The Escape by Hannah Jayne | Book Review #92

‘When two boys walk into the woods, and one comes out covered in blood, what would you believe?
Fletcher and Adam venture into the woods for an afternoon hike, but when day turns into night and neither boy returns, their town is thrown into turmoil. Avery, the detective’s daughter, is the one to find Fletcher—dishelved, disoriented, and covered in blood. He has no memory of what happened, but Avery can’t shake the feeling that something’s off. When Adam’s body is finally found, Avery is determined to uncover the truth. But if she stands by her gut, and Fletcher, is she standing by a friend, or a murderer? The answer might cost her her life.‘

I borrowed The Escape by Hannah Jayne from the library a while ago, and sped read this book because it was due it like, 2 days and I couldn’t renew it without actually turning in the book first. Surprisingly, though, even though I meant to speed read it, the story is fast-paced enough that reading this book made me feel like I wasn’t speed reading at all! Which was awesome.

The first few pages was confusing for me. There were two mixed points of view. Like, one characters thoughts would start up, then another characters would start up. And then another character’s voice would play up, but you would know that it was a totally different character entirely. So we know when the voices clear up that there’s two definitive points of view. There’s Avery, the police chief’s daughter, who has a knack at detective work. And then there’s Fletcher, who we really don’t know much about. The whole purpose of this story is all about Fletcher, and the murder mystery that happened.

Appropriately, the town is wary and scared. I mean, what small town wouldn’t be? They could have a killer in their small little town. Which in turn, turns the town against itself, and the town especially turns against those who are closest to the case. There were also a few character’s that I was iffy about; but that’s usual in this case.

I was right about two things. I won’t say much, because of spoilers, but on one of the predictions I just didn’t know how right I would be. Now that I look back on said prediction, there is too much irony for me to handle without wanting to laugh a little. The second prediction is a little off base, but I was in the right direction.

Overall, The Escape is full of action and mystery. You could easily read this book in a few hours; there’s only like, 246 pages of the actual story. For the pace of the book; how fast it is, I actually ended up reading the first half of the book pretty quickly, and the second half even faster than that. I had to stop reading half-way through or else I’d end up going to bed at 4 in the morning! Anyway, I ended up liking this book more than I thought I would. I usually don’t go for the murder-mystery types. And while I don’t particularly love this book with a passion, I thought that the story was told pretty well. The pacing is awesome, and the characters ring true.

Thanks for reading my review of The Escape by Hannah Jayne! This was actually my first book by her. I’m excited to read her other stand alone’s! You can click the book’s cover below to check out The Escape on GoodRead’s.

Thanks again!

Adele