The Outliers (The Outliers #1)

After the death of her mother, Wylie has a hard time leaving the house. Her best friend Cassie has started to distance herself from Wylie, and has also started getting into some trouble. When Cassie goes missing and Wylie receives a text from Cassie asking her to help her, she decides to leave her house for the first time in three weeks to go rescue her friend. Again. Cassies boyfriend Jasper also receives a text asking him to meet with Wylie and join her on her attempt to rescue Cassie. The two set off together, getting progressively more alarming texts from Cassie.

WELL. This book started off at point A and took a sharp left and ended up wayyyyyyy at point Z. I was really enjoying the first part of the book, but then things got crazy, and not in a good way. I keep my reviews spoiler free, so I wont give anything away, but this was absolutely not a book for me. Aside from the fact that Wylie annoyed the crap out of me by being incredibly judgmental of everyone and everything, it was just SO farfetched that I was constantly rolling my eyes.

Almost EVERY character in the book was hiding something and lying about something, and not one of them could be trusted. This felt like cheap writing to me. This was not a smartly written mystery or thriller, this felt more of a lets dump every clich that happens in thrillers and put them all into one book! type of story, and I hated it. By the end of the book, it completely deviated from even being a mystery/thriller, and landed more in the sci-fi genre in a way. It was just weird, and not at all what I signed up for.

The only character in the book that I liked was Jasper, and he was the one treated the harshest. Cassie treated him like crap and Wylie was constantly judging him without even asking him questions or giving him the benefit of the doubt. For someone who is supposedly super perceptive, she was 0% right on her thoughts and impressions of Jasper. Cassie was self-centered and I have no idea why Wylie bothered to even try and help her when shes constantly getting herself into bad situations and not being a good friend to Wylie in return.

The end also annoyed me because it left on a cliffhanger with no resolution, and I have zero intentions of reading the sequel, so now Ill never know the outcome. Ugh.

Overall, I really didn’t like this book and rated it one star. Its definitely not one Id recommend. The one redeeming quality that it had was that the writing was good and it was fast paced, so I got through it in two sittings. Ive heard great things about Reconstructing Amelia by the same author, and that one is on my list too, so Im hoping that one will be a better read for me.

The first book didn’t have much of a plot to it. It is what I call a “set up” book. It leads into the plot line for following books, doesn’t have much to it. You don’t really get attached to the characters in this first book. It makes me feel like this writer is one of those who’s trying to get as much money from their readers as possible. Instead of offering a full story in one book, lets hack that book into parts and make the reader pay as much as I can for it. I find it annoying. Give your readers a full book. Then offer as many books to follow it as you like. But at least make them feel like they got their money’s worth. This series is original, I’ll give ’em that. It’s not really scary so I wouldn’t classify it as horror. It’s kind of modern science fiction. It’s a nice read. A little slow in places. But doesn’t get interesting until book three. Probably the point. Make you buy three books until you get hooked on it, wondering where the story is going to next. I like it enough I’ll finish reading the series, but I don’t think I’d recommend it to a friend as an ‘amazing’ read. But just something to do on a rainy day when you want to chill, relax, and want a book you can put down, walk away from, pick up again later.

This book The Outliers is edge of your seat Thriller. It makes your heart race a time bomb. With every turn of the page Kimberly McCreight has you holding your breath. She Knows how to make you stay up late to finish the book. The Outliers only took me two days to read.
I would have read it in one but sleep got the best of me. And from this point on I’ll read anything Kimberly McCreight writes I give this book the first of a trilogy five stars. My first five stars ever.

I was hooked right away by the book’s fast pace and immediate problems. But I soon found myself more and more frustrated as the characters acted ridiculously stupid and irresponsible in every possible way. Then to top it off, the whole unraveling of the “secret” was another unbelievable mess. I finished the book more annoyed than satisfied. Disappointed as I know the author can write.

I loved this book. I thought it was totally engaging from page one to the very end, cryptic enough to keep me reading long after my bedtime. It’s one of those stories that you keep you asking, “What the heck is going on here?” while still being understandable. I was captivated by the twists and turns in the plot and found the two main characters sympathetic and interesting. I enjoyed learning more about them as the story progressed and seeing them develop. Is it all realistic? Probably not, but it is fiction after all, and thoroughly entertaining. It’s not so far-fetched that I can’t use some imagination to enjoy the creative plot-line. I cannot wait for book two… the cliff-hanger at the end is killing me!

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