Book Review: The Amateurs by Sara Shepard

The Amateurs (The Amateurs #1)

By Sara Shepard 

Release Date: November 1, 2016

Source: Publisher

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Five years ago, high school senior Helena Kelly disappeared from her backyard in Dexby, Connecticut, never to be heard from again. Her family was left without any answers—without any idea who killed Helena, or why.

So when eighteen-year-old Seneca Frazier sees a desperate post on the Case Not Closed message board, she knows it’s time to change that. Helena’s high-profile disappearance is the one that originally got Seneca addicted to true crime. It’s the reason she’s a member of the site in the first place.

Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, she agrees to spend spring break in Connecticut working on the case with Maddy Wright, her best friend from Case Not Closed. However, the moment she steps off the train, things start to go wrong. Maddy’s nothing like she expected, and Helena’s sister, Aerin, doesn’t seem to want any help after all. Plus, Seneca has a secret of her own, one that could derail the investigation if she’s not careful.

Alongside Brett, another super-user from the site, they slowly begin to unravel the secrets Helena kept in the weeks before her disappearance. But the killer is watching…and determined to make sure the case stays cold. 

There's just something about mysteries that are just so….annoying to me. Don't get me wrong, I ended up absolutely LOVING this book, but only because of that ending. That's what's annoying to me. Books that are mediocre while you're reading them, but then the ending COMPLETELY BLOWS YOUR MIND. So it's more of a good annoying, but annoying nonetheless. 

Seneca Frazer has been obsessed with the website Case Not Close, a site dedicated to cold cases left unsolved, often for years. A cold case about Helena Kelly's disappearance has had Seneca's interest for years, so when Helena's sister posts on the site asking for help to find out what really happened to her sister, Seneca decides to team up with her online friend and visit the source of the crime. When Seneca arrives, nothing goes as she had planned and as they dig deeper into Helena's disappearance, someone tries to make it very clear they are not welcome. 

From the start, I was definitely intrigued with this book. It was clear that all of the characters were hiding something, so we were about as in-the-know as Seneca was when she arrived in the town where Helena Kelly disappeared. I loved how nothing went as Seneca had planned. Even when she met her friend online friend Maddy, it was definitely not what Seneca was expecting. It was fun following them around as they tried to piece together the clues of Helena's life while growing closer and learning more and more about each other in the process. 

The relationships in this book were interesting and relatable and, I have to say, I definitely did not guess how this mystery would turn out. Like I said at the beginning of this review, the ending absolutely blew my mind and I am eager to get my hands on the next book (whenever it comes out…). I think this was an awesome YA mystery that you should definitely check out! These may be teens trying to solve a crime, but they are so smart and I couldn't wait to see what they would turn up with each turn of the page.