cold light

cold light
jenn ashworth
fiction/mystery
harper collins
published 2011

I’m sitting on my couch, watching the local news. There’s Chloe’s parents, the mayor, the hangers on, all grouped round the pond for the ceremony. It’s ten years since Chloe and Carl drowned. You can tell from their faces that something has gone wrong. But I’m the one who knows straightaway that the mayor has found a body. And I know who it is.

Jenn Ashworth’s gripping and unforgettable Cold Light is the story of a friendship unsettling in its intensity and of one terrible summer when lies, secrets, jealousy, and perversion result in tragedy more twisted and evil than one unsuspecting community can handle. A dark tale with a surreal edge, it follows two fourteen-year-old girls, best friends, as they confront the dangers of a predatory adult world, where truth is cruelly sacrificed in the name of innocence.

I hated this book.  Hated.  It.

I did not like one character, except for maybe Donald.  Though, I didn't really like him, I mainly felt sorry for him.  This is truly one of those times when my judging books by their covers utterly failed me.

I think what bothered me most about this book is from the description you expect some sort of mystery/thriller, but instead you're trapped into reading about the pathetic whining of a selfish, disturbed fourteen year old girl.  Her mother is a complete and utter horror, her 'best friend' could care less about her and her father suffers from some sort of dementia.

Something awful does happen and in a painfully slow pace we get to that part.  And when you think that the horrible thing is ultimately as bad as it would seem you learn something else that erases any sort of sympathy you might have had for Lola.  There is no redeeming qualities of Lola.  She is utterly disgusting.  At times I thought she wanted to do the right thing, but she didn't.  She only wanted to make her life better.  She was only ever thinking of herself.

There was no one to root for.  Even the 'famous' talk show host is disgusting and self-serving.  I couldn't give two shits about anyone in this book.  For all I cared they all could have drowned in that lake.  That might have made a better story.  Ugh.  This book just made me angry.