Review : Ruthless by Carolyn Lee Adams

Summary (from Goodreads) 

Title : Ruthless
Author : Carolyn Lee Adams
Publication Date : July 14th 2015
Publisher : Simon Pulse
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A spine-tingling debut about the ultimate game of cat-and-mouse in reverse as a teen struggles to retain hope—and her sanity—while on the run from a cunning and determined killer.

Ruth Carver has always competed like her life depends on it. Ambitious. Tough. Maybe even mean. It’s no wonder people call her Ruthless.

When she wakes up with a concussion in the bed of a moving pickup trick, she realizes she has been entered into a contest she can’t afford to lose.

At a remote, rotting cabin deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Ruth’s blindfold comes off and she comes face-to-face with her captor. A man who believes his mission is to punish bad girls like Ruth. A man who has done this six times before.

The other girls were never heard from again, but Ruth won’t go down easy. She escapes into the wilderness, but her hunter is close at her heels. That’s when the real battle begins. That’s when Ruth must decides just how far she’ll go in order to survive.

Back home, they called her Ruthless. They had no idea just how right they were.

Personal Thoughts

Holy nightmare-inducing batman! Ruthless is one of THE best YA thriller books that I have read in a very long time. I read this one in a matter of hours and by the end, I just wanted someone to hold me and shield me from all the nightmares I was bound to have that night. Starting the book at 12 in the morning while everyone else was asleep was certainly a bad idea.

The book opened up in a big bang with the main character, Ruth, waking up with a concussion unable to see clearly around her on a moving truck. She can't remember how she got there and where she was. From then on, the book was non-stop action that had my heart racing to the point where I had to know how it was going to end. One of my biggest gripes with YA thrillers and mysteries is just how naive and dumb the main characters tend to me. With Ruth, I had no such complaints. She was one heck of a smart heroine and I seriously loved her beyond words for it. This was a heroine who used her brain so as to outrun the serial killer chasing her. Oh and she did it all while she's with a concussion and is naked in the woods. I honestly don't know how Ruth managed to keep her sanity because every time I imagined myself in her place, I wanted to cry. Ruth was strong and admirable and seriously the best kind of heroine for this sort of novel. There were moments when we see cracks in her, like her trying to torture the serial killer, Jerry Balls, the same way he did her and the other girls he raped and killed, and I kept wondering why she wouldn't just kill him and run for safety. The author probably did it for realism, however. This is after all, a girl who has a concussion, and was incredibly angry at the psycho for his actions. I actually liked how her mental balance wavered because it felt real to me. All in all, I thought Carolyn Lee Adams' portrayal of Ruth was spot on.

We also see snippets of what it was like growing up inside the serial killer's head. It was oddly fascinating to see the psychosis work through his brain over the years and how his outlet for anger was murder. Being inside his brain definitely amped up the creepy factor by a thousand fold. The book was in itself very hard to put down and like I said, I was able to finish it in a matter of few hours. My only complaint would be that I felt the book ended a little too soon. I wanted to see Ruth a few weeks into the future after her rescue and also her parents' reaction to her kidnapping, because they weren't aware of it. I guess I wanted the author to explore the psychological impacts a traumatic event like this would undoubtedly have on her. That being said, I'm in awe of Carolyn Lee Adams' writing skills and I hope to see a lot more from her in the future because this is one talented author. If this debut is a preview of what's to come, well I can't wait!

Ruthless was a thriller book with non-stop action, a strong and intelligent heroine and a creepy serial killer who will give you goosebumps while you're reading the book. If you enjoy YA thrillers and mystery books, please pick up this book asap.

Rating 

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

Thank you to Edelweiss and Simon Pulse for the e-ARC of Ruthless.