Review: Copycat – Hannah Jayne
Copycatby Hannah Jayne
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: July 3, 2018
Genres: Young Adult
Pages: 272
Source: NetGalley
I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
My rating:
From the author of The Escape, Twisted, and Truly, Madly, Deadly comes a chilling new thriller that asks: what happens if your real life became stranger and deadlier than fiction?
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, she's thrilled when the infamously reclusive author, R.J. Rosen, contacts her, giving her inside information others would kill for.
Addison's always dreamed of what it would be like if the books were real...But then she finds the most popular girl in school dead. Murdered. And realizes that life imitating fiction is more dangerous that she could have imagined. As other terrifying events from the books start happening around her, Addison has to figure out how to write her own ending-and survive the story.
Trigger warnings: View Spoiler »
“So you think some obsessed superfan thought it would be some sort of homage to kill Lydia Gap Lake–style?”
Addie pinched her lip. “It’s a theory.”
“Addie, hon, I hate to break it to you, but the only Gap Lake superfan in town is you.”
Addie is the self-described number one biggest fan of the Gap Lake mysteries, a series of books revolving around the murder of several high school students in a small town. With the last book coming out soon, traffic to her blog – where she writes fanfic and expounds on theories of who’s actually the murderer – is up. She’s elated when she receives a message from the elusive author, claiming that he’d like her help as part of a promo for the new novel. When she and her best friend Maya find the body of the most popular girl at school, the parallels between the books and real life start to add up. Does Addie just have murder on the brain, or is there something more sinister going on?
“Do you like my surprise?”
This book reads a bit like the teen horror flicks that were popular when I was teen, movies that weren’t particular deep but were great for a quick thrill while stuffing your face with popcorn. It’s an engrossing page turner with short chapters, but the characters were pretty sparsely developed and the plot was very predictable. The big reveal was a bit of a letdown, with the book ending a few pages later. I was hoping for a big twist at the end – any sort of twist, actually – but the murderer was exactly who I thought it was, and the motive was exactly what I had expected. I thought the pacing was nice and snappy, though, and it didn’t take me long at all to read it. My favorite part was how Ms. Jayne alternated the snippets from the Gap Lake mysteries with what was happening in Addie’s life, and I was disappointed those trailed off as the story progressed.
Overall, this was a quick and enjoyable read, though I was disappointed with how straightforward the mystery was. I think a fan of YA thrillers would be pleased with this as a quick summer read!
