This book broke my heart in a thousand pieces. I should have trusted you, brain.When I finished this book, I kept repeating over and over that I couldn't believe it. I just kept reading the last chapter over and over. Here's the thing: a group of friends go to an island to celebrate the end of high school. One of their friends though, Elise, is found dead one morning, and so the investigations begin. The surprising thing, is that they accuse her best friend, Anna, of killing her and she goes to trial. This book shows us the trial, they in the island before the murderer, Anna meeting Elise, their lives the year before and so it goes.When I start books like this, I usually go overly excited and start creating thousands of theories. But with this book, my brain was analyzing the facts and she (my brain) kept telling me who the murderer was. My eyes and my heart, though. They fought bravely against reason and won in the end. So when I reached the almost last chapter, and realized my brain was right all along, I felt like Frodo in LOTR, when he realizes he believed in the Gollun instead of on his true friend, Sam. I felt betrayed, used, lied to. This author is so so so brilliant, she is Gollum in this story. She pushes you to believe in what she wants, manipulating you to go against reason and believe in things you shouldn't believe. And still, she gives you clues here and there, so subtle that only the end your brain is yelling at you: "see, heart, I knew that bit of information was important." Although brilliant, dark, and a bit sinister, this book is also so well written. When I was reading it Saturday, I reached a point when I couldn't put it down and at the same time, I wanted to hide this book, stop reading it, and live happily ever after. In Brazilian literature, we first had the "light" stories, the stories about romance that ended all right and full of butterflies. In 1800-, though, we had this school called "realism", and one of the writers, Machado de Assis, used to write stories that never ended well. The worst scenario possible happened. He would say, "why write stories that don't have anything to do with how real life works out?" He wrote about selfishness, betrayal, pain, man wanting money above everything else, cheating couples and friends. While this book isn't about all these things, it does make you think about your life, the decisions you make, who are the people around you. It's like a slap in the face, a real reality check. It's both a horrible and amazing story, with characters *Elise* that both disturbed and fascinated me. It shows tons of sides to the story, while you feel watched and you analyze. You think, and you think hard. The worst/best thing about this book, though, is the feeling of empathy.I teared up at old memories, I was mad and thoughtful at the trial, sometimes both at once, sometimes my rage standing out at the unfairness of it all. Only for me to think "what if?" I was left with chills at end of chapters *cough cough before the last one*, and hating characters who later on, I didn't know if they deserved my hate. Anna, Elise, AK, Tate, Juan... I think the only character I'm sure I hated from beginning to end was Tate. I was left with more questions than answers, they all spinning in my head. I may be a freak for finding this book to be fascinating, but if I had written this review as soon as I finished it, you would be hearing how this book leaves you with a WTF feeling. Yes, my brain knew who the murderer was. But more often than not, you get so caught up in this story that you almost don't care what reasons tell you. All in all, this book will stay with me for a long, long time. (I got so captivated in this review that I just added one more star.) If I had to learn a lesson, I would learn to be a little more clever, clever being the best word. And that I won't be going to an exotic island any time soon.

Sex, drugs, lies & murder.update note : 6 hours later and I'm still thinking about Dangerous Girls. I can't stop debating whether my rating should be a 3 or 4. Even though I had issues with the characters, this book's ending has me continuing to dwell on it, which must count for something. I need a person who's read this to discuss it with!3.5 stars. I just finished this book and I feel physically ill. If you took shades of the Natalee Holloway and Amanda Knox cases and added in a few elements of Brokedown Palace and Cruel Intentions, you'd be somewhere in the ballpark of what's going on here, but still not close enough.I fought a battle in my head over how to rate this book. I hated the characters, hated their actions, and hated the entire chain of events leading up to the reveal.BUT. Giving credit where it's due - I couldn't stop reading. There was a lot of mind-f*cking going on here. And I'm pretty sure there were a few moments in the telling of this story which were a stroke of genius. It's not uncommon to find books that mess with your head, and a good portion of them are shock value with no real merit. However, this particular tale had some real thought put into the entire chain of events. There was an instance in this book which reminded me exactly of a situation that I went through while on vacation with friends and I almost ran to the bathroom and threw up because it felt like a punch to the gut.Once the chain of events was set in motion, I couldn't stop reading. Even though I thought some of the back-story was silly and fluffy, it was necessary to have it there in order to show the bond between the two girls - one alive and one now dead. As I continued reading, the tone switched from frivolous to dark. My stomach started doing flips when I realized something was going on in the background that I didn't like. From there, I had to know what was going to happen next.In all honesty, I never understood why everyone was drawn to the Elise (the dead girl) in the first place. We all know girls who are the life of the party (or we happened to be that girl) and the character of Elise didn't strike me as all that note-worthy. Ah well, I guess that's why she's the dead one and we're following someone else's trial, haha.It's hard to know who to recommend this book to. Fans of mind-f*ck books will definitely be first on the list. You know who you are. Go ahead, get your copy. Please do. Then come back and let me know your thoughts about that ending. THAT ending. Good lord, THAT ending. I suspected it could happen, then discounted my thoughts after something else happened, then realized I SHOULDN'T HAVE DISCOUNTED anything.So what about the rest of you? Well, it depends. Are you in the mood for something different? Are you willing to go through a little bit of emotional turmoil in order to read something that's going to get you thinking? If so, then I'd think you might want to consider this.Not a fan of whodunnits or relationship drama? Then you'll want to steer clear. This book provided from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

An exciting teen mystery that grabs a reader from the very first page. A group of high school friends staying in Aruba on vacation find one of their group murdered. There is an investigation, arrest and a trial. All the while the author establishes the relationship between the deceased and the accused. Wouldnt we all look guilty, if someone searched hard enough. I found the story exciting as there is boyfriend and two strangers thrown into the mix. Money, power, law enforcement and the media play roles in the fate of the accused. The author throws in a twist that leaves a reader rethinking all the information presented from the first page in a different light.

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/EVERY STAR. Why was I so happy? My friend was dead. I should be sad. Was I happy she was dead? Did I secretly hate her? Did I have something to do with it? Did I do it myself? I did it. I had to. Maybe he did it too. Together. A pact. A game. Something sexual, fucked-up. Drugs and alcohol. Kids today. Where were our parents? Arent they to blame? Did he pressure me? Did I force him? I was happy. Why was I so happy?Those are the questions Anna must ask herself while sitting in jail while she awaits being tried for murdering her best friend. What began as a Spring Break trip to paradise, ended with Elise being found stabbed to death and Anna, along with her boyfriend Tate, being accused of committing the crime. Please let me apologize in advance for what you are about to read because I have a feeling its going to get super rambly and might be a big mess by the time Im finished. I liked this book. A LOT. I liked it so much I did the crazy, post-it note marking of moments I wanted to make sure I remembered . . . (and then I went to my kids baseball practice and all the other moms looked at me like I was a little touched in the head if you know what I mean). I have NEVER post-it noted a mystery/thriller because I liked it (but I have - quite often, in fact - post-it noted horrible parts of books in that genre).Dangerous Girls grabs hold of you from Page 1 (seriously Page 1 is a transcript of the 911 call reporting finding the dead body) and doesnt ever let go. It has everything that makes a thriller thrilling including a ripped from the headlines type of plot and an everybody is a suspect driving force that will just propel you through the pages. I read this book in 2 ½ hours. I COULD. NOT. PUT. IT. DOWN. The dialogue-heavy writing style and frantic pace made my reading speed become superhuman. And if you thought Megan Abbott could write terrifying teenagers? Well, honey, you aint seen NOTHING yet: Better to be a sneak, or a slut, or a narc, or a bully, than alone. We want, we take, we have. Its simple.So, after you get past the whole "this kind of has an eerie resemblance to the Natalee Holloway thing" and find your mind turning to the best of the worst evil high school girls . . . it grows ever more delectable. Oh, and even if you think you know who did it, Haas will continue to fill you with doubts and make you question just how sure you are about yourself up to the final page.EDIT: It's been brought to my attention that the "YA" moniker might be a deterrent in keeping people from reading this book. Please note that this is definitely not your average young adult novel. The characters may be teens, but the story is all grown up.P.S.: Im sooooo stingy with my 5-Star ratings, and the fact that Dangerous Girls could have easily racked up a 6 or a 7 in the mystery/thriller category from me had me venture out to the authors website to see what shes all about (http://abbymcdonald.com). Well, first, shes adorable. I find an author who looks like her producing stories like this to be awesomely creepy. Second, and most important, as of July 15th of this year Dangerous Girls had only sold 450 copies - a number so low that the authors next book (Dangerous Boys, natch) was rejected all over town, leaving her no choice but to self-publish. Ive never gone to bat for an author before (Lord help me, Abigail Haas/Abby McDonald, if you turn out to be an asshole), but Im telling you that if you are a fan of Megan Abbott, Gillian Flynn or books like Defending Jacob or We Need To Talk About Kevin, you seriously NEED to read this book. Buy it, get it from your library, whatever just read it and spread the word. Good authors shouldnt be forced into self-publishing due to low sales/feedback.

Well crafted, well written, and extremely readable, even though I guessed the twist. Possibly the best YA thriller I've read in recent years, though.