No One Else Can Have You (Kippy Bushman)

by Kathleen Hale

This might be my favorite YA cover ever. And it's the sole reason I picked up NO ONE ELSE CAN HAVE YOU since I'm not typically drawn to mysteries. I've never seen Pretty Little Liars or Fargo, so I can't say whether or not the claimed comparison is accurate or not, but I can say that this book is wacky and darkly humorous with a better than average mystery.

NO ONE ELSE CAN HAVE you is often random and very voice driven. It helps that Kippy has a bizarrely blunt voice that is uniquely hers, but that didn't keep the pacing from being slow in places. Still, I laughed and cringed at her antics while being shocked and horrified by most everyone else's. I did enjoy the mystery, which was unpredictable and engaging, until the very end when a couple clues were revealed that would have totally revealed the killed had we known them earlier.

There is so much about this book that is seriously twisted in a farcical way, but it's hard to know whether to laugh or cringe most of the time. Everything is well done from the characters to the mystery to the sprinkling of authentic Wisconsin 'you betchas' but it's definitely going to be the kind of book that a lot of readers won't click with.