This book review was originally published on The Wordy Nerd Books on September 13, 2014.

When fifteen year old Amelia Baron dies after falling from the roof of her prestigious Brooklyn private school, everyone assumes it is a suicide.  Just a few weeks after her death, her mother, Kate, receives an anonymous text message suggesting that Amelia didn’t jump.  It wasn’t a suicide.  This revelation sends grieving, single-mother Kate on a whirlwind journey to reconstruct the last few weeks of Amelia’s life and find out what really happened to her daughter in Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight.

This book had some tough subjects in it, including suicide, bullying, and homosexuality.  However, I really enjoyed this book.  While these are difficult subjects to talk about sometimes, it is reality for many of today’s youth.  As a high school teacher, I see much of this play out in the lives of my students so I think this is a really relate-able book, especially for the young adult age group.  Not only were the characters easy to relate to, the book was also very well written.  The author does a fabulous job of engaging the reader in the story.  It is fast-paced with lots of plot twists throughout the book.  The author also does a great job of tying up all the loose ends in the book as well.  The ending left me feeling satisfied rather than still asking questions.

Overall, I gave this book four stars.  It was a book that kept me interested and gave me a lot to think about.  If you like fast-paced mysteries, check this book out.