Thank you MacMillian Children's Publishing Group, Henry Holt & Co., and NetGalley. I appreciate the free Amazon Kindle e-book ARC copy you entrusted to me. The following is my honest review.

[a: April Henry|88507|April Henry|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1254961641p2/88507.jpg] hooked me a couple of years ago. An earlier Y/A book "The Body in the Woods: Point Last Seen #1" is a good read. It went over well with young mystery lovers.

As a young adult, I loved a good mystery. Books which empower teens are attractive. Young people are brave and lacking the fear of adults, can do anything.

[b: The Girl I Used to Be|23018249|The Girl I Used to Be|April Henry|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1442502638s/23018249.jpg|42587769] snagged me right off the bat. Olivia is an emancipated minor doing her best to build her own life from scratch. Her horrific childhood did not weaken her, but made her stronger if not cautious.

I enjoy the settings in the state of Oregon. I love that part of the country and "The Girl I Used to Be" allowed me a virtual vacation out west.

The characters are believable and well developed. There were twists and turns that kept me from guessing the ending in advance.

Once again, young people prove heroic. They see things adults prefer not to notice. They are courageous in the face of danger and the possibility of death.

This is written with Y/A in mind, language, and sex are GP-13. There is violence; this is a murder mystery.

[a: April Henry|88507|April Henry|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1254961641p2/88507.jpg] circulates well in our Y/A section of the library, and adults like her too. I will recommend this for our public library collection.

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This was one of those books that started off so fast and so attention-getting that it reminded me so much of the Mystery/Thrillers I grew up reading (and loving) as a Middle Grader in the 90's. Right away we learn that Olivia/Ariel's father's bones were found, meaning he didn't kill her mother, meaning there's a totally different killer out there. We also learn that Olivia was THERE when her parents were killed, but because she was so young she can't remember much at all. She decides to go back to Medford to see if she can shake any of those memories loose. While there she meets Duncan and Nora--- the 2 heroes of this book, in my opinion. Duncan is a childhood friend she can barely remember, but gets close to fast, and Nora is an elderly neighbor and one of the few people she does remember from her time in Medford. They become the only ones who know her true identity... it's kind of too dangerous to go around telling people that the only witness to the crime is digging around for answers.

I thought this was an entertaining. fast-paced book-- full of short chapters and a to-the-point plot. I appreciated reading a book that didn't take it's time getting to some big answers. It wasn't a deep book, but I need books like this in-between all the heavy stuff I usually read. I've been a big fan of April Henry's books (my fave is [b:The Night She Disappeared|12013031|The Night She Disappeared|April Henry|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1334406165s/12013031.jpg|16978071]), and I would definitely recommend this to younger readers. It's exactly the type of book I loved when I was younger because it is such a quick mystery.

I think I would have enjoyed this book even more if Olivia/Ariel wasn't such a Captain Obvious. She definitely ran around the town of Medford asking question after question to the point where people would have either told her to shut up or they would have outed her... I'm almost thinking both scenarios would have happened :) Also, the ending was not my favorite. I didn't guess the killer, but I thought he/she came busting out of the mystery-closet at a really early and odd moment. I wish the build-up was just a little bit more.

OVERALL: I love reading April Henry's books because they remind me why I love YA Mysteries so much. This one I would definitely recommend to younger (6-9th grade) readers. It reminds me of 90's thrillers like R.L. Stine, Christopher Pike, and Diane Hoh books.

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One of my favorites and the twist gets me every time I read. I enjoyed the audio version a lot aswell. Very engaging and kept me on edge once the story got going. ( )

Spoilers!

Enjoyed the audiobook version of this story.
Fire scene at the end was awesome. ( )

That was pretty good. It didn’t sound all that exciting when I read the description, but turns out it was a lot more story and I expected. ( )