Review: NO ONE ELSE CAN HAVE YOU by Kathleen Hale

I often tell aspiring writers that you can’t teach voice.  You have it or you don’t, and hopefully if you need it you’ll find it. Kathleen Hale has it.  And in her debut novel NO ONE ELSE CAN HAVE YOU, the protagonist Kippy Bushman is a voice to be reckoned with.

HarperTeen, January 2014.

Set in rural (and I mean rural) Wisconsin, Kippy is the girl who doesn’t fit in and doesn’t really know how to fit in.  When her best friend is brutally murdered, the town — filled with happy-faced, nosy neighbors and cops who say things like “you betcha!” at the end of every sentence — is certain they have their guy after the Sherriff arrests a popular jock.  Given, this guy had been known to a) have his way with girls and b) vandalize things, but Kippy knows it wasn’t him.  She knows the real killer is out there.  And no matter how much the Sherriff — and her dad, and her neighbor Ralph — try to keep her from investigating, nothing can stop her.  Not even a squad of bible-thumping cheerleaders.

NO ONE ELSE CAN HAVE YOU is a black comedy, a murder mystery, a laugh riot, and also a touching story of friendship. Part Pretty Little Liars, part Veronica Mars, but 100% your new favorite girl Kippy, NO ONE ELSE CAN HAVE YOU is a must-read and definitely a contender for fancy awards. (Ahem, hello Edgar Committee!)