Follow Me by Victoria Gemmell

review by Maryom 


17 year old Kat Sullivan is trying to move on after her twin, Abby, committed suicide, but she just can't accept that Abby would have done such a thing. They weren't as close as they had been when younger, but surely a twin would have some inkling if her sister was distressed or depressed in any way? Yet Abby had seemed her normal happy self right till the end.
 She wasn't the only teenager to die this way in their small town, in fact she was the fifth in a year, and Kat can't help but believe there's more behind these events that people seem prepared to admit. When she's introduced to The Barn, a secret hangout where older school kids mix with students from the local uni, Kat's suspicions are aroused, for although it seems on the surface to be just a cool place to meet up, there seems to be dark undertone to the place, and an underlying obsession with celebrities who died young.

Follow Me is an excellent teen/YA thriller; the sort of book that quickly grabs the reader and keeps them reading. The story is told in the first person from Kat's perspective, so the reader shares her grief, her belief that there is more than meets the eye to this series of suicides, and her determination to pursue anyone who may have encouraged Abby. The characters are well-drawn and believable, from Kat's parents who have now turned understandably over-protective of their remaining daughter, her friends, who don't know how to talk to her since Abby's death, to Michael and Rob who run The Barn, and could be hiding who knows what in the way of secrets.
As a fairly short read, just over 200 pages, the plot moves along quickly - fortunately, as I was desperate to know what Kat would uncover - with Kat's suspicions veering one way then another but with less of the twists and turns of an adult thriller; even so it's an unputdownable read.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Strident 
Genre - teen/YA thriller