La

The narration was just fine, but I found that the story was an awkward mix of young adult, mystery, and modern romance. None of these genres was pulled off successfully, and I found the transitions from whodunit to high school melodrama to button-popping romance unintentionally comical.

The characters weren't unlikable, just a little one dimensional. The mystery was short-story-worthy at best. It reminded me of the "Encyclopedia Brown" books of my youth, only with murder instead of missing pets and whatnot and sex instead of...well, something else. Either way, a disturbing combination.

There was also a lot of filler. Sentences like (paraphrasing) "[Character X] brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear" or "[Character Y] stared into space for 14 minutes" occurred frequently, without adding to the characters or moving the plot forward in any way; they seemed like literary tics, as if the writer were saying, "Um..." between sentences.

When I bought this book, I didn't realize it was in the middle of a series I hadn't read. I can't say, though, that that contributed much to how little I enjoyed it..