When aspiring music journalist Ren Kingston
takes a job nannying for a wealthy family on the exclusive island of Nantucket,
playground for Boston's elite, she's hoping for a low-key summer reading books
and blogging about bands. Boys are firmly off the agenda.
What she doesn't count
on is falling in with a bunch of party-loving private school kids who are
hiding some dark secrets, falling (possibly) in love with the local bad boy,
and falling out with a dangerous serial killer...
The gripping new
stand-alone novel from the author of Hunting Lila. Out August 2013
“I’m running,
running blind. Into the dark. Into the woods. Ricocheting off branches,
tripping over tangled tree roots, gripping on my arm as I stumble on, sobbing.
Are those his footsteps coming after me or is it the wind? A bird? An animal?”
After suffering from severe readers block for over a year, this is one
book that I was actually able to read and finish. Most books I’ve picked up
over the months I'd put them down after the first three pages. But not this
one. If I told you I didn’t enjoy this book despite all of the things wrong
with it, I'd be lying.
I'm the kind of person that doesn't bother going on Goodreads to read
reviews because I feel like that would change my perspective and I’d enjoy it
less. However, I did read some reviews and I was shocked (or not) at the amount
of 1 stars it received because when I started reading this, I was hooked from
the start.
But I’m not going to sit here and write a review based on how perfect
this book was. Because it wasn’t.
The Sound is based on Ren, a nanny who travels from the UK to
Nantucket to nanny for a wealthy family for the summer. Everything seems
perfect. She falls in with a group of rich kids, she has a cute wealthy
boyfriend and she’s making money. Except that everything isn’t perfect and
Nantucket has a killer. A nanny serial killer that murders foreign nannies.
This book was everything I would want in a book. It had mystery, a love
triangle, and it was hilarious. I’m not a fan of love triangles, but the way
Sarah created this one made it perfect.
This isn’t your ultimate ‘girl falls in love with bad boy’ book. Don't
get me wrong; Jesse was to die for, what bad boy isn’t? But it wasn't like Ren
fell in love with him over night. That love took time in this well-paced book.
It definitely wasn't a twilight love story, Alderson made that perfectly clear:
Also, unlike Edward Cullen, the voice in my
head pipes up, Jesse most certainly hasn’t fallen in insta-love with me and
isn’t torturing himself over the fact that he can’t be with me in case he eats
me.
Ouch.
There were a few things I didn't like in this book. Most of them were
stereotypes based on American girls. For example:
“Like, what are you doing?”
“Like, I’m renting a bike,” I answer. I’m
still vaguely amused by the overuse of the word like. I thought it was
something that Hollywood scriptwriters used to emphasize vacuity in female
characters. Turns out that’s actually the way Sophie speaks.
Don't get me wrong; I understand we sometimes, like, use the word like to
the point we like, over use it. But I’m not like, comfortable with characters
from the U.K using cliché stereotypes just to like, prove a point.
And I can’t forget the CAAARBSSSS! Ren made it seem like CARBS were sent
from hell. But SO WHAT?
Besides all of the stereotypes this book was everything I would hope for
in a contemporary mystery book. It was fast paced, the love triangle and
falling in love wasn't outdated and cliché, and the mystery had enough twists
and turns to keep me flipping the page.