Over 10 years ago, there was this amazing book that came out called The Hunger Games.  It had redefined and become the leading book in the Young Adult Dystopian genre! You all know what book I am talking about and it’s hard not to know.  It created so much excitement and it was so well received to the world that the genre took off ! At first it was exciting, to see all these new and creative ideas of what our future world could look like and what we readers would have to do to survive.  And then the genre got flooded, so badly that we were drowning in the dystopian era and it became overkill. I found that it had become too much of the same story and shortly stopped choosing that genre all together.

So it is curious to me that I even considered picking up #Murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil as the description of the book  puts into that dystopian genre. But I think what enticed me more was the fact that it said: Welcome to the near future! It is not set in a few hundred years where we have gotten a restart on the world or half the world is destroyed. No this book could easily be set in the next 20-30 years without a doubt!

It was not hard to get into the book at all! It starts out extremely fast paced with our main character Dee, has been wrongfully accused of murder and the system with its corruptions as left her fighting for her life as she trying to not be killed by one of the vicious executioners on Alcatraz 2.0. I felt myself holding my breath as she comes close to the brink of death but manages to survive and takes out one of the most notorious killers on the island.  This puts a target on her back for all the other executioners to come after her for revenge.  This all happens very early on in the book, so you are sucked in almost immediately.

Because there is so many different types of people on the island , Dee finds herself in a misfit crowd which is dubbed online as “The Death Row Breakfast Club”!  I love the pop culture reference to one of my favourite movies. It is absolutely perfection for the group of characters that come together! It adds a tone of light heartiness to otherwise dark book. 
 
I know this book is supposed to be creepy and suspenseful and to be fair there are a couple of moments where this is really well done. But the creepiest part of it is that it is not hard to imagine a world like the one in #Murdertrending. The fact this made up world in a “dystopian” time period could actually happen to us some day in the future. The way it is written about social media and how people are online picking their favourite killers and who could die is not a hard place to imagine. It was branded so well that even though I was cheering for the heroine, I couldn’t help but admire the executioners and their craft.  How can you not appreciate an executioner named Gucci Hangman or Hannah Ball! I am not going to tell you their special method of killing,  but their names say it all! 

There is so much more that I want to say about this book, because it truly is so well written. But I do not want to spoil anything. Reading this book for the first time with barely knowing what you are in for  and then dealing with the essence that is #Murdertrending is absolutely fabulous. You just really need to go into it almost “blind” and then you will fully appreciate the story! One of my biggest issues with books is the fact that you end up getting attached to characters and their stories and then you never see them again after the book is done ! Well fear not! #Murdertrending has a sequel to continue this fabulous dystopian world with its craziness! I obviously highly recommend the second one, if you enjoy the first one ! 
 
Easily this book is a 5 star, for its dystopian concepts, the names of the executioners, the fluid use of social media and the characters themselves. It is just so well rounded and comes together so nicely that it makes for a quick and easy read, keeping your attention on every page.  Another excellent thing about this book is the fact that it is available on both Hoopla and Libby! So you have two different options to access it! So GO GO GO!!!! 

#JordanOut #tryingtobetrendy #isitworking?! 

 
Book Reviewed:
Title: #Murdertrending
Author: Gretchen McNeil 
Rating: 5 star *****
Online?: Ebook on Libby and Hoopla