Review--The Dead List by Jennifer L. Armentrout

It's Ella's senior year of high school and she and her best friend Linds plan to make it the best year ever. At Brock Cochran's end of summer pool party, the girls vow to have as much fun as possible before they head off to different colleges next fall. But when Ella is mysteriously attacked on her way home from the party, everything changes. Ella's carefree senior year plans disintegrate as she finds herself at the center of an attempted murder investigation.

Ella tries to move on, but her attacker isn't done yet. He shows himself in the form of horrifying signs and symbols: a clown mask strewn on her bed, a dead bird in her backpack, a shadow moving past her window in the night. And as the weeks pass, it turns out that Ella isn't the only one being tormented.

With the help of an old flame, Jensen Carver, and her friends and family, Ella tries to attain some sense of normalcy, but she can't seem to shake the feeling that there's a dark pattern hidden in the killer's every move. Suddenly, even those in her innermost circle seem suspicious. In her seemingly safe West Virginia town, Ella starts to wonder who she can trust.

After years of waiting and almost ready to open up this book, I have finally read Jennifer L. Armentrout’s The Dead List! I initially wanted to read it when it was on Wattpad but I never got around to it. I was never near WiFi when reading for the most part and then when I finally got the bound finished copy, I still hadn’t found the time to read it, until this week!

It seems there’s nothing from Jennifer’s brain that I don’t love! Lol. Granted I still avoid contemporaries like the plague, but everything else from her, I’ve read and loved! The Dead List is no different! This was a creeptastic thriller that had me jumping at every turn and trying to figure out the whodunit when I wasn’t shaking in my shoes! I remember enjoying her previous YA thriller, Don’t Look Back, so I had high expectations for this one! Plus it’s around Halloween time, there’s a kidnapper/killer on the loose, and oh yeah, he’s fond of clown masks. If that doesn’t scream scary I don’t know what else would!

Ella and her friends are getting ready to start their senior year of high school and it’s as Ella is leaving a party that she gets attacked. One girl has already gone missing before this and no one was thinking anything too serous of it yet, maybe she ran away or something like that. But when it’s clear that someone was trying to take Ella, to kill her, things get serious real fast. If it hadn’t been for another student at the time, she would’ve been a goner.

The student in question is one Jensen Carver, one of her childhood friends from long ago. Though the two haven’t spoken in years. But when Ella decides she’s not going to be a victim again and takes self-defense classes, she wasn’t prepared for Jensen to be her teacher.

It would seem though that the kidnapper isn’t done with Ella yet, because she’s clearly being stalked by him. Seeing his hideous clown mask in places, finding dead birds in random places. Seriously creepy things that shouldn’t be happening. It would seem no one is safe in the quite little town.

I have to say that this was one seriously twisted mystery! I loved it to pieces for being so creepy and scary! Definitely a potential Halloween read! What makes this sooo dang creepy is that it has the air of reality to it! I find that’s one of the reasons why I like thrillers. As I’ve always said, to me thrillers are super creepy because there are monsters in them too…real ones! And sadly, I feel like these creepy, scary things are likely to happen in real life. Hopefully not, but there’s all those true crime shows on TV that beg to differ.

The pacing to this one was spot on!! I mean, by the end of the first chapter we already have Ella’s attack and then events thereafter are crucial to the story as well. Like with most thrillers, perhaps, the pacing is a sort of slow and steady buildup, because obviously the climax will be with the reveal of the killer. But with this one, you still have seriously creepy things happening. Ella is be stalked by whoever is doing these things and people are still going missing throughout it all. It was very methodical. And for a while I wasn’t sure where things were going, but then a pattern is pointed out to us. One that will leave you head spinning with possibilities…at least mine was!

But what would a JLA book be without a little romance. Naturally, there’s something between Jensen and Ella and I have to say it was one of the sweet budding romances that gave me all the feels. The two have a history together, one that goes to more than just childhood friendships but that, along with other mysteries that are alluded to, are slow to be revealed. The timing of the reveals though is just right!

The Dead List is a book filled with many a mystery! It’s a dark and spooky read that I would suggest reading in daylight hours only…preferably when you’re not alone! Lol! It’s a book that will have you jumping at every little noise and questioning everything within its pages! A most delightful and creeptastic read indeed!



Overall Rating 5/5 stars