Black Ice by Becca Fitzpartick
Genre: Thriller, Contemporary
Published by: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 400
Format: E-Book
Rating: ★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

This book was completely not what I was expecting. In many ways it reminded me of Gone – you know, that movie with Amanda Seyfried? I’m not the biggest fan of thrillers, and Black Ice was the first one I’ve read, so it was exciting in that sense. Black Ice also happens to be the October Booksplosion book of the month, and I am definitely interest in watching the live show discussion, because I have a feeling there are going to be some pretty diverse opinions.

The main problem I had with this book was how weak the main character, Britt, was. I know that was kind of the whole point of the plot, but I’ve read weak girl gets saved by handsome stranger before. What I wanted to read was more along the lines of kickass girl who says she’s been preparing for backpacking trip actually turns out to be good and gets herself out of the situation without the need to some guy. That would have been a very different story. Britt wasn’t unlikeable, but she was super dependant on other people and although she was supposed to have changed by the end, I didn’t really get that. Yes, she was brave, but she was still naive.

I liked guessing who the real bad guy was, but found myself disappointed when my suspicions were actually true. I wanted to have believed one thing and then be told it was something completely different. In retrospect, I guess it was sort of predictable. I was making assumptions about the real bad guy from the very beginning, and even said to Maddie that I thought it was him – and what do you know? It was.

I often have trouble ascertaining the length of time that these kind of books are supposed to take place. What I thought was over a week, turned out to be four days! Four days! That doesn’t sound nearly as bad as ‘we were trapped in the forest for two weeks.’ However, other than that I didn’t really find that I had a problem with the pacing. I mainly wanted to keep reading so that I could find out who the killer was. I’d gotten 60% through and they’d already been kidnapped  and someone had been murdered and I thought, ‘what else could possibly go wrong.’

The romance element was okay, but perhaps unnecessary. I did really like the dynamic between Britt and her love interest, but she was too quick to judge him and I found myself rolling my eyes quite a bit at her actions. She was too caught up in trying to love Calvin, her ex, and I was just screaming ‘why why why’  at her. Move on! Because he obviously has.

I liked the slow reveal, and though that the ending was satisfying. Just the right amount of closure I needed, even if it was a bit mushy and really changed the tone of everything that came before it. I can’t say that I’ll be reading any more thrillers in the future, but Black Ice was certainly an experience, and despite feeling on edge the whole time, and despite my harsh judgement I did enjoy it, and would give the book about three stars. Especially considering I don’t have any other thrillers to compare it to. However, I definitely prefer Fitzpatrick’s Hush, Hush!