Review: Rosebush

Rosebush by Michele Jaffe

published by Razorbill

genre: YA

$16.99 (US hardback)

326 pages

What it's about:

Jane Freeman opens her eyes on the morning after Jocelyn Gunter's epic Memorial Day party and finds herself tangled in a rosebush, pierced by hundreds of tiny thorns, paralyzed, and unable to remember a single detail from the night before.

Her mother and the doctors say the hit and run was an accident, but Jane knows the truth. Someone tried to kill her. Someone from the party. The clues add up--the drink, the slammed, door, the kiss, the car, the ring--but with no memory, it's impossible for Jane to tell the difference between what really happened and what everyone wants her to believe.

Unable to leave the hospital until she's fully recovered, Jane lets long-buried memories begin to resurface, making her question everything she thought she knew about love, friendship, and loyalty. her friends come and go, each with a different version of what happened that night. And Jane has to figure out who's really on her side--before the killer strikes again.

whose memory can she trust, when she can't even trust her own?

My thoughts:
This is a book I wish I would have read in one sitting, instead it took me a week to read it :/

This book actually really surprised me. I thought it sounded really good and I had a few ideas of what it was going to be like. I was kinda thinking it was going to be like Before I Fall and repeat what everyone did at the party and it would just be like rereading the day of the party over and over. It wasn't like that at all. Everyone tells bits and pieces of what happened, but it wasn't like reliving it. It was very well done.

All the characters surprised me at one point or another. At first Jane annoyed me. Her boyfriend David was obviously abusive and horrible and I hated how Jane acted with him. The guy couldn't be a bigger douche and yet she was tripping over herself to make him happy. I really can't stand girls like that. Then there were the two best friends, and all the guys going in and out of Jane's life. Jane of all of them was the biggest surprise. She changed so much throughout the whole book. I loved seeing her slowly change and become a better person. Fix all her problems while trying to figure out who in the world is trying to kill her.

I'm the annoying person when it comes to watching suspense/horror/mystery movies and tv. I always guess who the killer is within the first 10-30 minutes of the movie and ruin it for everyone else. I guessed the killer in the first Saw movie within the first five minutes and pissed off everyone around me. That's why I was happy when this book had me guessing the whole time. I had a few guesses, but was never positive. Honestly I sort of got it wrong too. (the sort of answer will make sense if you read the book. It would give away too much if I said anymore).

There is one thing that bugs me about the book and that is Bonnie. There were a bunch of questions asked about her and a whole new story plot was hinted at, and it was never answered. If there is going to be a continuing story to this one, it will make sense, but I didn't get the vibe that this is going to be an on going book.

My rating: 9/10
Just for the Bonnie issue.