By Megan Davidhizar

“Two sisters went missing on their class trip—Grace, the outgoing athlete who is friends with just about everyone, and Maddy, the wallflower wilting in her sister’s shadow who’d rather absorb herself in her journal than talk to her classmates. But when Grace is found—injured, with no memory of what happened—everybody thinks she’s lying. It’s hard not to look guilty with Maddy’s blood on her clothes. Desperate to save her sister—and prove her own innocence—Grace must piece together what happened on that school trip with the help of her sister’s notebook and classmates who may not be telling the police everything that about that tragic night. She will discover her sister’s secrets can’t stay quiet…but what if her own are the most terrifying of all?” (Goodreads).

No matter the quality of these thrillers, I’m usually able to get into them pretty quickly. Even more so with these flashback style novels – the dramatic irony adds so much to my entertainment. Silent Sister had a very interesting premise and definitely kept me involved, but the ending and final twist were both disappointing and surprising at the same time.

The plot was tight and complete, but the stakes weren’t really high enough to keep me interested during the “present time” chapters. I spent the whole book just wanting to get back to the flashbacks because Grace wasn’t discovering much on her own, and if she did she kind of just stumbled upon it. I was expecting the ending to be a lot more scandalous and “terrifying” as the blurb said, but it was almost anticlimactic. Don’t get me wrong, I was surprised at parts of it, but it wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped. I was also confused as to how other characters in the book didn’t figure out the big twist earlier.

I really enjoyed the flashback and dual POV style, as well as Maddy’s poems interspersed throughout. The writing style was easy and fast paced.

The characters didn’t seem to have a lot to them, honestly. I fear this is the case with a lot of thrillers: the main characters have little development outside of the main mysteries. I wasn’t sure what was driving Maddy and Grace’s lives before the whatever happened on the class trip and why their personalities turned out the way they did. To be honest, as an extrovert, it’s hard for me to understand introverts that victimize themselves when they can’t make friends as Maddy sometimes did. Obviously it’s okay to be upset if you struggle to make friends, but she kind of blamed other people for it.

Overall, it’s a quick and fun thriller, but not super memorable. I would recommend for fans of April Henry mysteries or captivating one-offs that you kind of forget about soon after reading but still had fun with.