Deadly Little Secret ~ Laurie Faria Stolarz (mini) review

Deadly Little Secret

Hyperion Books, Childrens

256 Pages

December 23, 2008

Hardcover

Amazon

Summary via Amazon:

Some secrets shouldn't be kept...

Up until three months ago, everything in sixteen-year-old Camelia's
life had been fairly ordinary: decent grades; an okay relationship with her parents; and a pretty cool part-time job at the art studio downtown. But when Ben, the mysterious new guy, starts junior year at her high school, Camelia's life becomes anything but ordinary.

Rumored to be somehow responsible for his ex-girlfriend's accidental death, Ben is immediately ostracized by everyone on campus. Except for Camelia. She's reluctant to believe the rumors, even when her friends try to convince her
otherwise. She's inexplicably drawn to Ben...and to his touch. But soon, Camelia
is receiving eerie phone calls and strange packages with threatening notes. Ben
insists she is in danger, and that he can help--but can he be trusted? She knows
he's hiding something... but he's not the only one with a secret.

Deadly Little Secret did a great job of being a mystery. It played the characters well against each other, always making you curious or suspicious of one character just as soon as you became sure another character was the purpatrator.

Sure, some of the characters were stereotypes (the punk-y best friend, the bad boy who you're just sure is secretly a sweetheart underneath it all...) but they worked into the story well and it didn't detract from the story. Besides, this wasn't really driven by what kind of relationship Camelia had with her best friend. There was a nice (if small) subplot involving Camelia's mother, however.

I don't think Deadly Little Secret is a book that's going to become a classic but it is written well and in such a way that it is a quick and easy read--more of a can't-put-it-down way than a 'is this really YA or is it more MG?' way. It's also a book that I would easily recommend to someone looking for a good mystery or for a more suspensful YA book; some parts of the story might even be scary or horror movie-esque to certain readers.

~*~ coming soon ~*~

10/10