It's Just My Opinion

Famous Last Words by Katie Alender
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I promised myself I would read more young adult novels this year so that I could recommend a variety of newer writers to my students.  I almost abandoned this book when I first started it.  It was a little creepy and a little confusing. I put it down for a couple of months after reading the first 3 or 4 chapters. I picked it back up at the urging of one of my students.

This is some of what Goodreads says about this thriller:  Willa is freaking out. It seems like she's seeing things. Like a dead body in her swimming pool. Frantic messages on her walls. A reflection that is not her own. It's almost as if someone -- or something -- is trying to send her a message.
Meanwhile, a killer is stalking Los Angeles -- a killer who reenacts famous movie murder scenes. 

I worried about it being too scary because it is about living in a house where a famous person had died 70 years prior, a ghost, writing on walls, hallucinations, trying to contact the "other side," and a seer. It was a little eerie, but I got past that because the story was good. Understanding the main character was difficult in the beginning. I was very confused. But it got better and ended up being a pretty good story. I figured out the mystery only shortly before it was made obvious. Clever story line, if just a little unrealistic.

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