Book Review: Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

It's Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives. But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations.

As Anna sets out to find her friend's killer; she discovers hard truths about her friendships, the slippery nature of truth, and the ache of young love.

As she awaits the judge's decree, it becomes clear that everyone around her thinks she is not just guilty, but dangerous. When the truth comes out, it is more shocking than one could ever imagine...

My Thoughts:

I devoured this book in one sitting!  It reminded me a little of the Amanda Knox case...teens out of the country, someone dies, dealing with a trial in a foreign country, etc.  Even though I predicted the "twist" at the end, it kept me second guessing myself the whole time.  

Anna and her friends are finishing up their senior year of high school.  They head to Aruba for Spring Break and party hard.  When they find that their leader, Elise, has been murdered, they are shocked.  When Anna is targeted as the suspect and has to fight to regain her freedom.  

The book is told from Anna's point of view.  She goes back and forth between the present, with her being in jail and the trial, to the past, where you get a look at how Elise and Anna became such good friends.  You also get to see how Tate and Anna become a couple and the twisted relationship between the three.  There are other friends in the group that add to the plot but the main story is between Anna, Elise and Tate.

Once Elise has been found and Anna is arrested, it really seems as if the prosecutor (I can't remember his title in Aruba but essentially, he would be the prosecutor) has it out for Anna.  I really ended up hating him and wanting him to fail because it appeared as if he concentrated all his focus on Anna and dismissed any other leads.  I also was disgusted with Tate and Anna's other friends at first because they appeared to only be looking out for themselves and they kind threw Anna under the bus.  Then I decided, if faced with a murder accusation and life in prison in a foreign country, I would probably do the same.  

The ending did not shock me at all as I thought I knew who the killer was the whole time but like I said, it had me doubting myself the whole time.  I was pretty sure but there were always a couple questions that made me pause.  

If you liked Gone Girl or Girl on a Train then you will definitely like this one.  It says it is a YA book but I think it is a mature YA book.  There is a lot of sex, drugs and alcohol in the book so I would definitely say ages 16 and up.