Don’t read the end of this book at work… I don’t know how many times I’ve cried at work from books!!

I could not put this book down! I read it over 3 days, and unfortunately I had to work those days, or it would’ve been 1 day!

A friend from work knows I love to read. She also knows I read Gone Girl, and that I liked it. Gone Girl is actually mentioned on the front cover of this book. To me, the only similarities between Reconstructing Amelia and Gone Girl is that the stories are told by two different people, and there’s a mysterious death to figure out.

The beginning of this book is told by Kate, Amelia’s mother. We get to know a little bit about Amelia, but not much. Very quickly, Kate is called to Amelia’s school because she’s in trouble. According to Kate, Amelia’s never in trouble, so this is weird. By the time Kate gets there, Amelia is dead. The police tell Kate that she jumped off the roof of the school because she was caught cheating. I was 100% sucked in by this book. I’m a little trusting (my dad says gullible, I prefer trusting), in that I try to assume that people are telling me the truth. This probably stems from the fact that I’m a terrible liar. Anyway, I generally take things at face value. I loved to see this story unravel, and I trusted it as it pulled me in. It was totally worth it.

The story shifts between Ameila and Kate. Amelia’s chapters start a few weeks prior to her death, and they include actual story chapters interspersed with text conversations, and Facebook updates. I know that sounds annoying, but Amelia’s a 15 year old girl, so it really makes sense, and I was never annoyed with the format. Kate’s chapters continue from the day before (I think) Amelia’s death, through current time. By the end of the book, we finish Amelia’s timeline.

This is a scary story if you’ve got little girls. I don’t have any kids, but I have 2 little nieces, and I can only imagine what I’d do to people if they treated my girls like Amelia was treated at her school. She was a great kid, and got caught up in something she wasn’t prepared for. I love that all of the characters in this story feel real. Yeah the one girl is slutty, and the mom is an over-worked lawyer, but that’s not their only traits. They actually have feelings, and thoughts and dreams, and they all feel real. I 100% recommend this book. But like I said above, don’t finish it at work if you’re a crier (I’m such a crier).