By Kailey W., Crofton Middle School
Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards builds suspense. I suppose from reading what the book is about you know that something is off, but through out the book Mira (the main character) doesn't know that something is askew. Alfred Hitchcock said that to create suspense he lets the audience "play god," meaning the audience knows things that the characters don't, the readers just don't know how it will play out. I think that this book does a good job at that.
Mira's mother is also really understandable and you just have to feel bad for her. The book describes the characters in a way that I really like, focusing more on their personalities and actions rather than specific appearances most of the time other than maybe describing Kayla's hair. I think that the dialog was kind of basic but still enjoyable. For most of the book you really don't know who the person is, it builds suspense but still is like a whodunnit book. I think the relations of each character is interesting as well as the way that Mira describes them. I quite like her thought process.
I think that the ending was like 'yeah, okay, I can see that', but I wouldn't have come up with that ending of the book myself. I enjoyed the book and would recommend to read. I think that I have read better books but have also read far worse as well.
Click here to check out Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards.