Shine By: Lauren Myracle

Overview:  Cat is drawn into the secret lives of her brother and his friends after a vicious hate crime leaves Patrick ,a gay teen, on the verge of death.  This book is told as a whodunnit with Cat as the main detective desperate to find answers to what really happened to Patrick.  A good book to read if you're looking for something fast paced but not very deep.

Review: Possible SPOILERS

The book mostly involved Cat finding out some rather unpleasant things about her brother and his friends who she has grown up with and thinks can do no wrong.  Throughout the book she discovers that there is a rather large meth trade and her brother and company are runners.  This seemed a little farfetched that in a town of 900 people you wouldn't know there was a large meth operation down the road from your house. 

Cat's family is your typical dysfunctional country group.  Her mother died when she was a kid and her father has turned to a well meaning drunk.  Her aunt has raised Cat but is not very open and looks the other way when Cat is almost raped at 14 by one of her brothers buddies.  The rape was alluded to the entire book and then brought out like some big plot twist when in reality it was really obvious.  In an odd turn Cat ends up being friends with her would be rapist when he apologizes which I found very far fetched.

The whole Cat the detective element was an interesting idea but didn't quite flesh out as she was shocked to find out fairly obvious things about her close friends.  In the end when it turns out Patrick's secret boyfriend , who is a pretty central character who seems the most normal, brutally murdered him in a drug induced rage Cat seems entirely to unsurprised for someone whose supposed to be completely in the dark.  Also when the murderer takes a small child hostage and tries to murder him as well Cat is not nearly horrified enough to see her role model turn to a killer before her eyes.

The book was interesting and enjoyable to read but the ending seemed a bit farfetched.  It also screamed Laramie project and seemed to use the gay teen issue as a way to sell books.  Overall it was an ok book but nothing to cheer about.