Review: Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten

Title: Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls
Author: Lynn Weingarten
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Paperback, 320 Pages
Published July 2015

Summary: June barely has time to mourn the death of her best friend Delia, before Delia's ex-boyfriend convinces her Delia was murdered, and June is swept into a tangle of lies, deceit, and conspiracy.

I remember, when this book first came out last summer, how excited I was to read it. The title itself was attention-grabbing, and paired with the cover, it definitely made for an intriguing book worth checking out. (And yes, I know you can't judge a book by its cover, but it is pretty much fact that pretty covers and interesting titles are part of what sometimes makes someone walk over and flip the book over to read the summary in the first place.)

So this story is told in dual perspective, from both June and Delia's points of view. The story follows June, who was Delia's former best friend, who is struggling with the shock of finding out that Delia committed suicide. She's even more upset when she realizes that Delia called her the night beforehand and she chose not to answer. Because of this, June is weighed down with guilt, and she finds the entire story of Delia's death (burning herself to death in her stepfather's shed when she was very afraid of fire) as something suspicious and not adding up. Because of this, she goes out on a mission to find out what really happened to Delia.

There were a lot of plot twists and mystery aspects of this book. Several times, June thinks she has a lead on what happens, and it eventually ends up not being what she expected at all. Most of the story ends up not being anything that June expected. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but let me just say, this story is going to take you in the kind of direction that you'd never expect. There's some romance, some drama, some terror, and lots of mystery. It's a little bit of everything.

The reason that I was a bit hesitant with this book was the fact that the police barely seemed involved at all. I have family in the police department, and the way that the police had zero interest in the case and the way that the gang didn't get caught for what they did to other people seems way too suspicious and definitely not something they'd really get away with. So that aspect of things seeming brushed over for the sake of the story took a little piece of it away from me.

Spoilers ahead -- skip to the next paragraph if you haven't read this book yet! The ending of this book absolutely floored me. I want to know what happens! Does June go with her, or does she face the consequences? I closed the book and immediately texted all of my friends freaking out, not spoiling the ending but instead telling them that Weingarten just blew my mind and I didn't know how to handle it. And I'm apparently not the only one who thinks so, according to all of the threads and forums on Goodreads. That ending left everyone floored. There are so many different possibilities of where that story could have gone -- and the fact that there is no sequel in sight makes it even more stressful.

I enjoyed this book as a whole, and I'd recommend it to someone looking for a sort of thrilling read that will leave you sitting in your seat shocked. Weingarten did a good job with this story, and that ending was absolutely killer. I was left with so many questions, and I was shocked and stunned overall. I was interested in this book from the beginning of hearing the synopsis, but now I can say with certainty that this was a good book that was worth the read. For anyone looking for the kind of read that keeps you on the edge of your seat, check this one out!