The Amateurs by Sara Shepard

The Amateurs (Amateurs, #1)

by Sara Shepard

Everyone's dying to know the truth . . .

When Aerin Kelly was eleven, she idolised her seventeen-year-old sister, Helena, and they did everything together. They made Claymation movies and posted them to YouTube. They made fun of Windmere-Carruthers, the private school they attended, they invented new flavours for their parents' organic ice cream shop, and they dressed up their golden retriever, Buster. But when Helena went into senior year things started to change. Rather than being Aerin's inseparable sister, she started to push her away. Then, on a snowy winter's day, Helena vanished.

Four years later, Helena's body is found. Wracked with grief and refusing to give up on her sister, Aerin spends months trying to figure out what exactly happened to Helena and who killed her. But the police have no leads. A young, familiar officer named Thomas wants to help and suggests she checks out a website called Case Not Closed. Hesitantly, she posts, and when teenagers Seneca and Maddox show up on her doorstep offering to help investigate she accepts in desperation. Both have suffered their own losses and also posted to the site with no luck, so they are hoping this case might be the one they crack. But as their investigation begins, it seems that maybe it's no accident that they are all together, and that maybe the crimes have something - or someone - in common.

Reviewed by funstm on

5 of 5 stars

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I read this when it first came out and was awed. It was fantastic. However, it's got a cliffhanger ending and I hate waiting for sequels. So I put it out of my mind for a while and eventually got hooked on other things. Now that the sequels have been published I got myself set up for a reread so I can finally know the ending.

Seneca is a complete mess. Well, they kind of all are. But I did like them all. Aerin was probably my favourite and I liked Thomas. The romance between Aerin and Thomas was nice - the romance between Seneca and Maddox was a disaster. It didn't add anything to the book. The mystery itself is riveting. I like how they track down the clues and find new evidence to help solve the case. I felt sorry for Aerin and Seneca - their pain was fairly obvious - even if their methods of dealing with it were pretty different.

The Amateurs does really highlight the dangers of the internet. The most obvious being Seneca thinking Maddy was a girl. (And how confusing is the whole Maddox/Madison thing - awkward) But also the difficulties for them in continuing their friendship in the real world. It's a lot easier to admit things online than it can be face to face and this was highlighted in the text.

It was a great read and I loved every minute of it. Can't wait to get started on the next one.

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  • Started reading
  • 1 December, 2016: Finished reading
  • 1 December, 2016: Reviewed
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  • 1 December, 2016: Reviewed