Review: The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry

The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Release Date: June 11, 2013

“Take her out back and finish her off.”

She doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t know where she is, or why. All she knows when she comes to in a ransacked cabin is that there are two men arguing over whether or not to kill her.

And that she must run.

In her riveting style, April Henry crafts a nail-biting thriller involving murder, identity theft, and biological warfare. Follow Cady and Ty (her accidental savior turned companion), as they race against the clock to stay alive.

My thoughts:
I really enjoyed a previous book by April Henry so I was so excited to pick this one up.  It sounded intense and just as creepy as her other novel.  Unfortunately this one did not deliver for me and I am left with a hatred for Cady's parents and an unsatisfied itch.

The story starts off with Cady waking up in a cabin not knowing who and where she is.  She wakes up to her body in terrible pain and to the voices of two men talking about getting rid of her. She has no idea how she got into this situation, but she does know she has to save herself.  Her brain kicks in a little bit and she escapes, but her memories refuse to surface.  Cady soon bumps into a stranger who gives her the safe place she needs to think about what to do next and what follows is something completely unbelievable and truly frustrating.

Like I said I loved this authors previous books, but this one is just a mess.  I know it is fiction and and all but the story is just unbelievable.  The whole premise is about biological warfare and while that part does seem to something that could happen the chain of events don't.  Everything that happened was too convenient.  For instance, Ty the guy that decides to help Cady goes looking for information on amnesia and just happens to find something about fugue. He finds this out of about a billion sites that pop up on google and finds it rather quickly.  And while yes I can see that Cady did indeed have this I don't believe that Ty could have found this so quickly and I honestly don't believe he would have even thought to look it up.  I have never read a book where the characters gave so much thought to what caused amnesia.  Small detail I know but it just bugged me.

Cady's constant questioning also irritated me. I think half the book is spent inside her head and going over the same questions over and over again.  Her questions are valid but after the first 3 times I really don't need to read them anymore.  I never really warmed up to Cady either.  She was an okay character, but if she didn't make it in the book I wouldn't have been devastated and for a main character I should want her to live. 

My biggest issue was her parents.  Now I know YA parents tend to be MIA most of the time but WTH?!!  Cady's parents leave her by herself, don't even attempt to look more into the cabin fire to see if she was actually in there, and basically tell her that she is their only hope since they can't be seen in the building.  Ummm again WTH??!  Her parents should have been there for her, they should have found a way to get to her and be the adults!  Cady shouldn't have been the one responsible for saving her family especially when it was her parents that put her in this situation!  I am still beyond ticked off that Cady had to figure everything out on her own.  We are told that her parents are genius, but you would never know it from the way they acted.  I think this part of the storyline really killed the rest for me.  I'm not saying that I would have loved it if they had been more involved, but I probably would have rated it a little higher.

So unfortunately I am not a fan of this book.  I expected something creepy and the first 2 chapter were great with Cady waking up and going all karate crazy on her captors, but the story didn't hold up to those first few chapters.  Could just be me, but I think Ms. Henry's other novels are far superior and worth reading instead of this one.

2 snowflakes