May Queen Murders

by Sarah Jude

Those are the rules in Rowan's Glen, a remote farming community in the Missouri Ozarks where Ivy Templeton's family has lived for centuries. It's an old-fashioned way of life, full of superstition and traditions, and sixteen-year-old Ivy loves it. The other kids at school may think the Glen kids are weird, but Ivy doesn't care--she has her cousin Heather as her best friend. The two girls share everything with each other--or so Ivy thinks. When Heather goes missing after a May Day celebration, Ivy discovers that both her best friend and her beloved hometown are as full of secrets as the woods that surround them.

• ISBN13: 9780544937253
• Publish Date: 9 May 2017 (first published 3 May 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 15 November 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Houghton Mifflin
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
I have some mixed feelings on this book, and it ended up working out pretty evenly. In the end, I did like it more than I didn't, so that's good.

The Things I Liked:

• The creepy, backward town. This place is strange. And I think it is present-day, which makes it even stranger. It's almost cultish in nature, and the atmosphere is very well done. I definitely felt like this was not a place I wanted to be! The author definitely nailed the creep-factor, and that drew me into the book.


• The mystery definitely pulled me in. I wanted to know what was happening in this town- and why! That's really all I can even say without spoiling things, but I definitely was intrigued by this town and its shadiness!


• Ivy worked for me as a character. I liked that she was naive and unworldly, it made sense. Even though she went to a public school, she mainly spent her time with other kids from her town, so it made sense that while she wasn't completely devoid of social appropriateness, she also wasn't really in the know either. In contrast, her cousin and best friend Heather definitely wanted to know more about the outside world, which I liked. It seemed reasonable to me that some kids would want to stay in the comfort of their own niche, while others would be stir crazy to leave it. Their relationship definitely propelled the story, and I enjoyed the contrast of their personalities. I also liked that Ivy started a bit of a romance of her own, though I do wish her romantic interest had been a bit more fleshed out, I felt like his personality was lacking a bit.

The Things I Didn't:

• The whole ending was kind of a mess for me. It was too... much. There was just too much going on, yet at the same time, I felt like I was not getting answers to some of my questions, which was kind of maddening. And then when it all came out, I was just underwhelmed in general, and kind of confused.


• Like I mentioned with the love interest, most of the characters rendered me a bit apathetic. Even in regards to Heather, while I liked that she and Ivy had been so close, most of what we actually see is their drifting apart, so I didn't get a real sense of who Heather is, other than "not Ivy". I felt the same for most of the other secondary characters, most of whom kind of blended together for me.

Bottom Line: Had the ending been more satisfying, I think I could have really enjoyed this one. Still, the author's writing was incredibly atmospheric and I look forward to her future works.

**Copy provided by publisher for review