Review : The Outliers by Kimberly McCreight
The Outliers by Kimberly McCreight
Pages : 336
Genre : YA, Mystery
Stand alone
My Rating : 3/5
About the Book :
Wylie hasn’t heard from Cassie in over a week, not since their last fight. But that doesn’t matter. Cassie’s in trouble, so Wylie decides to do what she has done so many times before: save her best friend from herself.
This time it’s different, though. Instead of telling Wylie where she is, Cassie sends cryptic clues. And instead of having Wylie come by herself, Jasper shows up saying Cassie sent him to help. Trusting the guy who sent Cassie off the rails doesn’t feel right, but Wylie has no choice: she has to ignore her gut instinct and go with him.
But figuring out where Cassie is goes from difficult to dangerous, fast. As Wylie and Jasper head farther and farther north into the dense woods of Maine, Wylie struggles to control her growing sense that something is really wrong. What isn’t Cassie telling them? And could finding her be only the beginning?
My Thoughts :
In the recent years, I’ve read and enjoyed both of Kimberly McCreight’s previous novels, starting with Reconstructing Amelia and later reading Where They Found Her. While both books had their faults, I appreciated her writing and her characterization, and was looking forward to seeing what she would do with a YA novel.
I hate to say it, but I was disappointed. There were some good things : good writing, fast pace, intriguing setup. Wylie is a good narrator and from the start, there’s not a single boring moment. Everything moves really fast, with new clues and twists pushing you to turn just one more page.
And eventually, that was the problem for me. Just so many twists, so many revelations, with very little time to digest it all in between. I also had an incredibly hard time believing this would all happen over the course of, what… a day, I think?
And a lot of what happened felt so contrived. From my perspective, they didn’t happen organically because of who the character were or what was happening to them : they simply happened because they had to in order to push the story forward to the next twist/clue/revelation. Consequently, many of Wylie’s decisions left me confused or irritated. I went from reading the book compulsively to pushing through it, because what I had thought was interesting just sounded so unbelievable to me.
Right now, I’m still on the fence about whether I’ll be reading the sequel. I still liked the author’s writing, but the story lacked the depth I was looking for, which made the book feel a bit younger than I prefer. If you’re looking for a fast-pace action thriller which will surprise you with new twists every other chapter, you might enjoy this one more than I did, but I would say to jump into this carefully, especially if you previously enjoyed Kimberly McCreight’s adult novels.
I was on the fence about both of her adult novels – okay but not wonderful – so I have this one on hold, but I’ll be a bit more leery going in, after reading this. Thank you!
I liked Reconstructing Amelia a lot and had high hopes for this one. Sorry to see it’s a disappointment.