Secrets of My Suburban Life

Secrets of My Suburban Life
By: Lauren Baratz- Logsted

Everything changed for Lauren ("Ren") after Harry Potter killed her mom. No. It's not what you think- Harry Potter didn't come to life and stab her or anything. A Stack of those thick books crushed her. Now Ren is stuck out in the suburbs of Connecticut, dragged out there because her father is too grief stricken to continue living in New York.

Ren tries to fit in at her old school, but the most popular girl, Farrin, keeps icing her out. Then Ren discovers that Farrin has a secret: She's been communicating online with an older man, and they are actually planning to meet! Ren can't let Farrin go through with it- she's witnessed enough tragic events as it is. So she comes up with the perfect plan to stop the perv. But then she finds out who he is...

summary from back of book

My Rating: 3/5

This book was an alright read. It has an interesting premise, and the summary, especially the last line really had me intrigued as to who the person could be. I think that Lauren Baratz- Logsted did a good job of hiding who the chat room lurker is among the characters. I'm the kind of person that suspects everyone when I read things like this (I can't help it) and although the person did turn out to be whom I had suspected, I still hadn't picked up on the clues that Logsted dropped. They seem so obvious to me now but they were definitely well though out and well hidden amongst the chapters.

Aside from the whole mystery and suspense aspect which was really well done and well paced, I didn't feel much for the characters. I found that they took a back seat to the entire "chat room lurker" and Ren having to stop what is going to happen if Farrin does decide to meet up with the mystery person. It was all very short and lacking detail when it came to individual characters and their lives, especially Ren who although she was sad, didn't really grieve much when dealing with her mother's death. I guess this story wasn't intended to be about Ren or meant to delve deep into any character's lives but still, there was something lacking, something that left the story feeling somewhat incomplete.