Accomplice -- a review by Hope Austin

Accomplice
by: Erieann Corrigan
***

Chloe Caffrey has gone missing. The school halls are filled with crying girls and distraught teachers. Among them is Finn, whose tears are fake. Why? Because she knows where Chloe is: in Finn's grandmother's basement, watching T.V. and reading romance novels. It's all part of their plan. Chloe was the beautiful girl who was going to go missing and Finn was going to play the part of the hero, who saves Chloe from her big, bad abductor. Chloe's abduction would be on every news outlet, making her a celebrity. Finn's rescue would make her famous, too. That's good, because according to their guidance counselor, perfect grades and hundreds of community service hours just aren't enough to get into college anymore. So the girls set up an elaborate plan, and after weeks of planning, it's finally happening. Unfortunately, there are some things they didn't plan on: the lengths the police department would go, celebrities coming to console Chloe's family, and the suspects. When Finn sees how Chloe's disappearance is affecting her family, she wants out. Too bad Chloe won't let her.

The book had a great setup, but poor execution. The author has apparently never heard of "show, don't tell" so random facts about characters are only mentioned when the reader needs a reason to hate them. The best example is the way Chloe's grieving mother is portrayed. She lashes out once, and Finn (the narrartor) goes on a spiel about how she is the most terrible woman on earth. This leads me to the other thing I really diliked about it: Finn. I couldn't stand her attitude. She passes judgement on people when she herself is in no position to judge, made worse by the fact that she is never called on it. There were other things that annoyed me, like how the characters, supposedly incredibly smart, couldn't believe that the police would actually follow any lead they had on Chloe's "disappearance." It's such a shame, because this book has a really good premise.