Book Review: Conspiracy Girl by Sarah Alderson

Everybody knows about the Cooper Killings – the Bel Air home invasion that rocked the nation. There was only one survivor – a sixteen year-old girl. And though the killers were caught, they walked free.

Now eighteen, Nic Preston – the girl who survived – is desperately trying to rebuild her life. She’s security-conscious to the point of paranoia and her only friend is a French Mastiff bulldog, but she’s making progress. She’s started college in New York and has even began dating.

But then, one night her apartment is broken into and the life Nic’s worked so hard to create is shattered in an instant.

Finn Carter – hacker, rule breaker, player – is the last person Nic ever wants to see again. He’s the reason her mother’s killers walked free from court. But as the people hunting her close in, Nic has to accept that her best and possibly only chance of staying alive is by keeping close to Finn and learning to trust the person she’s sworn to hate.

Fleeing across a snowbound New England, frantically trying to uncover the motive behind the murders, Nic and Finn come to realize the conspiracy is bigger than they could ever have suspected. But the closer they get to the truth and the closer they get to each other, the greater the danger becomes.

To survive she has to stay close to him.

To keep her safe he has to keep his distance.

Action packed, highly entertaining and entirely implausible, Sarah Alderson, queen of swoon-worthy romance, delivers the goods in her latest YA mystery/drama.

Nic Preston, survivor of a home invasion that killed her mother and stepsister and made her headline news, has managed to establish a new normal for herself – until her top-notch security apartment is broken into and it that appears someone wants her dead.

We meet Finn, a familiar face from the trial of Nic’s family murders, who is some kind of genius and philanthropic hacker extraordinaire. (As you do.) The two are brought together by a mutual associate, and end up on the run, trying to evade the would-be murderers and figure out the truth behind the original crimes against Nic’s family and their current, rather dangerous, situation.

Amidst all the chaos, feelings develop, complicated by Nic’s emotional state, Finn’s reservations about getting involved with a witness, and, of course, the stress of nearly getting oneself and one’s friends killed.

Like I said in the beginning, while the plot is entirely implausible (cover-ups, hacking, gratuitous overlooking of crimes committed), Sarah Alderson makes it work with the fast-paced and heightened tension.

Some criticisms include the overly exaggerated language used at times, particularly when describing Nic’s feelings of anger or hurt, as well as the fact that she suffers from not-like-other-girlitis, a condition whereby none of the boy’s previous love interests meant anything or could possible measure up. However, for what it’s worth, the book kept me entertained and turning the pages as fast as possible, which is really all I could ask for.

Rating: 7/10