Alibi Blog Tour

Thanks to AToMR Tours, we're spotlighting a new series of YA mystery novellas, Alibi.  Keep reading to see our review, and to enter to win a copy for yourself.  Be sure to check out all of the other stops on the tour for great reviews and more!

Alibi

By Annie Miles, John Byrne, Isabel Eckersley, and Sorrel Provola

Published on March 1, 2012
Published by Twist Literary Publishing
Source: Blog Tour

Abigail Shelton is dead.

Spring Valley's golden girl is found floating face-down in her boyfriend’s pool, hands bound behind her back, head bleeding, drugs and alcohol in her system. Her friends are the only suspects – and they all have reasons to want her dead. Everyone has an alibi, but no one is innocent.

ALIBI is a 4-part young adult e-book series. Each one-hundred page installment reveals the perspective of a different character: the secret love, the nemesis, the boyfriend, the best friend. As their tales unfold, we learn that Abby is not as perfect as everyone believes, but she’s not the only one with secrets to hide. This page-turning tale of suspense, betrayal, murder, and lust will keep fans of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars up and reading well past curfew.

You can buy the book at any of these fine outlets: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

So Alibi is a pretty cool idea in concept -- four different authors write a novella about each of the core characters in the story so we can see the events surrounding Abby's death unfold from each person's perspective.  It works very well in this regard, because each of these characters is lying, omitting the truth, or twisting the events to suit their own needs. The sections focus on Charles, a handsome teenager who has moved to the US from Australia under suspicious circumstances; Palmer, a beautiful girl who is hiding some pretty explosive secrets; Mason, Charles' popular but clueless cousin; and Rowan, Abby's best friend.

This book is full of drugs, sex, and lies, and these teenagers inhabit a world that sometimes only seems to exist in movies.  Everyone is rich and glamorous and could have anything they want.  It's a little hard to believe that these kids are all only supposed to be 17 or so, which is always the biggest hurdle I have in reading books like this.

I really liked the idea of seeing the story take place from each character's viewpoint.  Although it got repetitive to read the same conversation multiple times, you still could glean something new each time.  But for that reason, I'd probably recommend reading the stories over a longer period of time rather than all in a row like I did, so that you have a little distance between each story.

Each character leaves something out, to protect themselves or to protect someone else involved, so you really need to read all four stories to get a complete picture of what happened that night -- and even then, I was still left with a whole lot of questions!  I did find myself trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together as I read, because you clue in very quickly to the fact that not all is as it seems.  Each of the characters has a pretty good reason to want Abby dead.

I did feel like the ending was very abrupt, like some other readers have mentioned, and the ending mostly left me wanting to know what happened next.  It resolved the question of "who killed Abby Shelton" but raised a whole bunch more instead!  I also had some problems with the characterizations of Parker and Abby, who are both talked about in harsh terms for being "loose", Parker especially, as she has a reputation of sleeping with a lot of guys.  Charles and Mason aren't exactly innocent in those regards either, but no one is running around calling them derogatory names because of it.  Parker and Abby both have lots of other less than great qualities that could be focused on, but instead the authors choose to focus on that and shame them for it.  Yeah, it's what happens out in the "real world" too, but that doesn't mean I have to like it or be comfortable with it.

Due to a lot of strong content involving drugs, alcohol, and sex, I would recommend this for more mature readers.

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