The Sound

by Sarah Alderson

When aspiring music journalist Ren Kingston takes a job nannying for a wealthy family on the exclusive island of Nantucket, playground for Boston's elite, she's hoping for a low-key summer reading books and blogging about bands. Boys are firmly offthe agenda.

What she doesn'tcount on is falling in with a bunch of party-loving private school kids who are hiding some dark secrets; falling (possibly) in love with the local bad boy; and falling out with a dangerous serial killer...

• ISBN10: 1471115739
• ISBN13: 9781471115738
• Publish Date: 1 August 2013
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

"You Should take people as they are. Stop labeling them. You should get to know people before you start judging them. Get to know me before you decide whether you like me or not."

Going into this book I was expecting a mystery and a little bit of romance. Instead, it ended up being the other way around. While I'm not saying this made the book horrible. It was quite enjoyable just not what I was expecting.

I really wanted to like Ren and I did at first, but as the story went on and she became more of a cliche (even though she kept stating that she wouldn't become one) I just couldn't like her as much. I mean come on her main worry was that she thought her thighs were fat, but yet two foreign nannies had been killed a year apart and no one has any idea who the killer could be. But yet all she was worried about was finally losing her virginity to the "right one". Not to mention I thought she was a bit of an idiot when she kept sneaking around with the one person that everyone told her was violent and to stay away from.

As for the two love interests Jeremy and Jesse. I knew which one she would end up with halfway through the book. You could tell that while she did like Jeremy it was nothing compared to her feelings towards Jesse. Plus Jesse had the whole mysterious bad boy thing going for him and Jeremy had jerks as friends that made Ren not feel very welcome or comfortable. Plus he turned out to be a horrible person.

The ending of the book is what saved it for me. I never would have guessed that that was the killer. The person was hardly ever in the story and if they were they never said more than more, then two words to Ren and never seemed interested in her. The way Ren ended up acting though and finally taking action towards the killer made me like her again, and showed that she wasn't as dumb as she had been appearing to be for most of the book.

I could have done without her constantly fantasizing about sleeping with Jesse though.

I really wish that this book would have been advertised more as a Romance then a mystery. Maybe I would have ended up liking it more.

See more reviews like this on my blog

[Artemis]

I remember really hating this book and yet somehow managing to finish it. The blurb seemed interesting enough but the main character is absolutely dreadful.

[goodnghtmoonx]

Ren Kingston was a fun character. Honestly, the thing that made me pick up this book was the idea that she wanted to be/was a music journalist. I also enjoyed that it was about an English girl coming over here. (Also, it takes place in my state, so that might have something to do with my enjoyment of this book. I might also mention that pepper spray/mace is illegal in the state without a permit.) I enjoyed that she didn't just blend in with the other characters and let them take her over. Some of the other characters were a bit flat, which might have been the point with some of them. Though, there were still a few surprises with them as you got into the book.

The mystery/thriller part of this novel was a bit... slow. Sometimes I forgot that there was supposed to be a killer on the loose because it seemed like it was a "normal" Young Adult novel. And then, towards the end it all came up suddenly. I was actually surprised with the ending, but very pleasantly surprised. One of the major points in the story did become predictable after a certain point in the novel, but that could have also been a wild guess on my part. (I can't recall how I came to that conclusion, so I can't be that certain.) I could have lived without the love triangle thing that happened, but it seemed to work well within this story, so I can't complain too much on that.

Jesse, though a bit cliched, might have been one of my favorite characters in this book. Along with Brodie, simply because she was an adorable four year old girl. Jesse did make the story more interesting once he became more involved. Ren was also a good character in my opinion. Her development didn't seem as bad as other Young Adult novels I've read, which is always a plus.

Over all, I'm glad I read this. I had been debating on it since I tend ot have a love/hate relationship with Young Adults, but I definitely don't regret this novel at all. It has also gotten me interested in viewing Alderson's other works as well.

[bryannaleigh]

Ren Kingston was a fun character. Honestly, the thing that made me pick up this book was the idea that she wanted to be/was a music journalist. I also enjoyed that it was about an English girl coming over here. (Also, it takes place in my state, so that might have something to do with my enjoyment of this book. I might also mention that pepper spray/mace is illegal in the state without a permit.) I enjoyed that she didn't just blend in with the other characters and let them take her over. Some of the other characters were a bit flat, which might have been the point with some of them. Though, there were still a few surprises with them as you got into the book.

The mystery/thriller part of this novel was a bit... slow. Sometimes I forgot that there was supposed to be a killer on the loose because it seemed like it was a "normal" Young Adult novel. And then, towards the end it all came up suddenly. I was actually surprised with the ending, but very pleasantly surprised. One of the major points in the story did become predictable after a certain point in the novel, but that could have also been a wild guess on my part. (I can't recall how I came to that conclusion, so I can't be that certain.) I could have lived without the love triangle thing that happened, but it seemed to work well within this story, so I can't complain too much on that.

Jesse, though a bit cliched, might have been one of my favorite characters in this book. Along with Brodie, simply because she was an adorable four year old girl. Jesse did make the story more interesting once he became more involved. Ren was also a good character in my opinion. Her development didn't seem as bad as other Young Adult novels I've read, which is always a plus.

Over all, I'm glad I read this. I had been debating on it since I tend ot have a love/hate relationship with Young Adults, but I definitely don't regret this novel at all. It has also gotten me interested in viewing Alderson's other works as well.