I enjoyed this story. I loved the characterization of everyone and really enjoyed reading about Charlotte and her mannerisms and deductions. Jamie is a hard character to understand but I ended up really liking him as well. The mystery was interesting and unpredictable. I really liked reading about how Charlotte and Jamie solved it every step of the way. I will say- this is very much a YA book but it had a few themes that seemed mature for the writing style. Holmes deals with drug addiction and it is discussed quite flippantly. Honestly, it is discussed the way teens would talk about it. Like it's more scandalous and inconvenient than the serious issue that it is. I had to remind myself that this book is not about teaching a lesson and when it comes to teens they are very flippant about things that they should take more seriously. As someone used to reading adult mysteries more than YA I really had to remind myself that this is a book about teenagers and is narrated by a teenager. It also moved pretty slow. There was no urgency to the plot and I felt like the book dragged on a bit. I would read for an hour and feel like I made no head way at all. It took me much longer to read this book than I expected. All that to say-I did enjoy this book. I recommend it for teens but maybe not on the younger side because there is drug and sex references and a trigger warning for mention of rape. I own the rest of the series and will be reading the rest of the books. I look forward to seeing what else Charlotte and Jamie get caught up in.
