Review: Copycat by Hannah Jayne

Title: Copycat

Author:  Hannah Jayne
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publishing Date:  July 3rd, 2018

Pages: 288
Genre: YA Thriller 

Series:  Stand Alone
Source:  Audio

 

Everyone is dying to read the latest book in the popular Gap Lake mystery series, and Addison is no exception. As the novels biggest fan, Addison is flattered when the infamously reclusive author, R.J. Rosen, contacts her, granting her inside information others would kill for.
But when the most popular girl in Addison's high school is murdered, Addison can't help but think that life may be imitating fiction. And as other terrifying events from the book start happening around her, Addison has to figure out how to write her own ending -and survive the story.

I have seen many books by Hannah Jayne on Netgalley and on Goodreads that I keep passing up. I do have them on my TBR but I have read one book by this author and I didn't care for it much. So I haven't really picked up another yet. Well, this one really called out to me. I was very excited about this read, it seemed right up my alley with some interesting and fun characters. I mean the main character is a book nerd. So I grabbed it on Netgalley, started it, then saw it was coming out on audio, preordered, and listened to it yesterday... on release day. I was very excited. It was a very good read. I can say that there wasn't a wow factor and there was nothing extraordinary about the writing or the story... but I really enjoyed the read. I was really into the story and I didn't want to put the book down. 

Addison is an interesting girl with a deep obsession with the Gap Lake Murder Mystery books. She has read them and reread them many many times. She dreams of the books, thinks constantly about the books, and can basically speak the entire book into her existence. She has a book blog that based solely on this book series. One day she receives an email from the author of this series and he wants her to promote his latest book that is due to come out soon. She is elated and of course, agrees. She receives some material from the author and instructions when to post. She is excited about the chapter preview and starts to read it right away. 

Sometime later that day... after school, she discovers the dead body of the school sweetheart. The smell, the crime, all of it screams a copy of the murder in the chapter she received. After this things just get weird and creepy and so not good. Now  Addison doesn't know who to trust and worse... the person that emailed her.. is this person really the author of the Gap Lake or is this person the murderer?

I have many little thoughts about this book.  All these little thoughts though, not sure how much space they will take up. So we shall see. 

There were many things I found very interesting about this book. I loved the fact that that main character is all about books and is obsessed with this one series. I mean I get that. So many books I have been obsessed with. So this character, we connected. Not only was she a huge book fanatic, she was a blogger. Yup so many points for coolness. I love reading books about these kinds of characters because I am one. 

She was more than books and a blog. She was smart (most of the time) she was a good friend, and she was really sweet. She did have her faults. She was smart, yes, but she was also naive. She was a normal teenage girl that thought with emotions and that seemed to get her in trouble. 

My favorite character though, he best friend. She was quirky and snarky. A lot of fun. I didn't really connect to any of the other characters. I think this was the one thing that kept me from loving the book. I needed more character interaction. This was a very short book and it was a thriller. So was this a deal breaker for me. Oh no, not even close. In a thriller and in a short book, character development and relationship development can be tricky. In a short thriller book... even harder. For what the book was, there was more character development than I thought there would be. 

The other thing that kept this from being a wow book. I liked the mystery and it was good. Not as creepy and suspenseful as I like but it was good. The climax, however, was very anticlimactic for me. I didn't feel a real connection to the reason why behind the villain. There was a reason and I guess it was fitting but it didn't feel right for the character playing the villain. It was missing something. Other than that I loved the story. Had a little bit of a stalker, creeper, obsessed fan kind of vibe. 

The pacing was good. I feel often that short thrillers can have an issue with pacing. Too fast to really feel the story or the characters. This one was just right in the pacing department. Fast like a thriller should be but it never felt rushed. 

This book has definitely made me want to try out more from this author. I can say that if you go into this book expecting something deep and dark... no. what this book is, something light in the thriller department. A fast-paced quick read that has some murder and some mystery and some thrills. It's a fun summer night read. I really enjoyed it for what it was. 

This book was very hard for me to rate. I don't have half stars but for this book, I wish I did. I enjoyed it more than a 3 but it wasn't quite a 4. So if I had half stars this one would be a 3.5. 

A good late night summer read for some good old-fashioned thrills and chills. 

Hannah is the author of the UNDERWORLD DETECTION AGENCY CHRONICLES from Kensington books and the upcoming young adult thrillers TRULY, MADLY, DEADLY and SEE JANE RUN available from Sourcebooks, Inc. When she's not battling the demons of the Underworld or tackling a murderer at Hawthorne High, Jayne kicks her feet up in her San Francisco bay area home and attempts to share couch space with two enormous cats.

Now that you're here, kick up your feet and stay awhile...