Review: The Half Life of Molly Pierce by Katrina Leno

Summary

You take it for granted. Waking up. Going to school, talking to your friends. Watching a show on television or reading a book or going out to lunch.

You take for granted going to sleep at night, getting up the next day, and remembering everything that happened to you before you closed your eyes.

You live and you remember.

Me, I live and I forget.

But now—now I am remembering. 

For all of her seventeen years, Molly feels like she’s missed bits and pieces of her life. Now, she’s figuring out why. Now, she’s remembering her own secrets. And in doing so, Molly uncovers the separate life she seems to have led…and the love that she can’t let go.

My thoughts

I read this book when I wasn’t even in the mood for contemporary but only 5% in and I was already hooked by the mystery and I couldn’t stop until I read the whole book.

A fast paced story

Reading this book felt like I raced through it. We only get to read the really important moments and those are always interesting to read about. With the mystery and more and more clues turning up in every one of these moments, this is a fast paced read.

Unreliable narrator

POVs who don’t have a clue themselves about what is going on are one of my favorites. The ones you can’t trust I like even more. Right from the beginning you know that something is wrong with Molly but she hasn’t told a single person. Something like this always makes me suspicious and leads to me thinking about different theories about what might be happening.

Molly’s problem was something new to me

I had an idea about what exactly is wrong with her but I dismissed this idea pretty fast because I didn’t think it was possible like this in the situation Molly was in and how everyone around her acted. But then it turned out I was right and I still don’t know what to think about that. It’s the first time I read about something like this and I had trouble imagining that a situation like hers would be handled this way. Not knowing how realistic it is it didn’t bother me too much though and I really liked how everything comes together at the end.

Easy to like characters

It didn’t take me long to know that I would like Molly’s story. She is an interesting character who has a lot to deal with. And she has all these unique and fun people around her which I liked. I wanted to get to know them all as fast as possible, get to know more about them and once I did I started caring for all of them a lot.

Overall

Katrina Leno wrote a unique story about a topic I haven’t read about before and therefore got me interested right away. All throughout the book I had the question “What is going on?” in my head and had to read it in one sitting to find out. I couldn’t put it down before getting an answer.
Her writing style, with its short and simple sentences, and the fast paced story made it feel like no time passed while I was reading.
A great debut that will make me look out for more books by Katrina Leno.