Review: If You're Lucky by Yvonne Prinz

Is Georgia’s mind playing tricks on her, or is the entire town walking into the arms of a killer who has everyone but her fooled?

When seventeen-year-old Georgia’s brother drowns while surfing halfway around the world in Australia, she refuses to believe Lucky’s death was just bad luck. Lucky was smart. He wouldn’t have surfed in waters more dangerous than he could handle. Then a stranger named Fin arrives in False Bay, claiming to have been Lucky’s best friend. Soon Fin is working for Lucky’s father, charming Lucky’s mother, dating his girlfriend. Georgia begins to wonder: did Fin murder Lucky in order to take over his whole life?

Determined to clear the fog from her mind in order to uncover the truth about Lucky’s death, Georgia secretly stops taking the medication that keeps away the voices in her head. Georgia is certain she’s getting closer and closer to the truth about Fin, but as she does, her mental state becomes more and more precarious, and no one seems to trust what she’s saying.

As the chilling narrative unfolds, the reader must decide whether Georgia’s descent into madness is causing her to see things that don’t exist–or to see a deadly truth that no one else can.  

Kindle Edition, 288 pages

Expected publication: October 20th 2015 by Algonquin Young Readers 

Genre: Young Adult

Kristine's Thoughts:

** I received an advanced readers copy from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!**

 

This book has me stumped. I'm stumped over all of the great reviews and ratings because it was not very good. In fact, it was pretty bad. I really had to put some effort into even finishing it. Am I being harsh? Perhaps, but I am not a hard person to please which is apparent with all of my other reviews.

 

My issues had to do with how mental illness was portrayed in this book. It wasn't very believable and I think that some of the information around Schizophrenia did not ring true. I could see what the author was trying to accomplish, making the reader wonder what was real and in Georgia's head, but it fell short. I'm not sure if an attempt was being made to "dumb" it down so that readers understood it better or what.

 

The whole story about Lucky dying and Fin showing up happened too fast. Lucky dies, Fin moves to town and within a blink the grief is over and Fin is taking over. Really?? The whole thing was just so far fetched and unbelievable.

 

Perhaps younger readers will enjoy this better than I did, Maybe readers that aren't familiar with different kinds of mental illnesses. It was just not for me at all.

 

 

 

About the Author

YVONNE PRINZ is the award-winning author of The Vinyl Princess and All You Get Is Me. A Canadian living in the San Francisco Bay Area, she is the cofounder of Amoeba Music, the world's largest independent music store.