Friday, May 27, 2016

Review: Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn


Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: June 11, 2013
Rating: 4 stars
Source: Copy won from a giveaway

Summary (from Goodreads):

On a cool autumn night, Annaliese Rose Gordon stumbled out of the woods and into a high school party. She was screaming. Drenched in blood. Then she vanished.

A year later, Annaliese is found wandering down a road hundreds of miles away. She doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know how she got there. She only knows one thing: She is not the real Annaliese Rose Gordon.

Now Annaliese is haunted by strange visions and broken memories. Memories of a reckless, desperate wish . . . a bloody razor . . . and the faces of other girls who disappeared. Piece by piece, Annaliese's fractured memories come together to reveal a violent, endless cycle that she will never escape—unless she can unlock the twisted secrets of her past.

What I Liked:

First, I would like to apologize to the author, because I won this book in one of her giveaways around the time of the publication of the book. This was just about three years ago. No one is required to review or even read the books they win in giveaways, but I still feel a little bad knowing that I won the giveaway and read it three years later, while someone else could have won and might have read it immediately. But it is what it is! I liked the book (which is actually pretty surprising!).

This is my May Pili-Pushed read! To see any of my Pili-Pushed reads, see the "Pili-Pushed" tag at the bottom of my blog. Also, me winning the author's giveaway in no way influenced my opinion of the story. I liked it because it was great!

I honestly would not even know where to begin when trying to describe this novel. This books starts with Annaliese making her way over to a girl by a trailer. Annaliese has no recollection of where she is, or was. As it would turn out, Annaliese is the missing girl on Dateline, who was missing for a year. A year ago, Annaliese walked out of a forest covered in blood and screaming, and then she vanished. A year later, Annaliese is back, but with no memory. Annaliese does not seem like Annaliese though. She must rely on her the little memories that come back to slowly piece together what really happened a year ago, and why she's back.

What a strange book! And incredibly creepy. The first couple of passages were bewildering. I couldn't get a good feel of what was happening, but I was hooked. 

This book is deceptively contemporary, and paranormal, and horror-ish. It's heavily paranormal, though I can't really say why without going into spoiler-y things. It's somewhat horror-y, or maybe that's just me and my scaredy cat self. The book is CREEPY. When you find out why Annaliese isn't exactly Annaliese, and what she's been up to... *shivers*

Despite this creepy stuff, I liked Annaliese (I'm going to call her Anna from now on). Anna isn't a kickbutt fighter like we see in so many YA novels. She's quiet and contemplative, and she has her quirks. She also has no recollection of anything, so she's a clean slate. But she's still a teenage girl. She doesn't remember anything, and this frustrates her parents, which frustrates Anna. She feels trapped and smothered, especially by people she doesn't know.

We meet several peers of Anna's fairly quickly. Eric, who is flat-out creepy. Logan, who shoulders some guilt and blame relating to what happened to Anna (not his fault though). Dex, the next-door neighbor who knows a lot more than he wants to know, who is quiet and understanding. Gwen, who was Anna's best friend. Kayla, who is mean.

There is a little romance in this book! I found it sweet and charming. At first it seemed to have caught on very quickly, but I think there was lust first and then the emotional response. Which I'm fine with. I like the pair (Anna and someone else...). No love triangle!

I don't want to say anymore about this book, for fear of ruining surprises. The author weaves in twist and turn and surprise with ease. We don't get to know everything up front, but I love how the author reveals information slowly but sensibly.

So, overall, I liked this book! I see that there are lots of mixed reviews for this book, but I'm glad I liked it. It was creepy and haunting - two things I generally don't go for - but definitely intriguing and it had me hooked. And the ending was weird! A little open-ended, but not really. It wrapped up pretty well. A very good job by the author!

What I Did Not Like:

I can't think of anything specific! I liked this book but didn't love it, so it's getting four stars (and not five stars). It was a good read!

Would I Recommend It:

If you like some creepy fiction, I definitely recommend this book! It's not really scary (unless you're me and are afraid of everything and anything remotely scary), but it has horror-ish aspects woven into the story. The paranormal is both very present and barely there. If you like a good suspense-type novel to read (it's not a mystery book though), this is a good one!

Rating:

4 stars. I'm glad I tried this book! I had the copy for three years without picking it up. Thank you, Pili, for pushing me in the direction of this one!


Was this review helpful? Please let me know in the comments section!

20 comments:

  1. This author definitely does creepy well. I really liked (DON’T YOU) FORGET ABOUT ME and have heard amazing things about her other works. Glad this one was a good read for you! Need to pick this one up soon. Great review :D

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    1. Ohhh! I'm glad you liked that one! I adore the cover of it. :D Thank you, Rabiah!

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  2. This book has been on my TBR for a while too, but I never got around to reading it. Sometimes, I can struggle with creepy and weird books, but I think I'll give this a try since it's very well-loved by friends. And yay for no triangle!
    Lovely review, Alyssa! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

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    1. I usually struggle with them too! I don't do creepy or scary at all. But I really liked this one. If you read it, I hope you enjoy it as well, Nick!

      Thank you!

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  3. Niiiice! I picked this one up myself last year when I was at a signing with the author there! It sounded good! I thought it was more thriller like and not having paranormal things since she was discussing an anthology she was in with the other authors and then one of her more recent releases! So this sounds really good!! Glad I picked it up! Hopefully will read it sometime soon! Maybe at Halloween! Great review!

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    1. That was a good buy, Jessica! Hopefully you are able to read it soon. October is definitely a good time to read it, maybe your TBR mountain will decrease a little by then. ;)

      Thank you!

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  4. YAY!! I'm so happy to hear you liked this one!! It's a really creepy but awesome book that has you wondering and yes, creeepy!!

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    1. Thanks for the rec, Pili! My head is still turning!

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  5. You're so funny Alyssa. I'm glad that you got a chance to read a backlist book and that you liked it. I heard her books are usually super weird and trippy, I usually like weird and trippy. I bought this when it first came out and still haven't read it so you shouldn't feel bad for waiting so long to read it :)

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    1. :D :D Trippy is definitely a way to describe this book. I don't have much interest in her next two published books, but I'm glad I read this one.

      Thank you, Nereyda!

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  6. I'm normally not a fan of creepy reads, but I've had my eye on this one for a while, and I kind of want to give it a try. I might keep my eye out for it on Book Outlet or at any used bookstores.

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'm glad you enjoyed the book.

    Rachelle @ Shell's Stories

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    1. Ah! That's a great idea! Book Outlet is definitely a good place to look. I hope you love it if you read it, Rachelle!

      Thank you. <3

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  7. I'm not ready for more weird right now, and I've not read anything from this author yet. I have so many books that I need to read from years of giveaway wins. That's really why I've been taking it easy on the ARCs, so I can read more of what I have on my shelves. Great review!

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    1. Girl I don't blame you! I've been trying to go back and read some of the old giveaway wins from when I first entered the blogging world. I'm super ahead in terms of ARCs so the break should be good!

      Thank you, Lekeisha!

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  8. I love twisty, turny books so may give this one a shot

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  9. Eee, YAY for reading this book :D I also read it not too long ago. Wait. I just checked. I read it August 31st 2015. WHAAAAT. I feel like I just read it. Where did that time go? Gosh. Anyway :D I also gave it four stars. <3 Such an AWESOME book. I'm thrilled that you liked it so much sweetie :D Lovely review, as always. <3

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    1. WOW! Right?! I remember August 2015 like it was yesterday. *sigh* I'm glad you enjoyed this one, Carina! Thank you. =)

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  10. I've heard about this book many times but I never really put attention and it sounds really interesting. I love strange books! I have to check out this one soon!

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    1. I think this might be right up your alley, Lis! I hope you like it, if you read it. ^_^

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