReadsAlexis, Nick, and Ruby have very different backgrounds: Alexis has spent her life covering for her mom’s mental illness, Nick’s bravado hides his fear of not being good enough, and Ruby just wants to pursue her eccentric interests in a world that doesn’t understand her. When the three teens join Portland County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue, they are teamed up to search for a autistic man lost in the woods. What they find instead is a dead body. In a friendship that will be forged in danger, fear, and courage, the three team up to find the girl’s killer—before he can strike one of their own.

My Thoughts:
The Body in the Woods is the first book in a new series by April Henry. The story pulls you in right away and I was fascinated reading about the Search And Rescue (SAC) training the characters went through. When they're called to help find a missing person lost in the woods, the teens stumble on a body and are pulled into a mystery worthy of a Law & Order SVU episode.

I really liked this one. It was a fast paced, intense read that left me guessing, but it was the characters that kept me hooked. I especially loved and connected with Alexis who spent most of the book in search for her mentally ill mother who went missing. Ruby was fascinating as well, and an interesting pick to narrate a mystery murder book. Obsessed with strange interests and reliant on logic and fact, Ruby spends most of the book tangling herself between the police and the investigation. She mentions that she has a hard time relating to other people, doesn't understand social norms, and doesn't process emotion easily--which led me to believe that maybe Ruby was a high functioning autistic.

The one character who wasn't explored as deeply was Nick, but since this book is the first in the series, I'd be interested to see if he's represented more in future books.

A lot of people recommended this book to me after I was looking to read more thrillers (especially psycho thrillers). I would definitely recommend this book to those who liked Barry Lyga's I Hunt Killers or a more intense version of Jennifer Lynn Barnes' The Naturals. Another serial killer book on my TBR list is S.E. Green's Killer Instinct, due out this summer by Simon Pulse.

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