Review : Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas

Summary (from Goodreads)  

Title : Dangerous Boys
Author : Abigail Haas
Publication Date : August 14th 2014
Publisher : Simon & Schuster UK
Goodreads - Amazon

Three teens venture into the abandoned Monroe estate one night; hours later, only two emerge from the burning wreckage. Chloe drags one Reznick brother to safety, unconscious and bleeding; the other is left to burn, dead in the fire. But which brother survives? And is his death a tragic accident? Desperate self-defense? Or murder?
Chloe is the only one with the answers. As the fire rages, and police and parents demand the truth, she struggles to piece together the story of how they got there-a story of jealousy, twisted passion, and the darkness that lurks behind even the most beautiful of faces…

Personal Thoughts

Wow! Abigail Haas sure knows how to write a good thriller book. Dangerous Boys was everything that I could ask for and more! There was a teensy bit of a doubt in my head that I wouldn't enjoy Dangerous Boys as much as I enjoyed Dangerous Girls, but obviously I was proven wrong. Abigail Haas can write a grocery list and I'm still going to read it. She is a undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with in the YA mystery genre.

The beauty in Haas' novels is that you think you know exactly what is going on from the get go, but you really don't. You think you know exactly who did what and how everything happened, but as the story progresses clues are strewn across that completely throw you off balance and make you gasp out loud because you don't see them coming. This was also the case with Dangerous Boys and I loved it. I loved the feeling of confusion and doubt that I was overwhelmed with because it made me want to become even more invested in the story line. The feelings of uncertainty and doubt throughout the read is what made this such a phenomenal book. The author makes you question every doubt and suspicion you have and you are never entirely sure of the outcome until the very end. Even at the end, she had me jumping out in surprise. She is that brilliant! It's a psychological thriller at its best and I honestly couldn't get enough of it. It's hard to divulge into the plot line because of spoilers and because it's best that you go into the book without knowing much about it so that you can wind up feeling as invested as I was in the plot.

The characters were also fantastic. Abigail Haas is phenomenal at fleshing out characters and showing their true self gradually over the course of the book. Chloe, Ethan and Oliver were all incredibly well-written. I loved how you could never really trust either of these characters. Another wonderful aspect of Haas' writing is that she makes you feel for the characters, even the guilty party. Chloe was especially an easy character to become attached to. It was easy to sympathize with her because she not only had to push off college, which she was looking forward to, for a year, but she also had to look after her unstable mother. Her only bright light in all this was meeting Ethan. But her life unravels when she ends up meeting Oliver, Ethan's older brother. It was a love triangle gone wrong. The book is told in three different time lines : in the past, during the incident and after the incident. Now, normally, that would irritate me, but Haas made it work. In fact, I thought the narration actually made the book stronger because I found myself flipping the pages until the early hours of the morning, wanting to find out what exactly was going on with these three kids. I don't regret the droopiness I had to go through the next day at work one bit.

I'm keeping this review on the shorter side because I don't want to give out anything. This is a book that everyone needs to experience and go in blind into. Dangerous Boys was twisted, all kinds of messed up, but ultimately the kind of book that will blow your mind into smithereens. If you haven't read Dangerous Girls yet, do yourself a favor, go buy it right away, because you haven't read a brilliant YA mystery/thriller book yet.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 5/5
Characters : 5/5
Writing : 5/5

**Overall  Rating : 4.5/5**

Thank you to Abigail Haas for the e-ARC of Dangerous Boys.