Undone by Cat Clarke {Review}

{obviously: cover from amazon.com: link below}

{Synopsis: courtesy of amazon.com}: Jem Halliday is in love with her best friend. It doesn't matter that Kai is gay, or that he'll never look at her the way she looks at him. Jem is okay with that. But when Kai is outed online by one of their classmates, he does the unthinkable and commits suicide.

Jem is left to pick up the pieces of her broken life. Before he died, Kai left her twelve letters—one for each month of the year—and those letters are all Jem has left. That, and revenge.

Although Kai's letters beg her not to investigate what happened, Jem can't let it go. She needs to know who did this, and she'll stop at nothing to find the person responsible for Kai's death. One way or another, someone is going down. Someone is going to pay.

{Synopsis: courtesy of amazon.com}: Jem Halliday is in love with her best friend. It doesn't matter that Kai is gay, or that he'll never look at her the way she looks at him. Jem is okay with that. But when Kai is outed online by one of their classmates, he does the unthinkable and commits suicide.

Jem is left to pick up the pieces of her broken life. Before he died, Kai left her twelve letters—one for each month of the year—and those letters are all Jem has left. That, and revenge.

Although Kai's letters beg her not to investigate what happened, Jem can't let it go. She needs to know who did this, and she'll stop at nothing to find the person responsible for Kai's death. One way or another, someone is going down. Someone is going to pay.

{Review}: I received this book as an ARC from netgalley.com.

A few years ago, Thirteen Reasons Why was added to the syllabus of the school that I work for’s 9^th grade required reading list. Many parents were urged to read the book, as it is a story about teen suicide, where the protagonist left behind 13 audio tapes that basically explained her thought processes in her last days.

I IMMEDIATELY went back to this book when I read Undone. Now, with that said, really the only similarities that exist are that they both deal with teenage suicide, as well as people speaking from beyond the grave. They are also both impeccably written YA books that you literally just melt into. The book becomes a part of you while you’re reading it, and you can’t eat, sleep, or anything until you’re done with it.

We start by meeting Jem, a sweet lost soul who has just had to bury her teenaged best friend. He’s committed suicide (it isn’t a secret), but what is, is really why he felt the need to end his life, as well as who was behind the “straw that broke the camel’s back?” I don’t want to give it away, but Jem is gay, and there was social media involved.

It’s a mystery, but Jem decides to “get back” at whomever she thinks might have done this to him. Meanwhile, she starts to get these letters from Kai. All well-meaning and good letters about her moving on with her life, and attempting to better herself, while she’s in the midst of trying to punish those that she thinks are responsible for her best friend’s death.

You’ll be blindsided by the ending to this book. Really, you’ll be staring with your mouth open at around 85% completion… and your jaw will continue to slacken throughout the ending of the book. And you also might cry.

It’s masterful.

Brilliant, even.

One of the best of 2014 {Right now, this book is tied for 1st place IMO, with Oblivion & We Were Liars}.

And the length, at first glance…kind of scared me. I don’t love any YA read that’s over 300 pages…but this FLEW by. I finished it in a day and a half at the beach. It was WONDERFUL!

I also enjoyed the fact that Cat Clarke brought the ills of social media into it. It’s very interesting to see what could happen at a get together, that could then end up all over the internet.

{Where can I buy this?}:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Undone-Cat-Clarke-ebook/dp/B00IJEVN9Q/ref=la_B005XPT5CQ_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404846608&sr=1-1

B & N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/undone-cat-clarke/1113965658?ean=9781402292248

{What would I rate it?}: 4.99999999/5 stars. It was practically perfect.

{Who would I recommend this book to?}: Anyone who enjoyed Thirteen Reasons Why or We Were Liars. It was a good combination of those two. I received this book as an ARC from netgalley.com.