Shine - Reviewed by Maggie Devero

Shine by Lauren Myracle

Reviewed by Maggie Devero

In the backwoods town of Black Creek, North Carolina, a lot of crimes will go unnoticed or unpunished. But sixteen year old Cat is not about to let this one be looked over like so many other unforgivable things before, especially since it concerns her once-upon-a-time best friend. She's known that Patrick was gay since the seventh grade, but she never though twice about it: he was still everything to her. Upon entering high school, Patrick opened up about his sexuality for all, which they knew would be very controversial in this average little town. Cat wasn't there to support him in his time of need though, because her own turmoil she was having to deal with, that wrapped her in a blanket of isolation for months. So when Patrick makes the front page of newspapers, strung up like a marionette with a gas nozzle down his throat and "suck this, faggot" written on his chest in blood, Cat forces herself out of the comfortable place and back into the real world to find out for herself just what happened to her friend, who is unable to fend for himself in a coma. Cat learns many dark and unsettling secrets about this place she's called home, and must face unbelievable truths about what went down that one early morning, and what led to it.

So this book I gave a three out of five stars. It really was a good read, just nothing exceptional. It's the kind of book that you might read if you had some free time in your hands, and didn't have anything else to do. The back stories were especially interesting, talking about how all the different characters came to be the people they were presently in the book, but during the sleuthing scenes where Cat is trying to identify the culprit, it just got boring at times. And the twists in the plot seemed to be almost trying to hard to be surprising, when they weren't. But the description of the town, the Suicide Rock, and the general setting of the story really had me in tune and able to place myself directly in the story. So in my opinion, the book had it's redeeming qualities, but also could've used a bit more. Good book, and I would suggest it to anyone who's interested in reading a mystery/hate-crime book.