If You Can Hear This / Faith Gardner / Book Review

IF YOU CAN HEAR THIS

For Posey Spade, a new school means a fresh start--a new chance to make friends and to make her mark at the school newspaper. Only this new school doesn't have a newspaper at all.

There is, at least, an AV Club. As a budding journalist following in her father's footsteps, Posey thinks she can make the AV Club work. But the AV Club isn't exactly as motivated as she had hoped. They're more interested in watching documentaries together at lunch than producing, well, anything. If she wants to set herself up for future success, she'll have to kick their butts into gear... even if they don't really want that.

But when the club's teacher sponsor, Ms. Moses, vanishes, the AV Club finds new motivation. Suddenly Posey isn't the only one interested in investigative journalism. Ms. Moses might not be the most beloved person in their small town, but she was important to the AV Club. And nobody else seems to be taking her disappearance seriously. If the AV Club wants to bring their teacher back safe, they'll just have to break the story themselves, one hard-hitting interview at a time.

THOUGHTS

This book feels so perfectly YA, and at the same time, it is so not geared toward me! It's a fun and quick read, and it feels absolutely geared toward the target audience in a way that is (unfortunately) hard to find. But it doesn't reach the depth that I personally crave from a thriller, and I did have to suspend a lot of disbelief. And I do mean A LOT.

PROS

Friends? Yes, Please!	I really, really appreciated the group dynamic to this investigative team. So many YA thrillers have a lone-wolf type investigator, someone who is convinced they can solve something nobody else has. At best, you get a duo of friends standing up against the haters. But this book has a really dynamic friend group digging into this missing persons case, and I like the life this group of friends breathes into a saturated market.
Group Dynamic	Not only does having a whole group of investigators shake up the genre conventions but these characters have great chemistry as a group. Honestly, even though this book didn't suit my personal style of thriller, I would absolutely love a whole series following this AV-club-turned-mystery-investigators as they track down the lies and the cover-ups of their small town. They just play off of each other that well.
Perfectly YA	I've said it above, and I'll say it again: this book is perfectly YA. I could absolutely recommend it to anyone in that age category, whether they're moving up from MG or on the verge of stepping out of YA and into the general adult market. And that's really, really nice. So many books skew toward the older crowd, and those that don't push the upper limit feel like they aren't interesting for the older YA reader. There's not a lot of middle ground in the current market. Finding something that hits the sweet spot so well is like finding a gem. It's wonderful. It's magical.

CONS

Not going to lie. I found Posey particularly annoying. On, like, a personal level. I absolutely wouldn't have been friends with someone like Posey back in high school, someone who ignores all social cues and absolutely tramples on people's toes left and right while justifying herself in doing so. She's so pushy, and while I appreciate that makes her an interesting character, she definitely wasn't for me.	Annoying MC
There are a lot of character and plot elements that were too much for me, personally. There's a lot of melodrama here in the character backstories. There are a lot of crazy things woven into this story. Everybody just lets these kids interview them, and they reveal the most out-of-pocket tidbits about this small town and its history. I was flabbergasted. And somebody else will absolutely love how unhinged all of this is; it just wasn't for me.	OTT
Posey and Sal are in this together... until they're suddenly not. And to be honest, I just didn't buy Posey suddenly not trusting Sal. She had all kinds of reasons before this particular point, and she just wasn't bothered by anything she learned about her AV Club co-president. But one more dubious rumor causes her to question everything (even though I think, on a character level, she probably wouldn't have been upset with him in this case). So that was a bit of mischaracterization, as far as I'm concerned.	Trust Issues

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
7/10

Fans of Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder will like diving into the dubious histories of this small town. Those who enjoyed the over-the-top nature of Kate Weston's Murder on a School Night will appreciate how unhinged and wacky this investigation proves to be.

Details Publisher: HarperCollins Date: November 19, 2024 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.