Book Review: Sketchy by Olivia Samms

Sketchy by Olivia Samms
Publisher: Amazon Children's Publishing
Publish Date: January 1, 2013
Hardcover, 238 pages
ISBN: 9781477816509




My Review:
While dark, I found Sketchy to be a very enjoyable book. Bea was a great character, the backstory was interesting and the mystery was great. Also the promise of more books to come really has me excited.

Bea is a drug addict just coming out of rehab so right up front you know this is not a warm fuzzy book. Bea is real, she doesn't want to go to AA, she struggles with sobriety, she struggles with high school, but the one thing she doesn't seem to struggle with is who she is now. I like that. While she has to struggle not to drink or do drugs, she is comfortable in her skin. She likes to draw and she is happy to reconnect with Chris a distant friend from art camp. Chris is a great character as well. Often Bea's voice-of-reason and also some comic relief at times, he is fun and another character that is sure of himself even though his lifestyle is not one of the mainstream. I liked him for him as well. Ms. Samms did an excellent job with the characters. Another note with the characters is the parents are not absent in this book. No they are there right on top of Bea, sometimes to the point of being overbearing, but as a parent I do understand. It is refreshing to have parents present in a novel but even I will admit I was frustrated with them, but I had the benefit of knowing Bea was behaving.

The plot is great, it's driven by the mystery of figuring out who is raping and murdering girls, leaving Willa alive after being raped. The plot goes back and forth from past to present to bring us up-to-date on Bea but it really flows. I enjoyed the mystery of Bea using her talent to try and work out who is doing this. It was also interesting to watch her convince others of her talent.

Sketchy was amazing to me, it kept me interested, it felt real and I can't wait to read more of the Bea Catcher Chronicles. Bea has pulled me in and I like her and can't get enough of her. I will be interested to see what Ms. Samms shows us next.

My rating: 5.0/5.0

About the Book:
The first book in a series about 17 year old Bea Washington, an edgy, charismatic outsider and recovering addict, who discovers that with her new-found sobriety, she has a disturbing new ?skill? ? an ability to see, and draw, people's thoughts. Alarmingly, these visions are only getting stronger and increasing in frequency. As another girl in school is raped and left for dead, Bea must come to terms with her talent, learn to face her own truth, and try to help identify and stop the killer before he strikes again.

About the Author (from her website):
Raised in southern Michigan, Olivia Samms started writing stories as a young girl—she just didn’t realize that was what she was doing. She built forts in the dense woods, grew gills under the water of small, muddy lakes, and created a fictional universe with a cast of colorful characters. Olivia’s active imagination prompted her to pursue acting and musical theatre, and after receiving her degree from Cornell University, she took on the streets of New York, acting and singing in off, off-off, and off-off-off Broadway shows, regional theaters, sang in Nashville and cried  on soap operas. She now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. SKETCHY is her first novel.

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***I received this book from Amazon Vine for an honest review.  I was not compensated in any other way except receiving the book for free.  ***