The Basic Book Bitches

Review by Emily

Kiki is invited to a party thrown by her friends, Ava and Vic. She only agrees to go if her ex-fiancé isn’t going to be there, and when Ava assures her he won’t be, Kiki relents and RSVPs. Plot twist though, Jamie shows and the night ends with him receiving a bullet through the head. The police show up and investigate and are certain this is a simple suicide case because Jamie is heartbroken that his ex-fiancé was at the party…even though they’ve been split for months and he’s displayed no suicidal ideations. Seems like pretty shitty police work if ya ask me.

       I’ll admit this book was easy enough to read (even though it took me a while to finish thanks to moving while reading it). I wanted SO BADLY to know what happened to that girl in the woods behind the carnival, so when I had the chance to read I’d blow through chapters. The writing was clear and easy to follow. 

      The characters were ~mostly~ like-able. I HATE HATE HATE that Kiki broke up with Jamie because she was feeling the feels for Jamie’s best friend. I hate even more that days after Jamie’s death Kiki and Sam (the bestie) are hooking up in the most awkward sex scenes I’ve ever read in a book, good job promoting safe sex I guess, though? Then after the awkward coitus, Kiki arrives at Sam’s house unannounced to find him rubbing another bitch’s feet, who he then vehemently insists isn’t a serious girlfriend…TF? 

      There was one glaring plot hole which I will mention here with the caveat that I was able to read this pre-publication through Netgalley, so hopefully, the editors catch it and fix it. On page 29 of the digital Netgalley edition, it mentions that Jamie had recently moved apartments, which prompted Kiki to assume it was because of her (eye roll). Later on, Kiki mentions going to the apartment WHICH SHE AND JAMIE SHARED and breaking in, even though she technically still had a key. Ummm girlfriend, that’s not even where Jamie lives anymore. 

       On that note, while it’s not really a plot hole it’s just bad writing, Kiki mentions several other things that cause the plot of this novel to be a bit lackluster. She states when she gets into the apartment that it appears as though no one has gone to investigate his apartment yet. As in, the police haven’t gone to check out the place of someone who died under suspicious circumstances. It’s the next day and they don’t even have the place sealed or anything. I know he was killed somewhere else, but this seems unlikely as hell to me. 

        Finally, the big whodunnit ended up feeling more like I was being gaslit throughout this book. I was frankly sorry that I wasted so much time on it for Kate White to pull such a move on us there at the end. Oh well. If you like mystery you’ll like this, but it’s not going to astound you with its shockingly intelligent plot or a mind-boggling resolution. So I guess I’m saying it’s good writing but an overall disappointing story.