My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: That Weekend

Author: Kara Thomas

Format: hardcover (borrowed)

Pages: 336

Publication Date: 6/29/21

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Categories: Mystery, Young Adult

Three best friends, a lake house, a secret trip – what could go wrong?

It was supposed to be the perfect prom weekend getaway. But it’s clear something terrible happened when Claire wakes up alone and bloodied on a hiking trail with no memory of the past forty-eight hours.

Three went up the mountain, but only one came back.

Now everyone wants answers – most of all, Claire. She remembers Friday night, but after that… nothing. And now Kat and Jesse – her best friends – are missing.

That weekend changes everything.

What happened on the mountain? And where are Kat and Jesse? Claire knows the answers are buried somewhere in her memory, but as she’s learning, everyone has secrets – even her best friends. And she’s pretty sure she’s not going to like what she remembers. 

I wanted to read some spooky reads before Halloween and seriously pick a few books up because of the cover, this being one of them. This is not spooky – it is a murder mystery and when I was reading it, I thought of how real this story could be so that makes it more suspenseful.

I like how Claire is an unreliable narrator. We only have information about what happened on the mountain she went hiking with her friends – but she was injured and has amnesia about that day. We get her shaky accounts about what took place that weekend and through her we try to piece together the events that took place which resulted in her being injured and her two best friends missing.

I thought the author did a great job keeping me invested and wanting to find out what really happened but I did suspect what was going on halfway into the story. I still wanted to know how things unfolded though. This is a quick read and I read it in one sitting.

Content Warnings: physical abuse

I didn’t like how rushed the ending felt, it was almost anti-climatic. And the family secrets is such a turn off, so this story left me with an icky feeling! lol…and here I was looking for spooky vibes. It definitely wasn’t spooky, just kinda gross!

Why you should read it:

• you like mysteries and an unreliable narrator
• quick read
• some good twists in the story

Why you might not want to read it:

• rushed ending
• one story twist that was gross

My Thoughts:

I can say I was fairly enjoying this mystery until one of the twists in the end – did it really have to go there? 🤦🏻‍♀️ I don’t think the story needed it but maybe it was just for shock value. I was shocked and disgusted and ready to end the book. Overall a decent mystery with an unreliable character that kept me guessing even though I predicted the outcome early in the book.

📚 ~ Yolanda