Young Adult Book Reviews

Genre: Mystery

In this modern day retelling of Little Women, the story opens with Beth being found dead in the woods after a New Year’s Eve Party. Each chapter focuses on a different character so the reader gets to see how each sister and friend handle the aftermath of her brutal death. The March sisters vow to find out who might have hurt their beloved sisters, but as they all begin to recount their final moments with her it becomes obvious that they all had motives. To complicate things further, in this retelling Mr. March, the girls’ father, had written Little Women about all of their lives and in his version Beth died. This had caused public outrage for fans of Beth who felt she deserved better. Even Beth herself felt like she had to show everyone that her life was worth living. After the backlash from the book, Mr. March moved to the woods to let things die down, but no one has been able to reach him since. They very much want him to come home at this terrible time for the family. Beth’s boyfriend and their childhood neighbor both take the news of Beth’s death very hard as well, but are they both telling everything they know about that fateful night? Can the March sisters find out who killed Beth? Will they ever find out where their father is? Will they ever truly be able to move forward without Beth as their moral guide?

This retelling is modern, fresh, and suspenseful. There are some changes made by the author to the original story that may not sit well with readers who love the original, but for the most part readers will find it to be a fun new twist on an old classic. The characters are all developed fully, including Beth. They are all individuals who have their own opinions and motivations and are never confused with each other in the story. The clues to the mystery keep getting more and more interesting as it becomes obvious that everyone has a really good secret they do not want anyone to find out, but are they secrets worth killing over? The ending is both exciting and satisfying for mystery readers and will leave everyone feeling like they know these characters whether or not they are familiar with the original.