Review: Sketchy by Olivia Samms

Sketchy by Olivia Samms
Bea Catcher Chronicles, #1
Hardcover, 238 pages
Published April 30th 2013 by Amazon Childrens Publishing
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A popular cheerleader—raped, beaten, and left for dead. An edgy outsider with a gift. Can they team up to catch a killer?

Bea’s life has been a mess ever since she got kicked out of private school and sent to rehab. Now clean, Bea is starting over at Packard High School, in a city shaken from two assaults on young women. The latest victim, Willa Pressman—the one who survived—doesn’t remember a thing. But Bea has a disturbing new “skill”: she can see—and then draw—images from other people’s minds. And when she looks at Willa, Bea is shocked by what she sketches. Bea might be the only one who knows Willa’s secrets—and who can take down the killer before he strikes again.

My Review:

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. I really didn’t know anything about the book when I started to read it and I had only heard one other person say something about it. I really didn’t have any expectations for it. I actually ended up reading it in two sittings. The first chapter definitely pulled me in immediately. That was a great way to start a book.

This book is about a girl name Bea who is trying to stay on the right track even though she hates almost every minute of it. She doesn’t want to go to a new high school but on the first day runs into an old friend from art camp. Because she made a friend almost right off the bat she is much more comfortable in school. She is very much an artist just like her mom and dad, although her dad quit drawing years ago. I really hope they go into more detail on that in the next book.

Her mom has absolutely no trust in her since they sent her to rehab so she has to take regular drug tests and anytime she does something her mom looks at her suspiciously. He dad is a little better but not by much during a couple scenes. At least the parents are present in this. In a lot of books like this the parents aren’t around so the kid can do whatever they want and not get caught. Not only does she get caught in this book, she also gets punished more than once.

As the synopsis says, Bea has a skill that has just started during her rehab. Sometimes she can’t control the fact that she wants to draw what the person is thinking about. Sometimes it is a good thing but sometimes she sees things that aren’t so nice. She sketches Willa’s secret one day in art class and eventually gets the story out of her. The synopsis saying that Willa and Bea “work together” is a bit of a stretch, most of the time Willa wants absolutely nothing to do with Bea and starts to make her school-life hell.

Willa is the popular girl in school and she is recovering from a near death experience so everyone, teachers included, love her and listen to everything she says. Willa was the second person to in a series of rapes and murders and she was the only one to survive. However you quickly learn that Willa may not be telling the whole story to everyone.

Bea’s friend Chris was probably my favorite of the book. He is gay and pretty funny at times. He warms up to Bea really quickly even though they hadn’t seen each other in a long time. He also watches out for her and makes sure she doesn’t do something stupid to mess up with alcohol or drugs.

There really isn’t any romance in this story unless you count Bea talking to her ex at the very beginning. The end of the book has some romance that I was surprised about but I actually liked. I was trying to remember how old the guy was or if it even said because I get the feeling that he is older. That is a little weird but hopefully they elaborate more in the next book.

Do I Recommend this Book/Series?

Yes! This was a really good read.

Will I Read the Next Book?

There is nothing on Goodreads about the second book yet but I will definitely be picking it up when I get the chance.

My Rating:

*This book was provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.