Dead Ringer - Jessie Rossen

You know those books that leave you cold inside, feeling a sense of dread that you can't shake? This is one of those books and in the best way possible. The twists in this book are incredible and if you're a fan of suspense, definitely check this one out. I may have been left with a terrible feeling, but I wanted to read more. It completely blew my mind.

Rating: 3.5 Stars
Published: November 2015
Many thanks to Netgalley and Full Fathom Five for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Laura Rivers first day at Englewood High is supposed to be different, she's not following the crowd anymore, she's being who she wants to be. Except, everyone's staring at her and whispering about her, because she looks like dead girl, Sarah Castro-Tanner. Laura doesn't let this stop her though, she's got her eye on soccer hottie Charlie Sanders, even though he's got a pile of secrets he won't let her in on. Things are made weirder by the fact that no one will talk to her about Sarah and Charlie and his friends seem to have some kind of involvement in her death that are making them act stranger and stranger.

This book messed with me and not in a good way, I mean I started looking over my shoulder and looking at people differently. The story line is incredibly interesting, a girl is dead and while it's been marked as a suicide her bodies never been found. Laura, a beautiful blonde Californian, happens to look like her in several ways. People are on edge, especially the four friends that may have had some kind of involvement. I really like Laura, at first. Her willingness to be the new girl was refreshing and her slow investigation into Sarah's death is intriguing. Then there's Charlie, the popular guy, who's slowly losing his mind. His three friends, with more secrets than I knew what to do with and finally there's Sasha, a hacker who's determined to prove that Sarah's death was far more than just a suicide.

This book is so suspenseful and the quote, "revenge is dish best served cold," totally fits Dead Ringer. It's told in third person from the alternate perspectives of Laura, Charlie, and Sasha. As the students go through the motions of high school things just keep happening, bringing the thought of Sarah into the front of every student's mind. There's secret videos, hidden conversations, and moments that terrify the characters. The characters are so multidimensional that I never felt like I knew them 100% and even after finishing the book, I know there's more to them. The emotions I went through in this book kept turning the pages nonstop and I couldn't have predicted the ending.

Several of the twists are predictable, even if the ending is not. Unfortunately, Dead Ringer also ends in a cliffhanger like no other. As everything and everyone is unraveling, it just ends. Several characters are introduced to us right near the end and their stories aren't closed, so even though a sequel hasn't been mentioned, I am hoping for one. The abrupt closure and cliffhanger took this from a sold 4 stars to 3.5 for me.