Better Left Buried by Mary E. Roach

e-Audio, 08:56:20
Narrated by: Casey Holloway
Release Date: August 6, 2024
Published by: Disney Hyperion
Read from: August 7-8, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
Content Warning: Cursing, Death, Violence, Grief, Death of Parent
For Readers Interested In: Mystery, 2SLGBTQ+ (Lesbian), Romance, Thriller, YA

     Lucy Preston just wants to go on vacation. The beach-swimsuit-sleeping-in kind. Not the impromptu stop in a creepy small town at the edge of the forest kind.
     But being the daughter of a famous private detective means that sometimes, your beach vacay goes off the rails a bit. Because what’s the first thing Lucy’s mom does? Takes her to the abandoned amusement park for a clandestine meeting—except instead of a meeting, they find a body.
     Because of course they do.
     As Lucy’s mom is swept into top-secret private-detective stuff, Lucy sets out on her own to investigate her mom’s mysterious connection with this town. Lucy’s snooping sets her on a collision course with Audrey Nelson, the mysterious girl on the motorcycle who Lucy could swear she saw near the amusement park the night the body was found.
     If Lucy and Audrey can’t work together to uncover secrets that go back generations, there will likely be another body found at the base of the old vine-covered roller coaster outside of town. And this time it might just be Lucy’s.

*MY THOUGHTS*

I saw this on so many lists to read after I’ve read Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch. So I did. And even though I worried for a while it was too much alike, it ended up being ok.

The mystery in this was bomb! Well once it got started. It took forever for us to get to what the ACTUAL mystery was. And even though we see one of the teens noticing the other, we don’t understand why or anything else until way later. It was like a slow burn mystery and you just can’t do that. There needs to be something happening all the time, and this one just wasn’t it for me. I will say it got good once it got started tho. And the MESS! There was so much drama in this and I am not embarrassed to say that this is what intrigued me most lol

The next thing I really liked was the setting. I LOVE amusement parks, but NOT creepy ones. And this one was creepy lol And then to find out all the things that happened there? Big yikes. And to find all the different things that ended up happening there? Yeahhhh it was creepy for a reason. I was right to not like that place. But naturally, because I knew better, that was my favorite part. Every time they went there I knew there was something else that was about to happen. And I loved that.

I also liked this for the feelsssss. Like I was legit creeped out because of the dark and gloomy amusement park and I was also creeped out by the huge mansion that was there while everyone else didn’t have the same grandeur. Roach did really well with giving this a gothic type vibe.

The thing I didn’t like about this was the characters. I understand that one of them the moms was a PI, but Lordt everything just kept falling into place for the daughter. For her to have no training and her mom to be certified Idk how it was so easy for her. And like how did her mom not banish her from the first time? My momma would have put me on the first thing smoking to my dad’s lol

Even though it wasn’t completely believable, it was entertaining. Definitely helped put me in a Summer Ween mood so I’m not at all mad at it. I really hope y’all pick this up and let me know what you think of it.

Take Me Away

Diverse Book Blogger. Diverse YA Librarian. Wonder Woman enthusiast. Bookish Blerd. "GryffinClaw" Geek extraordinaire. Pitbull mom. She/her linktr.ee/take_me_awayyy