Review: The Block Party

The Block Party by Jamie Day
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3 stars- I didn't love this book, nor did I hate it.

I really don't know how many stars to give this book. Also, it comes with so many trigger warnings that I'm afraid that you, the possible reader, will be able to piece everything (or almost everything) together before you get a quarter of the way through the book!

The timeline is a little odd, with the book alternating a bit. There is a murder at the block party, but you don't get to who- done- it or even discuss it for the whole book. Or at least until the last, oh...10% of the book. The only reason you even know that there was a murder is that there is a social community page where others not from this street discuss what may have happened that day.

Frankly, I did not like any of the characters, and some even less than others. Alex is the main character, a drunk busybody with her nose all up into everyone's lives. Her daughter Lettie is the young adult main character, and the chapters of this book switch back and forth between them. It sometimes makes it a little difficult to keep track of the author's 'voice.'  The author doesn't do a great job of making each character memorable in their own right. Perhaps two of the many characters have any uniqueness. 

The ending of the book should have been shocking, but for me, I read too many other reviews that had enough hints of what was to come that I wasn't shocked one bit.

Mind you, I did manage to read this whole book, and I admit some chapters did keep my rapt attention, and I WILL recommend this as a good summer read. It just wasn't a great summer read for me.

Now for the trigger warning -and do NOT read any further if you want to go into this book knowing nothing than what the recap tells you:

Alcoholism, drug use/addiction, wife abuse, the death of a child, revenge, sex with a minor, lies, threats, mania, and just all-around bizarre behavior on the part of a couple of the characters.

*ARC was supplied by the publisher, St. Martin's Press, the author, and Netgalley.

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SYNOPSIS: "This summer, meet your neighbors.

The residents of the exclusive cul-de-sac on Alton Road are entangled in a web of secrets and scandal utterly unknown to the outside world, and even to each other.

On the night of the annual Summer block party, there has been a murder.

But, who did it and why takes readers back one year earlier, as rivalries and betrayals unfold—discovering that the real danger lies within their own block and nothing—and no one—is ever as it seems."