Book Review: Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano

Nearly Gone
Author: Elle Cosimano
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Mystery
Released: March 25th 2014
Review Source: Kathy Dawson Books

Bones meets Fringe in a big, dark, scary, brilliantly-plotted urban thriller that will leave you guessing until the very end.

Nearly Boswell knows how to keep secrets. Living in a DC trailer park, she knows better than to share anything that would make her a target with her classmates. Like her mother's job as an exotic dancer, her obsession with the personal ads, and especially the emotions she can taste when she brushes against someone's skin. But when a serial killer goes on a killing spree and starts attacking students, leaving cryptic ads in the newspaper that only Nearly can decipher, she confides in the one person she shouldn't trust: the new guy at school—a reformed bad boy working undercover for the police, doing surveillance. . . on her.

Nearly might be the one person who can put all the clues together, and if she doesn't figure it all out soon—she'll be next.

Nearly Gone is full of thrill, suspense and mystery – let’s not forget about the plot twist.

Ever since her fathers abandon Nearly Boswell and her mother, Nearly has been obsessed with the newspaper personal ads. Every day, Nearly would check the ads for clues of her father. She would think one day he will send her a message. But instead, Nearly starts receiving encrypted messages of her fellow classmates’ murders and all evidences points to her.

Nearly is smart and driven to earn a scholarship that her best friend and other students are after. This scholarship is her only way out to Sunny View – a place she is judged by her mother’s exotic job. To earn extra curriculum, Nearly tutors some of the students at Sunny View High. When she starts receiving these encrypted messages about the murders, she realizes all of the victims are students she has tutored. Now Nearly must unsolved the mystery before being sent to jail.

I loved Nearly and her determination to solve the puzzle. Although knowing the new kid she is tutoring is helping out the cops to keep close taps on her to report her doings, Nearly turns to Reece to help her out. With his help, Nearly learns how to trust people and uncovers the truth about her past.

Nearly Gone was entertaining and unexpected. This mystery was not easy to solve, which I actually found this very unique. I usually tend to solve the mystery behind the story before it is handed to us. Nearly Gone was full of suspects and clues, yet hard to come up with any lead suspect. The outcome was unexpected, well at least for me. I found myself entertained while reading this. I highly recommend this story to any fans of good mystery and suspense.