Rating: ★★
“Best friends Corey and Kyra were inseparable in their snow-covered town of Lost Creek, Alaska. When Corey moves away, she makes Kyra promise to stay strong during the long, dark winter, and wait for her return.Just days before Corey is to return home to visit, Kyra dies. Corey is devastated―and confused. The entire Lost community speaks in hushed tones about the town’s lost daughter, saying her death was meant to be. And they push Corey away like she’s a stranger.
Corey knows something is wrong. With every hour, her suspicion grows. Lost is keeping secrets―chilling secrets. But piecing together the truth about what happened to her best friend may prove as difficult as lighting the sky in an Alaskan winter…”
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this book to be honest. I read Marieke Nijkamp’s other book, This Is Where It Ends, and was beside myself about how good it was. When I saw that she had a new book out, I immediately requested it. I am saddened to say that Before I Let Go disappointed me. I know that I shouldn’t ever compare books, but I loved this author’s other book, so I thought it was going to be great.
The first thing that bothered me about this book was the characters. The characters had me begging to have something more to them…some type of development or backstory, but I didn’t get my wish. Corey, the main character, seemed to be the one that had the most interesting factors, but I can’t even say I enjoyed it fully because it was a back-and-forth blame game the entire novel. Owning up to mistakes is an important lesson that can be taught through a novel, but this was overly done throughout Before I Let Go.
I feel as though the story and the mystery of this novel was under developed as well. I kept reading and reading, waiting for something to be given to me, and eventually it was. However, I feel like the excitement was not there for me because of the slow-burn buildup about how it was the fault of the town relating to the death of Corey’s best friend Kyra.
Overall, it was definitely not a book for me. I read other reviews and still gave it a shot, and it is safe to say that I was pretty disappointed.
Lacey's Library 