BOOK REVIEW: Dangerous Girls – by Abigail Haas

Title: Dangerous Girls
Author: Abigail Haas
Genre: YA, Mystery, Thriller
First published: July 16th 2013
Finished reading: August 12th 2015
Pages: 388

“Wouldn’t we all look guilty, if someone searched hard enough?”

When I first saw Dangerous Girls mentioned somewhere, I thought it was just another contemporary romance novel. I was SO wrong. This novel by Abigail Haas is simply brilliant and will seriously mess with your mind when you read it. Those who have read it already will know what I’m talking about… The main characters maybe aren’t exactly to my liking, but they feel ‘real’ and act according to the story. The focus is on Anna, a senior year teenager who is accused of the murder of her best friend Elise during a Spring Break vacation. We learn about what happened during those days they spent on the island and their past together mostly through her eyes; Abigail Haas uses her prose and various plot twists to keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Do you enjoy a good mystery/thriller read with an ending that you definitely didn’t see coming? Then Dangerous Girls is the perfect read for you.

During Spring Break of their senior year, Anna decides to go on a trip to Aruba with her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise and a few other friends. It’s supposed to be the time of their lives, but things suddenly change when they find Elise brutally murdered at the place they were staying. The cops made a mess of the crime scene since they don’t have a lot of experience with murders on the island, and they are struggling to find a good suspect. But soon they decide Anna and her boyfriend Tate are prime suspects, even though they deny everything and have an alibi… And Anna finds herself trapped on a foreign island fighting for her freedom. Will they be able to find out who the killer is? What really happened during the last days Elise was alive?

Dangerous Girls is a brilliant mystery/thriller read with a fast pace and plot twists that will make you want to keep reading until you’ve finished it. The main characters are well developed and I really enjoyed the prose. And that ending… I remember literally staring at the last page for about five minutes because I couldn’t believe what I had just read. I won’t say anything else to avoid spoilers, just that I would definitely recommend this novel to anyone who likes the genre. You won’t be disappointed!