The nail-bitingly intense story of a summer at camp that ends in a disturbing death—and depicts a powerful friendship that won’t ever be forgotten. Perfect for fans of One of Us Is Lying and Broken Things. Kayla is still holding on to Lainie’s secrets. After all, Lainie is Kayla’s best friend. And despite Lainie’s painful obsession with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, and the ways he has … her on-again, off-again boyfriend, and the ways he has tried to come between them, friends don’t spill each other’s secrets. They don’t betray each other’s trust.
The murder at the end of the summer doesn’t change all that.
Besides—Kayla knows that the truth is not the whole story.
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This is more a 3.5 rating.The the story is given from one perspective, and is written mostly in letter format. There is also inserts of newspaper articles, court transcript, and news clips. Kayla is the narrator in this story, and she is writing letters to her friend ( Lainie, who she never send the letters too) who was she bff with during summer camp. Lainie is in this abusive and toxic relationship with this boy named Jackson. Things come to head when someone is found dead two days before camp ends. The readers don’t know if its Lainie or Jackson that is the victim at first . This is the classic who dunnit plot. This was a one-day read for me, there aspects of the book I really enjoyed. I was going to give this book a four star, but I went down to a 3.5 as I thought more about it. I do like the messanging on abusive relationships and those types of relationships affect other relationships. I think that this book was more on Kayla/Lainie more then anything.They formed this friendship at the begging of the story, and we Lainie bring Kayla out of her shell ( Kayla is more anti-social in this). But slowly you start seeing cracks in their friendship even before Jackson came along. Those cracks just got wider as the story progressed in this, until it shattered at the end. Kayla thinks that Lainie was obsessed with Jackson, which maybe she was, but she doesn’t see her own obsession for Laine. I think that Lainie, definitley knew that Kayla was obsessed with her and she used it to her own advantage and kind of lead Kayla on, then rebuking her at the end. I kind of wish that this story had more then one POV. I think it would have brought this story out even more. I was kind of disapointed by who the killer was, but as I’m thinking about it, it was kind of fitting and does make sense. If you want to read a short murder mystery, I suggest this one.
Nobody Knows But You is an excellent thriller that is reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s work, keeping the reader on edge and guessing until the very end.
Interesting Storytelling
The most astounding aspect of this novel was how Rissi tells the story. Rissi structures the story in the form of letters from Kayla to her friend Lainie. Now what is excellent is Rissi’s use of misdirection. The tone of the story, the way Kayla begins makes it feel as though Lainie is dead. Rissi uses language to her advantage to continuously catch the reader off guard, making the story compelling.
With the revelation that Lainie is in prison completely shifts the narrative, throwing the reader through a loop. It is intense how language works bring to life this story.
The story then moves forward with press releases, articles, and interviews with fellow camp goers, bringing to life a story and vision outside of Kayla’s. It gives the story depth and gives the reader both an objective and biased look at the relationship between Lainie, Kayla, and Lainie’s boyfriend.
Movement & Dynamics
What is essential for a novel such as this is pacing and Rissi nails it. There is very little to no dialogue with this novel and yet, the pacing never falters. It shows how strong a talent Rissi has with her storytelling, how she can keep the momentum up and moving.
There is so much going on in the story, how it moves, in the way the story is told, and yet Rissi does not lose the reader. Nothing is confusing here, but a whole lot of mystery to keep the reader engaged in the story.
Moreover, the construction of the dynamics, it was genius. Once again, there is the objective look and the biased look that gives the dynamics their strength. The reader does not know whom to believe, whose perception is correct, and it does give the story this unique edge at storytelling.
Final Thoughts
Nobody Knows But You is an incredible thriller. It tells a captivating story through different mediums, keeping the reader on their toes until the end.