Title: Blood Will Out
Author: Jo Reggiari
Publisher: Penguin Teen
Publish Date: June 5, 2018 -- Soon!
Rating: 3.5-4ish out of 5
From: Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Summary:Silence of the Lambs for young adults -- Blood Will Out is a gripping YA thriller readers won't be able to put down.
Ari Sullivan is alive--for now.
She wakes at the bottom of a cistern, confused, injured and alone, with only the shadowy recollection of a low-pitched voice and a gloved hand. No one can hear her screams. And the person who put her there is coming back. The killer is planning a gruesome masterpiece, a fairytale tableau of innocence and blood, meticulously designed.
Until now, Ari was happy to spend her days pining for handsome, recent-arrival Stroud Bellows, fantasizing about their two-point-four-kids-future together. Safe in her small hometown of Dempsey Hollow. But now her community has turned very dangerous -- and Ari may not be the only intended victim.
Told in alternating perspectives of predator and prey, Blood Will Out is a gripping and terrifying read.
This review has separate things due to content of book. I've 'my thoughts' and the review portion.
My thoughts:
Trigger Warnings: Homophobia, transphobia, anti-mentally ill (idk what the phobia or name for this is, my apologies), possible short lived 'appropriation'. Not trigger warning but note on the Missing Person Myth.
From the Netgalley page and ratings on Goodreads this has really low ratings. I don't understand the nicks due to grammar/spelling/formatting as we're getting whatever condition ARC's. Oftentimes they are unedited and not ready for the bookshelves around the world. They're
just readable enough that those of us who ask for books can get them and read 'em.
But this is the weirdest formatted un-ready edition of any book I've received from Hidden Gems or Netgalley. As you can see I do paragraph breaks with no indention so the book running with this format is totally not annoying for me. I prefer reading things this way so I write this way. Nice to see a book formatted this way.
But there was paragraph breaks in weird spots, massive font sizes splashed about, and all this
sometimes made things unclear as to what the hell was going on. So, I understand complaining about THAT when it takes from/prevents understanding of the things going on in the story. These three paragraph-rant is not in my rating of the book story as..that's not what I'm reviewing a book on.
Homophobia:
Lynn is a teenage lesbian in a small town with some small-minded people. They let her know it. They use slurs against her and nothing is done about this.
Transphobia:
When Lynn & Ari together someone makes a comment of Ari possibly feeling like a man being with Lynn (they're not dating). As far as I am aware based on little information given they're cis female teenagers.
Mentally Ill:
The surviving kids make comments toward the persons who abducted them and wanted to murder them.
There is no establishment that the serial killer in this book had a mental illness. There are consistency with psychopathic tendencies with serial killers but it's never established with this killer in this book. I know, it may seem as if I'm splitting hairs all due to a fictional serial killer...but the ideas and believes that mentally ill are dangerous are still heavily around.
Psychosis isn't ...just for murderers or those who are a threat to those around them. I realize that sentence makes it sound like an add-on that someone's chosen in their life.
However, to be a serial killer doesn't automatically mean the person is mentally ill. Usually, mental illness is defined roughly around something that debilitates you from functioning in your life. While serial killers often cannot hold steady work them killing things doesn't stop them from functioning in their life. Sooooo it's kind of iffy to classify every serial killer as someone with mental illness.
I know someone's going to be, "You have to be mentally ill to do something like this." and it's .. no, no you don't have to be. A disregard to society that you're in and the rules we all agree to follow...isn't a mental illness on its own.
Cultural Appropriation:
While getting ready for a dance they've decided to get a kimono dress. Thing is, with Kimono's -- it's from my understanding a dying fashion item. So, it needs new-comers to stay alive. I recommend buying from Japanese owned or Japanese-American owned to keep this fashion item alive.
Name of the Book Means:
It means the personal character, as determined by condition of birth will eventually be revealed. The serial killer in this story. The title is speaking about the serial killer when we've discovered who the killer is and what they're
really like. Basically, people are always true to their "blood".
Serial Killer:
The serial killer I think the author checked off almost
everything on the list of them. From upbringing, personality, and things they do.
Missing Person Myth:
This book includes the myth about needing to wait 24 hours before reporting a person missing. Please do not wait 24 hours before reporting ANYONE missing. The longer the wait the less chances of finding the person alive, especially, if you fear for their life.
Cops may not feel urged to look for someone but that doesn't mean you shouldn't file a missing persons. Do it as soon as you realize the person -- adult, teen or child -- is missing.
(Unless you live in Michigan as some places there do have waiting periods).
Onto the Review:
What I liked:
!!!!(spoilers)!!!
Teenagers acting and seeming like teenagers. Stupid banter and stupid crushes. Connection with your best friend over everything else. Strength in wanting to keep you and your friend alive no matter what.
Adult themes that kids deal with that they shouldn't but they do - being attacked, gore, murder.
A lesbian character surviving to the end of the book. The loner kid who was seen as possibly the serial killer but turned out to be not the killer. That was nice to see. I was, "OH GREAT."
The adults kind of listening to the teenagers and accepting information given to them. There was a few bumps along that but it wasn't as annoying as it often is in YA.
The killer was slowly being pieced together as the story went along. For me, the language and the no noticeable gender talk help collect and figure out who it was along the way. What I liked was it did take longer for me to piece things together. I think having it focused on Ari and her thoughts helped distract me along the way.
Focused a lot on her ideas of who the killer was. Yes, she did write a lot of names down trying to figure out who it was but still.. she still thought it was this one particular person. Yes, she doesn't know who tried to kill her, either, but shit.
Yes, she was stereotyping him and knew she was but god that was annoying part.
Since it all boils down to who is trying to murder her and her friend..we don't get a lot of character closeness the way you usually do in books. We know her and see her doing stuff but there's a wall between us and the characters.
It was fun and so frustrating waiting for definite answer as to who the murderer was.
Recommend?:
If you are unable to watch TV or movies about serial killers .. wouldn't recommend. To everyone else who does, even enjoy these things...then go for it.
