Young Adult Review: No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale

No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale

Hardcover, 384 pages

Expected Publication: January 7th, 2014 by HarperTeen

Source: Amazon Vine

Small towns are nothing if not friendly. Friendship, Wisconsin (population: 688) is no different. Around here, everyone wears a smile. And no one ever locks their doors. Until, that is, high school sweetheart Ruth Fried is found murdered. Strung up like a scarecrow in the middle of a cornfield.

Unfortunately, Friendship’s police are more adept at looking for lost pets than catching killers. So Ruth’s best friend, Kippy Bushman, armed with only her tenacious Midwestern spirit and Ruth’s secret diary (which Ruth’s mother had asked her to read in order to redact any, you know, sex parts), sets out to find the murderer. But in a quiet town like Friendship—where no one is a suspect—anyone could be the killer.

I'm glad I wasn't really aware of the love/hate relationship people are having with this book, because I may not have snatched it up for review.  And if I hadn't, I would have been missing out!  While this book certainly isn't for everyone, I really found my appreciation for it, and was thoroughly invested.  This book is creepy, funny and a bit extreme.  While the town is full of quirky, strange and ridiculous characters, it was all highly entertaining.  This is a murder mystery, and is full of some serious dark humor.  I laughed quite a lot because Kippy is just a hilarious character and the way she deals with some things just had me rolling!  She is a bit naive, but she's certainly not stupid, and she's determined to find her best friends killer.  She makes a few stupid decisions, I'll admit, but that didn't diminish my love for her much.

The town and the people in it were infuriating and hilarious.  I wanted to smack most of them, but they had me laughing at their ridiculousness.  Ms. Hale is brilliant at creating characters, I have to say.  And she was quite good at incorporating that midwestern (northern) accent and I could hear it all clearly.  I know that the author is from Wisconsin, and I think it was apparent.  My brother in law is from Wisconsin, I think I'll have to give this to my sister to read, I think she'll get that whole small town stuff as well.

The mystery aspect was done well. I have found I can't really say much about it without hinting at who it might be and whatnot, but it was twisty enough to catch me unexpected.  I guess I can just say that things aren't always what they seem and I appreciate that the author put some effort into creating characters that are equally bad and good so that we see so much bad that really, everyone seems a suspect (not really, but close enough).

While the book actually started out a tad on the slow side, I quite quickly found myself immersed in Kippy's weirdness and this towns total insaneness.  I wanted- no needed- to find out more, mostly because the Sheriff is so flipping full of himself he thinks he doesn't need to bother investigating anything and I really NEEDED him to brought out as a total incompetent JERKWAD.   I also found myself rooting for a relationship between Kippy and someone and wanted to see that play out.  I also just really liked the stinkin' book!  So, if you want something a bit weird and strange on slightly on the side of satire, this is something you should pick up.  Maybe not a book everyone will appreciate, but I've found that days later I'm still thinking on it and quite missing Kippy.  This might be a book I'll even revisit in the future. 

Disclosure: I received this book for review purposes, all opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.