Category Archives: Kara Terzis

Review: Frayed by Kara Terzis

Title: Frayed by Kara Terzis
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult, Mystery
Length: 304 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Dear Kesley,
My therapist tells me I should write you a letter. Like flushing all my thoughts and feelings out of my system and onto paper. I tell her it’s a stupid idea.
But here I am, writing a letter to a dead girl. Where do I start? Where did our story begin? From the moment you were born…or died?
I’ll start with the moment I found out the truth about you. Your lies and my pain. Because it always begins and ends with you.
And that end began when Rafe Lawrence came back to town…

Ava Hale will do anything to find her sister’s killer…although she’ll wish she hadn’t. Because the harder Ava looks, the more secrets she uncovers about Kesley, and the more she begins to think that the girl she called sister was a liar. A sneak. A stranger.

And Kesley’s murderer could be much closer than she thought…

A debut novel from Wattpad award-winner Kara Terzis, Frayed is a psychological whodunit that will keep you guessing!

Review:

Frayed by Kara Terzis is a suspense-laden young adult contemporary mystery.

Ava Hale is struggling to cope in the aftermath of her sister Kesley’s murder.  When Kesley’s best friend (and sometime juvenile delinquent) Rafe Lawrence returns to town, Ava works up the courage to ask him if he had anything to do with Kesley’s death.  Although still uncertain about his guilt or innocence, Ava ignores her doubts and they team up to solve her sister’s murder.

Ava is a sweet girl who is a bit of a loner who was orphaned at a young age. With very few memories of her biological family, she feels even more lost after Kesley’s death.  She is in a comfortable relationship with her longtime boyfriend Jackson but she doubts his loyalties when she stumbles across disturbing information about him. After an upsetting argument with her best friend Lia, Ava finds herself spending more time with Rafe but she continues to suspect he is not being completely honest with her.

Initially, neither Rafe nor Ava have any idea who would have wanted to kill Kesley.  She was well-liked by everyone and she never got into any trouble.  So Ava is beyond shocked when she begins uncovering some rather unsavory and shocking information about her sister.  At first disbelieving these stunning claims, Ava soon has proof that Kesley was not as squeaky clean as she, and everyone else, believes. Ava’s suspect list is a mile long and she is dismayed to learn that Jackson and Lia might have a motive for killing Kesley.

Frayed is a riveting young adult mystery with an intriguing storyline. Although Ava and Rafe are likable, the entire cast of characters is a little underdeveloped. Kara Terzis brilliantly conceals the killer’s identity right up until the  novel’s shocking conclusion.

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Filed under Contemporary, Frayed, Kara Terzis, Mystery, Rated B, Review, Sourcebooks Fire, Young Adult