Wish You Were Dead: Quick Reads

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firstly, this book had such short chapters i was so grateful i literally breezed through this book through bus rides on the bus to school. Madison, the main character, was a little bit boring (she doesn't really have anything special about her... I mean not a hobby or anything) but perfect for the storyline: she was in the popular clique still she wasn't mean or a bully so with other words people liked her. The whole story begins with the blog where a bullied girl writes about how badly people treat her. After we can read how Lucy (one of the most popular girls) gets kidnapped and then we read about what happened before Lucy got out of Tyler's car and here comes the story from Madison's point of view. The first Roy Grace book, Dead Simple, was released in 2005 by Pan Macmillan. The tagline read, “Four bodies, one suspect, no trace. The first case for Detective Superintendent Roy Grace.” From there, the story begins with a prank gone wrong. Michael Harrison disappears into the big city without a trace. Roy Grace is also different in that he will use anything and everything available to him to solve a case. He will use basics like pathology analysis and forensics, to mediums as far off the beaten path as the paranormal, getting input from mediums and clairvoyants about his work. Grace has his own belief system in ghosts and things that go bump in the night, and he brings that into his cases. Overall, Wish You Were Dead is one of those books I recommend reading when you aren’t home alone. It creeped me out but it was definitely in a good way. If you haven’t read any of Todd Strasser’s books this is a good one to start with. =]

James is very active in his community. He has been involved in twenty-six movies (including The Merchant of Venice), is a chairman of the Brighton and Hove Drugs Commission, helps out with the local neighborhood watch, is an Ambassador for Brighton University, and helps with Action Medical Research. He also donated a police car to the Sussex Police in 2008. The characters were stereotypical to be honest - they are the rich, young kids who are living in private school and its set in a typical YA manner - a high school. It's all right though, as Tyler offered a breath of fresh air as well as Sharon and Laurie. Not many books delve in the topic of homosexuality too. Wow, not bad. Definitely what I wanted and expected from Wish You Were Dead, I succeeded in scaring myself shitless! Although I didn't like the beginning of the book because it focused on heroine's crush towards a new boy in school instead of the problem but that changed as the story goes. It got creepy and I liked it. When her friend, Lucy, disappears after being dropped off at her house by Madison and her Safe Ride partner, she feels guilty. The rules of Safe Ride state that the person being dropped off should be witnessed entering his/her home. Madison was pretty annoyed with Lucy and her better-than-everyone attitude that night, and when Lucy stubbornly continued to hang around on her front walk, Madison and Tyler just left her.Now Lucy is gone. Did she run off with her boyfriend? Is she just trying to scare everyone? Or was she kidnapped? When there is no demand for a ransom, people begin to suspect more sinister motives are involved.

The chapters are short which helps to move the story along at super speed. The point of views change from the anonymous blogger, to Madison and then best of all, we get to hear what the kidnapper/killer is saying to his or her captives (we don't know who the killer is until the end).

About Roy Grace:

Madison, aus der meist die Sicht geschrieben wird, ist in der 12 Klasse und ist in der In-Clique. Nachdem Lucy verschwunden ist, macht sie sich die größten Sorgen, weil sie mit ihr seit dem Kindergarten befreundet ist. Und dann ist da noch das Internet. Madison bekommt von einem PBleeker Nachrichten und sie bekommt Angst. Hat er vielleicht was mit dem Verschwinden zu tun oder doch nicht? This was a new to me author and I enjoyed her book. One thing I should state though is the plot line had either holes, loose ends, or in some cases things mentioned were left unexplained and characters were unreasonably introduced.

Im Nachhinein ist es wirklich ein ziemliches gutes Buch. Es hatte keine Längen. Das Ende war zwar schon etwas abrupt, aber das machte jetzt auch nichts aus. Unfortunately, by the 43% mark, I felt like I was forcing myself to finish a book I'd started to want to skim through because the writing felt off from the beginning. I told myself it was simple enough writing, we could get to the end and find out how this ends, but my suspicion of who the culprit was became too obvious, and I lost interest. Once I hit 50%, though, I couldn't keep going. The story is centred around Brighton police detective Roy Grace, the lead character in a series that is currently 17 novels strong and counting. He goes on holiday to a chateau in France with his family. Things go horribly wrong but - spoiler alert - come right in the end, in a plot that feels rushed and somewhat implausible.But sometimes, the morning never comes and as Bruno says from his reading: ‘the most dangerous time to meet unexpected death is on holiday’. Things get weirder and weirder- the anonymous blogster names names and then, poof, they're gone. Eventually, she gets scared that she's cursed- clearly someone is reading what she writes and acting on it. In the mean time, Madison is seeing people who she has been close to her whole life disappear and desperately trying to make the connection to who could be responsible. Worse than anything, she fears that her new man of interest who just moved into town mysteriously could be involved in some way. Not to mention she's been getting weird anonymous notes on the computer, and now she's finding messages left for her warning her that it's not safe. Clearly someone she knows is involved in this, but who? If you are an avid fan of Peter James and his works, like I am, you will appreciate the references to other characters and stories within the Roy Grace universe but will wonder why they chose to adapt this book when there is a myriad of other options. Strasser also does a good job of making you feel ambivalent about the kids who get kidnapped. I mean, you start thinking that if they hadn't been such jerks, perhaps they wouldn't be in this mess. It gets you thinking.

Wish You Were Dead is one of the most unique stories I have read recently. It was also one of the creepiest. It definitely wasn’t in the same category of creepy as The Devouring but it was really scary in its own way and what is worse is that it was way more realistic. The stuff that happened in Wish You Were Dead could very well happen in real life and that was what made it so hard for me to read. Tightly wound and compelling ... appropriate for an older middle school and high school audience. VERDICT: Highly recommended.” – School Library Journal

It has those mafia vibes, though I don't feel it was ever fully presented except to explain where all these families and people knew each other from (though that could have to do with where I stopped). It was apparent that the characters surrounding the story were from other books. Would I have appreciated the story more if I read those books? I don't know. I'm leaning on no, though. This story didn't draw me in. The characters didn't draw me in. I felt less lost in the story and more like my head was trying to escape it. The dialogue felt too...staged? And I could not get myself to like Rowan. Could not. The book the play is based on was inspired by a holiday James had in the South of France in 2018. Plagued by roadworks and problems with the Sat Nav, he eventually arrived at a chateau that was somewhere between a hotel and a guest house, and which appeared to be staffed by the undead. Das Cover ist schon schön gestaltet und lässt auch gleich darauf schließen, dass es mit Internet und all dem Kram zu tun hat.