Wish you were dead by Todd Strasser

While this book is supposed to be a thriller and it had it's moments, it simply didn't create enough suspense to create a roller coaster ride one expects with a thriller. At the same time, it's supposed to be about the world of blogging and social networking, but failed to delve deep enough.

After someone blogs about being teased and wishing the bully were dead, said bully suddenly disappears. Everyone is suddenly on edge and speculating about what could have happened, especially Madison - the last person to see the girl. With no new news, life slowly starts to go on until another student disappears - another student the blogger complained about. What's going on and what's the mystery behind the new guy that Madison can't help but feel attracted to? He's hiding something and it doesn't help Madison's nerves when she starts receiving mysterious notes about danger.

This book was not as thrilling as it could have been. It was almost as if there were too many lulls in the story and not enough moments of suspense. Certain characters were thrown into the story, possibly as red herrings without being developed enough to really be taken in that direction. The true killer comes completely out of left field but almost in a fashion where you wonder where that came from. Madison has a "creepy" email stalker that doesn't seem to serve much purpose except connecting to the Internet theme, maybe? There were the occasional "diary" entries from the kidnapper, but those were mediocre additions. The whole novel wasn't terrible, but it could have pushed further. This is up for an Abe Lincoln award but it doesn't seem to have any real guts. You don't really feel the character's pain at the beginning - only a little. If she wants this person dead so badly, I personally thing I should feel the same way. Unfortunately that didn't happen. If this is supposed to be about the evils of blogs or social networking, it should have been a more prevalent aspect of the story. It was simply the catalyst and nothing more. So much more could have been done afterwards to carry on the theme and create thrills. If this is supposed to be about Madison searching for answers, not hiding at home and speculating. Everyone comes to her with the answers as opposed to her finding them on her own.

This book simply leaves you wanting more thrills and less waiting around for something to happen.
MMK