The Laughing Listener
August 2018
Format: Ebook
*I was graciously given a free copy in exchange for an honest review*

Overall Rating: 4 Stars

WHOA. I don’t… What just happened?!? This book was INSANE. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting—maybe a romance adventure about two teens surviving a plane crash? And well… it definitely IS that, but also SO MUCH MORE. My brain is still spinning and I can already tell I’m going to have to reread this to try and catch everything I missed the first time.

MIND BLOWN.

This is such a hard book to review because EVERYTHING is a clue and if I say too much I’ll give something important away. The book starts off deceptively straightforward. There’s Fiona, a unique spirit who has wonderfully blue hair and mad kickboxing skills. There’s Miles, a popular rich kid who makes Fiona’s life miserable. They’re on their way to Germany for an internship program until they crash land on an island and need to survive. Easy right?? HA! The next chapter rewinds to the hours leading up the crash and two timelines emerge that the book alternates between. Slowly, more information is revealed that makes you stop reading and say “...hey...wait second…” until you reach the end and your head implodes.

“...we can’t know anything beyond ourselves. Everything we experience could be an illusion.”

The way this was written was so great and I loved how it kind of tricks you into letting your guard down. I thought I knew exactly what was going on and stopped paying too much attention until I caught a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it word here and there that threw everything askew. It was so awesome how little things like that made you more and more unsettled until you couldn’t trust anything anymore.

And the same kind of slow-reveal treatment was used for Fiona and Miles, which I really enjoyed too. In the beginning I was pretty disconnected to their characters, but I was so curious about what was going on that I didn’t even mind. We slowly learn more about them as the story progresses though and I really loved getting to know them. It was like I was falling for them while they were falling for each other.

Plus, THAT ENDING!!!!!! GAHHH!!! Open-ended endings usually make me super salty as a reader, but I actually really liked this one! When it was over, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor and stop myself from making gasping sounds out loud.

Say whaaaaaaa????

FINAL WORD

What a crazy, fun read! This was nothing I was expecting and I mean that as a compliment. I’ve never been so happy to be confused. If you love mysteries with a bit of romance, you’ll love this.

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