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Review of '14 Ways to Die'

14 Wats to Die is a mystery for the digital age, following one young girl in her quest to find the serial killer who took her mother.

By Cyn's WorkshopPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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ONE KILLER. THIRTEEN VICTIMS. A MILLION VIEWS.

A page-turning thriller for the social media age, perfect for fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and One of Us Is Lying.

A decade ago, Jess lost her mother to the Magpie Man, an infamous serial killer who is still at large and planning to kill again. Now, She's going to use her new platform as the star of a YouTube reality series to catch him. That is, if he doesn't catch her first.

Jess's online show means that everyone is talking about her mother's murder case. But fame comes with its downsides. The whole world is watching her every move. And it's hard to know who she can trust.

Could the Magpie Man be lurking closer to her than she thought? Is he watching her right now?

Review

14 Ways to Die follows one young girl in her quest to find justice for her mother and stop a serial killer once and for all.

Interesting

14 Ways to Die has an interesting premise that is relevant to today’s time. Everything nowadays is online; one cannot do anything without it somehow appearing online in some way. We are living in a digital era, and on some level, that is scary.

However, for Jess, she has decided to use this to her advantage to seek out her mother’s killer. Jess feels that her mother’s death has been forgotten, like the police are not taking it seriously. So now she entered a competition that will film her daily to draw out the killer. In addition, Jess plans to make him make a mistake by verbally attacking him by doing her investigation.

Undermined By Pacing

This novel has a good premise and mystery but what does not work is the pacing. 14 Ways to Die felt very dragged out. Yes, the chapters are concise, sometimes running only a couple of paragraphs, but the pacing and tone were boring at times.

It feels as though the author was trying to draw in the reader by connecting them to Jess. However, it began to feel repetitive.

Day after day, the reader follows Jess as she lives her life, trying to piece together what happened to her mother. Of course, we understand that she is grieving and on a quest for justice; that is the story’s plot. However, hearing her narrative circle the same thing throughout the novel was boring.

The most exciting part of the story was when she was investigating when she was interacting with other characters and stepped out of her head.

Many of the chapters could have been combined and condensed, making the pacing more engaging to the reader. However, as it stands, the mystery needed more fleshing out and needed more tension to draw in the reader and remove that repetitive tone.

Final Thoughts

14 Ways to Die is an exciting novel, but it risks alienating the reader with a plot that seems to be stretched thin and poor pacing.

  • Writing Quality: 7/10
  • Character Development: 7/10
  • "Couldn't Put It Down"-ness: 7/10
  • Intellectual Depth: 7/10
  • Originality: 8/10
  • Overall Rating: 3 out of 5.

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About the Author

Cynthia Bujnicki graduated from Emerson College with a BA in Writing, Literature and Publishing. She has always loved to read since she was a child. A contributing writer for YA Fantasy Addicts, she is also the Editor-in-Chief for Cyn's Workshop. She lives in sunny South Florida with her husband and son and their two cats, Mr. J the Kitten and Nyx.

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Cyn's Workshop

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