The Girl Who Wouldn't Submit and Say 'Die'

 

Expected Publication:  June 11th, 2013 

The Girl Who Was Supposed To Die

By: April Henry

Henry Holt and Co.

ISBN-13:  9780805095418

 

“Take her out back and finish her off.”


She doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know where she is, or why. All she knows when she comes to in a ransacked cabin is that there are two men arguing over whether or not to kill her.

And that she must run.


In her riveting style, April Henry crafts a nail-biting thriller involving murder, identity theft, and biological warfare. Follow Cady and Ty (her accidental savior turned companion), as they race against the clock to stay alive.

 

Review

 

     Cady wakes up in a place she doesn't recognize, not even knowing her own name.  But she's missing fingernails, has been beaten and hears two men arguing about killing her once and for all.  So she escapes to save her life, and it is very dangerous.  Once she's on the outside, Cady is taken under the wing of a mysterious teenage boy named Ty who gives her a place to stay and helps her hide from the people who come hunting her down.  But although Cady can run, she can't hide and time is running out for her and her family.  Can she protect herself, expose a secret conspiracy and save her family before it's too late?   I have read other books by April Henry before, my favorite of which was called Girl, Stolen and it starts out similar to this one.  I always wondered what would have happened if the main character, Cheyenne, in that book hadn't been blind.  The existence of Cady kind of answered that question for me as a reader!  She was a bad-ass, no question about that.  Even when she had no clue who she really was and thought she might have accidentally killed a man, Cady was determined to find answers and wouldn't let herself be caught.  The beginning and middle of the book are intense and kept me on the edge of my seat.  You discover everything as Cady does, so things come of as much as surprise to the reader as the characters.  I liked that Ty chose to risk himself to help the downtrodden girl in his line at McDonald's - and that he kept helping once he realized it was a life or death situation.  The action is very fast paced and the conclusion races toward you when reading it.  But I felt like the situation with "Aunt Lizzie" was glaringly obvious and definitely a step down from the subtler terrors of the book's beginning and middle.  Also, the introduction of the evil company working on *SPOILERS!!!* biological warfare was a bit much.  I mean, yeah, I could see an evil corporation torturing a teenager to get at her parent(s), but the CEO being involved reminded me of some campy cartoon villain.  "If it wasn't for those darn kids..."  I felt like things were wrapped up far too neatly at the end, with no true consequences (everyone lives and the bad guys are punished adequately, plus Cady gets the guy).  I did think that the reason Cady blocked everything out made complete sense though.  Overall, the plot was well drawn, the mystery was interesting and it was fairly decent in execution.  I just felt like there was some sloppiness near the end and that it became a little bit of a caricature of itself.

 

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

 

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via Netgalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is June 11th, 2013.*