hooked on books: Wicked Games - Sean Olin (#1

"I love nights like this," said Jules. "It's like everything's alive and at peace with the world somehow, and you just want to stay there and gold on to that moment for as long as you can. You know what I mean?"

Title: Wicked Games

Author: Sean Olin

Genre: Young adult, contemporary, thriller

Rate: ☆☆☆☆

To all the locals in the small beach town of Dream Point, Carter and Lilah seem like the perfect It Couple-but their relationship is about to brutally unravel before everyone's eyes.

Carter has always been a good guy, and while Lilah has a troubled past, she's been a loyal girlfriend for the last four years. When smart, sexy Jules enters the picture at a senior-year bash, Carter succumbs to temptation. And when Lilah catches wind of his betrayal, she decides that Jules needs to pay.

By the end of the summer, the line between right and wrong will be blurred beyond recognition. Blood will be shed. Nothing in Dream Point will ever be the same.

I picked Wicked Games up because the title on the cover is so compelling, the cover itself is also very alluring, and with a blurb that's along the lines of Dangerous Girls, how could I turn it down?

I found my hands shaking a lot throughout reading this thriller, because this kind of thing really happens in real life. This story revolves around three people - Carter, the good guy brought down by his responsibility over Lilah's happiness and well-being; Lilah - unstable and troubled; and Jules - what Carter needs in his life. I know that this focused on Lilah's mental illness and maybe it wasn't presented very fairly, but what Carter was going through seemed very real.

Lilah is insecure, relies heavily on Carter, snaps at the most little things and is suspicious and delusional. Carter is being suffocated by her needs, and then he meets someone who is carefree, confident, sultry and goes by the name Jules and is instantly drawn to her. They understand each other and they have a spark. A lot of reviews are negative when it comes to what Carter does, but he needed a break from Lilah. He knew that if he left her, she would be in darkness so he stayed with her, and yes he should've known that if he cheated on her then it would lead to even more problems, but he needed a break from being brought down by Lilah. What if he left and and she committed suicide? But I agree on the fact that he should've got her help instead of carrying on doing the things he did.

A quote from a friend that fits perfectly: 'He was trying to fix me, but I was breaking him.' That's exactly what was happening.

Something that I didn't like was the way it was narrated. It was sort of written in third person unlimited and not third person limited. This caused problems because someone would be thinking one thing and then it would automatically change to another person's thoughts without a changing of the chapter. But then, there were some chapters where third person limited was used, being narrated by only one person's point of view - inconsistent. Make it all one way.

This book is very intense and is filled with suspense at every turn of the page. It will bide time, building up tension and suspense when you know that something disastrous is going to happen and then when your hearts racing like crazy, it'll happen. Then the epilogue... my freaking eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets!! It's SO unexpected and is such a twist in the story, leading to the next book. Hauntingly written, Wicked Games will linger on my mind for a while.