I am here with another book review, We Know It Was You by Maggie Thrash. Thanks so much to Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of this book for an honest review. As always, all opinions are my own.
To be completely honest, I'm not sure what to think of this book. It wasn't really a *thriller,* at least not in my mind. There wasn't a whole lot of suspense, because I found the storyline hard to follow.
Ok, so this is essentially a story about a girl who mysteriously jumps off a bridge in the middle of a school football game, wearing the mascot costume. There are a million questions being asked. Why would she jump? She didn't seem depressed, the police, however, are ruling it a suicide. Did someone make her? But why run to the bridge? Was it actually Brittany in the suit? Anyone can put on a mascot costume and pretend to be the mascot. Plus she's an identical twin, maybe Angie jumped instead?
The story itself is written in a way where you don't really connect with any of the characters. I guess the main ones are Benny and Virginia, but the perspectives jumped from them to random side characters into third person limited. Some of the perspectives were definitely not needed and almost took away from the story itself. I never really felt any connection to Benny or Virginia, due to a combination of writing style and the fact that they were kind of annoying. Virginia was smart when she wanted to be, but more often than not, she made dumb mistakes that could have been solved with a little bit of common sense. Like getting in a car with a creepy thirty-something year old guy who comes to find you at your boarding school where they don't allow visitors, but somehow he got through. Umm, are there not like 50 red flags here? It wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't constantly going on about how if a female doesn't feel safe, she should do something about it. How about not getting in a car with some creepy dude??
I did really want to love this book, it had all the makings to be great, but I think the biggest issue was the disconnect with the characters.
There were also a couple of times when some things were just, oh. There was a lot of talk about sexual assault, inappropriate filming, and just a lot of touchy subjects that weren't always handled in the most sensitive way. Even when the football coach was talking to the guys about how no means no, I felt so conflicted because I was glad he was addressing the issue, but at the same time, he was insensitive about it. Like how he was describing things, and just talking about woman was rubbing me the wrong way, even with the message he was trying to get across.
Things like this, that needed to be handled with a little bit more tact, were just kind of tossed around. There were racial issues and stereotyping, not to mention gender stereotyping. The guys were either jocks with no brain, or weirdos who had no friends. The girls were all obsessed with boys or cheerleading. I felt that things were a little too inflated, and not properly handled. Of the three "bad guys" in the story, every single one was a person of colour. I'm not sure if that was a direct plan or if that's just how things ended up, but in today's world, we need books that have POC, in both positive and negative roles, as we see *usually* white people (although let's be real, mainly positive), but having only POC in the negative roles of the villain is just not okay.
This was one of those books that was bizarre, but not in a good way. There wasn't really anything to bring it back to a clear ending. I get it's a series, but there was maybe one of a dozen issues that was resolved at the end of the book, and I'm not sure I can muster up enough energy to care about what happens in book two.
Another reviewer described this book as a car accident, and I agree it has that sort of train wreck sense, where you can't look away, so I did end up finishing it in the end, but not *really* enjoying it.
Overall, this was a weird book that, while held my attention, just kind of rubbed me the wrong way on too many levels.