Review: The Girl in the Park by Mariah Fredericks
Title: The Girl in the Park
Author: Mariah Fredericks
Format: eBook
Genre: Thriller YA
Source: NetGalley
Published: April 24th 2012 by Random House Children’s Books
My Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ 1/2
From Goodreads.com
When Wendy Geller’s body is found in Central Park after the night of a rager, newspaper headlines scream,”Death in the Park: Party Girl Found Strangled.” But shy Rain, once Wendy’s best friend, knows there was more to Wendy than just “party girl.” As she struggles to separate the friend she knew from the tangle of gossip and headlines, Rain becomes determined to discover the truth about the murder. Written in a voice at once immediate, riveting, and utterly convincing, Mariah Frederick’s mystery brilliantly exposes the cracks in this exclusive New York City world and the teenagers that move within it
One evening while lurking on NetGalley, I saw the cover for The Girl in the Park caught my eye – it was so eerie that I needed to know more about this book. I lurked around and saw a few reviews on Goodreads comparing it to Nancy Drew and that really got me curious, besides I was on a huge Stephen King kick. So I requested, and was thrilled when I could download this book.
One thing I really liked about Mariah Fredricks writing was how realistic it was – not that I’ve experienced a murder mystery – but that the characters were very real. I didn’t absolutely love everyone in the book, which was great because that’s how life works. There are people that scratch at you, that you would suspect in a case like this. And they all felt very real, likable or not.
Not only are the characters real, but the experience of death in the teenage crowd was very real to me – Alive? Wendy wasn’t necessarily liked by everyone, but in death all of a sudden the student population was covered in grief. It brought me back to my high school days when a friend passed away. All of a sudden, everyone was heartbroken, even if they’d never really met him. This was much that way, and as frustrating as it was to read? It was real. And I like books that are real.
The Girl in the Park is a great, quick read. I was impressed by the lack of predictability and the realism. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good YA thriller.
