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Dead to Me

Mary McCoy (Goodreads Author)

3.69 · Rating details · 785 ratings · 201 reviews

LA Confidential for the YA audience. This alluring noir YA mystery with a Golden Age Hollywood backdrop will keep you guessing until the last page.

"Don't believe anything they say."

Those were the last words that Annie spoke to Alice before turning her back on their family and vanishing without a trace. Alice spent four years waiting and wondering when the impossibly ...more

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Hardcover, 304 pages

Published March 3rd 2015 by Disney-Hyperion

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My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga

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· 785 ratings · 201 reviews

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Nov 17, 2015 Mary McCoy rated it really liked it · (Review from the author)

Having a little distance on this book, I think I can now review it objectively despite being the person who wrote it.

I did some cool things with both gender and genre. I love how the relationship between the sisters turned out. The plotting is tight. There's this scene between approximately pgs. 215-230 that is excellent. And I totally nailed the last line.

There are also some things I could have done better.

I might have written a more complex Big Bad. I wish I'd gone emotionally deeper with the ...more

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Mar 20, 2017 Lynx rated it it was ok

Shelves: cozy-mystery, kindle, historical-fiction-period-piece, young-adult

When Alice's older sister Annie is found severely beaten and in a coma she makes it her mission to find out what happened no matter what the price, even when the clues reveal unsettling secrets about her family.

This was a real struggle to get through. The characters are one dimentional and extremely cliched, and one of the main selling points for me, the Old Hollywood backdrop, it completely under utilized. You also know pretty much right away who the "villain" is so it took away a lot of the ...more

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Aug 18, 2014 Rachel (APCB Reviews) rated it it was ok

Shelves: fast-read, 2015-debuts

Initial thoughts: I'm a bit conflicted on this one. The plot was brilliant, yet the story was boring in places. I got a bit confused sometimes. The characters were flat. A great mystery/thriller in an awesome setting and time period though!

I've always felt a pull towards books about Hollywood. I love the glitz and glam and gossip. There are always secrets to be discovered, drama to be seen, and crimes and mysteries to be solved. This book portrays the Hollywood scene of the 1940's and entwines Initial thoughts: I'm a bit conflicted on this one. The plot was brilliant, yet the story was boring in places. I got a bit confused sometimes. The characters were flat. A great mystery/thriller in an awesome setting and time period though!

I've always felt a pull towards books about Hollywood. I love the glitz and glam and gossip. There are always secrets to be discovered, drama to be seen, and crimes and mysteries to be solved. This book portrays the Hollywood scene of the 1940's and entwines it with a gutsy mystery and crime that was brilliantly executed (the storyline, not the bad deeds themselves!).

As far as mysteries and plots go, Mary should win a gold crown or something. The story she weaves and the mystery she creates were well-planned and mind-blowing! I really loved how Mary chose the perfect setting and time period for this crime. I also loved her portrayal of Hollywood in the late 1940's and appreciated how accurate and realistic it was. I was thoroughly impressed by how slippery and deep this mystery went. This is no silly crime, things get rough and dangerous. I spent so much time wracking my brain, theorizing, trying to figure out what was really going on and why. Basically you can trust no one. Many gold stars to Mary though, she managed to pull the rug out from under my feet multiple times. She slammed twist after twist into the pages and left me a frazzled mess. Mary made this book so suspenseful, my anxiety levels were through the roof. You can cut the tension with a knife. Dead to Me is an exemplary mystery novel. There's plenty of sleuthing, shady dealings, blood, sweat, and tears.

In terms of characters, they all fell a bit short to me. I couldn't really connect with any of the characters. I didn't feel I knew much about the main character, Alice. I couldn't relate to her, I didn't know her at all. The supporting characters were just as flat. Maybe it was on purpose though. I suspected everyone, and I suspected no one. Some of the characters just slip right by you. There are quite a few revelations we discover about each of these characters, so eventually we learn who they really are. I loved the strong sisterly bond between Alice and Annie. I also really enjoyed their love of games and codes. They loved cracking codes, and it plays a super important (and super cool) part in the book.

If you're in the mood for a convoluted mystery and thriller then be sure to check out this book! ...more

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Jun 28, 2016 Shushan rated it liked it

In Dead To Me, a 16-year-old girl named Alice finds her sister Annie, who ran from home four years ago, in a hospital. Annie is still alive, but she's beat up so bad that she looks like she could die any second. Alive decides to risk her life to discover who did this and finds out some shocking things along the way that she never would've guessed before.

Dead To Me is definitely not in my top ten favorite books, but I still enjoyed uncovering all the dirty secrets with Alice.

There were a lot of ...more

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Jun 04, 2015 Kate (GirlReading) rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, historical-fiction

3.5/5* Dead to Me is a fast paced, intriguing mystery. The characters in Dead to Me were really interesting. I didn't really warm to any of them but in a good way, as they all had their faults and were hard to trust. Plus, there were plenty of shady characters.
At times the growing list of different names and characters was a little confusing and slightly hard to follow, which I felt, at points, took away from the plot as I was focusing on trying to remember who was who rather than what was ...more

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Mar 05, 2015 Rashika (is tired) rated it really liked it

Shelves: dark, good-female-leads, mystery-thriller, historical, ya, arc, read-2015, library-review-books

Dead to Me is a book as pretty as its cover (although I really shouldn’t be using the word pretty).

As someone who has always been a noir mystery fan, I had a lot of fun reading this book and thought it was the perfect brain candy! It might not have been as noir as it could have been but it was still noir enough to satisfy me and keep me on the edge of my seat, flipping through the pages and trying to figure out what exactly was at play here.

Before I talk about all the good stuff, I wanted to Dead to Me is a book as pretty as its cover (although I really shouldn’t be using the word pretty).

As someone who has always been a noir mystery fan, I had a lot of fun reading this book and thought it was the perfect brain candy! It might not have been as noir as it could have been but it was still noir enough to satisfy me and keep me on the edge of my seat, flipping through the pages and trying to figure out what exactly was at play here.

Before I talk about all the good stuff, I wanted to talk a little about the setting of the novel. Dead To Me is set in the late 1940’s. There is so much that could have been done with that and even in the blurb, 'the golden Hollywood age' is mentioned, but the potential for this wasn't realized, at least I never felt it was. Their are so many things specific to that time period but they weren't as played up as they could have been. If it weren’t for little things here and there, I would have had no idea that this book was set almost 60 years in the past. I am not saying that the author doesn't go into incredibly awesome details regarding Hollywood and all the secrets that come with it but the problem is that I never felt as though it was enough and I wanted more than just Hollywood in that time period.

My issues regarding the setting aside, Alice was fantastic female lead. Her determination, her need to find out what actually happened, kept me turning the pages. It’s hard to not want to know how this all turns out. Where is everything going? Every corner Alice looks in, some deep hidden secret comes crawling out and she is forced to question the world as she knows it. She is so determined and while it did seem a tad unrealistic that this young girl managed to do all of these things all on her own, I decided to roll with it for the sake of the story. Alice was so believable as a female lead because not all of her decisions were on point but she did manage to make a lot of smart decisions over the course of the book. The way she solved the mystery and put together the puzzle pieces made sense to me as a reader. She is not a perfect character but she isn't that imperfectly perfect kind of character either. She makes mistakes that will make you shake your head but she also makes other decisions that make you want to high five her.

There is an entire entourage of secondary character who are all as interestingly developed as Alice and I liked getting to know them. One of the things McCoy did very well was making sure none of the characters were flat. Bad guys aside, the secondary characters walked a thin line between black and white. They all had their faults and it just made them so much more interesting to read about.
It added to this idea of black vs. white in the story because there are so many lines being crossed that you no longer know what is more shocking. Is it okay for someone to do something terrible because it was a choice between their lives and the thing they were being asked to do?

This book is incredibly atmospheric and McCoy does a great job in building the deceit, lies and the secrets. It’s a book that is well plotted. Nothing about it screams predictable and yet you won’t find yourself being surprised. I make it sound like a bad thing but it isn’t. It works incredibly well for this book and adds in a realistic layer. If there had been more red herrings and more ‘surprises’, I know it would have been harder for me to take this book seriously but as it is, my eyes were glued to the pages.

One of the best parts of this book is that there was no romance, there was a moment or two that made me question if the author would decide to throw one in but there were wayyyyy too many other things on Alice’s mind to think about any boys in any sort of way. She is being beaten up by bad guys, she is chasing bad guys! None of this actually leaves room for some ladi-da romance. SERIOUS STUFF IS GOING DOWN.

What made this book so fantastic was the way the author wrapped everything up. The book really picked up pace toward the end and I was so worried about how the author would resolve everything. I was worried she would decide to give this mystery a clean cut ending but that isn't what happened. Not everything is perfect in the real world and the book didn’t end on a ‘everything is solved and we can go back to our normal life now’ note. It was more realistic than that and it did justice to the book.

This is a fun noir mystery and while it may not be perfect, I definitely enjoyed reading it and would definitely recommend it to noir mystery fans or anything just looking for something exciting to pick up! ...more

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Mar 26, 2014 Jen Ryland added it

Shelves: debut-challenge-2015, march-2015

Classic noir -- think Chinatown or LA Confidential -- meets YA as good girl Alice tries to solve the mystery of how her wayward older sister ended up beaten and unconscious in the hospital.

Noir is all about the dark, seedy underside of things, and I do love me some moral ambiguity, but perhaps because this was YA, this felt a little less dark than most noir I've read or watched. There was one character (Jerry) who was intriguingly hard to pin down, but some of the others felt a bit typecast: the ...more

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Apr 23, 2014 Larissa rated it liked it

Shelves: books-that-need-to-come-out-now-n

more like 3.5
see this review at YA Midnight Reads

This one was calling my name everybody. Historical fiction? Film noir? Murder? The Golden Age of Hollywood? Sign me up.

The Film noir aspect of Dead to Me was certainly not disappointing. Shady side characters you can never trust, ambiguous morals, murder, corruption everywhere, private investigators, femme fatales were all placed within the jungle of an urban city. It felt like the perfect remembrance to Film noir, even encompassing that hard to more like 3.5
see this review at YA Midnight Reads

This one was calling my name everybody. Historical fiction? Film noir? Murder? The Golden Age of Hollywood? Sign me up.

The Film noir aspect of Dead to Me was certainly not disappointing. Shady side characters you can never trust, ambiguous morals, murder, corruption everywhere, private investigators, femme fatales were all placed within the jungle of an urban city. It felt like the perfect remembrance to Film noir, even encompassing that hard to truly describe tone. However, with the usage of a teenage narrator Mary breaths fresh air into the Film noir conventions. Furthermore, the backdrop of The Golden Age of Hollywood beautifully intersects Film noir creating such an interesting combination. One may think that the aforementioned wouldn’t have anything in common, but to that I would say that you would need to look deeper. You can take a look behind the glossy seemingly idyllic perfection perpetuated by the strict rulings of the studio system and see tiny little cracks. These are hints that there’s something more, and perhaps something sinister and highly secretive going on behind closed doors. It’s there where the dark atmosphere of Film noir and The Golden Age of Hollywood collide and I absolutely loved what McCoy did with it.

The murder mystery in Dead to Me was very well done. It kept me flipping pages late into the night, the mystery truly creates a pulse racing plot line that will keep you guessing. There’s red herrings left, right and center and you’ll be second guessing yourself every five seconds. When there was the eventual reveal of the mystery (not with whodunit, that was actually revealed fairly early on- but rather the intricacies, motivations, connections and betrayals present) I could see all of the little ties come together. Though, I didn’t except was another plot twist after the mystery was solved which continues to follow the Film noir mantra that nobody can be trusted and that there will always be a secrets and corruption abound.

I think that really speaks to how multifaceted and interesting the side characters were. Each had their distinct personality and secrets, some of which never even get revealed by the end of the story furthering their ambiguity. I would say that each side character also had their own motivations in mind, and these played out through their role in the plot. Honestly, I found some of the side characters (namely Jerry and Annie) more interesting than Alice- the main character. While Alice offered an pleasant enough narration, it felt more like she was of an observer to the antics of the side characters and the captivating plot rather than a solid character. I never really felt a deep connection with her nor did I really ever feel like she underwent any real character development. It kept me a bit emotionally distanced from Alice’s plights. In Film noir I usually don’t relate with the main character, but with the inclusion of a teenage narrator it feels like that could have been made possible. As that potential wasn’t realized it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity.

The romance in this one…wait a minute. There was no romance in Dead to Me. I know, it’s basically impossible for there not to be romance in the genre of YA. That is why it was so refreshing to not have to deal with the main character focused on the love interest rather than the serious plot at hand. Despite there not being any romance in Dead to Me, there was some examples of familial relationships and friendships. This was likely due to my inability to truly connect with with Alice.

Despite my lack of connection the main character, I would definitely recommend Dead to Me for those looking for a captivating Film noir mystery with a old Hollywood backdrop.

...more

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Feb 10, 2014 Heather Petty rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, arc, favorites, mystery

I'm just going to start my thoughts with a description of the book:

YA NOIR SET IN GOLDEN AGE HOLLYWOOD.

Note how all of those words are my favorites and then add crazy amazing characters, story, writing... This book is all the things. But my favorite part is how effortlessly Ms. McCoy makes you constantly question everything. From the first page to the last, you pretty much trust nothing and no one. Every hero is irrevocably flawed, every twist unexpected, and there are no easy answers or ...more

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Jun 25, 2014 Christina (Confessions of a Book Addict) rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, for-review, ya-historical-fiction

Alice Gates lives a privileged and perfect life in Hollywood during the 1940s, that is until her sister leaves home and she hasn't heard from her since. Four years later, the hospital contacts her saying that her sister, Annie, is seriously injured and unconscious. Of course, Alice rushes to the hospital to find out what happened and as she receives more and more information, she pieces together the clues slowly. The clues take her to a side of Hollywood not often seen. It's a gritty side filled ...more

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Feb 10, 2015 Summer rated it liked it

Shelves: arc, netgalley-edelweiss, mystery, historical-fiction

Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars

"Ali, I need you to do one more thing for me.""Anything," I said. "Don't believe anything they say. Not about me, not about anything."

Dead To Me first caught my eye because it was a) historical fiction and b) a story of two sisters. Of course, I went in expecting an emotional historical novel about sisters who finally find each other and have a tear-stained reunion. Boy, was I wrong.

This isn't a touching story of siblings--it's noir, through and through. It's a ...more

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Nov 20, 2017 Hannah rated it really liked it

3.75 stars!

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Apr 27, 2015 Dark Faerie Tales rated it really liked it

Shelves: reviewed-by-kaitlin

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Such an action-packed read; filled with page-turning mysteries and family dramas.

Opening Sentence: When I saw my sister in that hospital bed, she was different from how I remembered her. She’d changed her hair. Her cheeks were leaner. And someone had tried to cave in the side of her head with a baseball bat.

The Review:

After four years of zero contact, Alice comes face to face with her older sister, Annie, only to find her broken at the ...more

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Dec 05, 2014 Rhea Dsouza rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 365-days-of-ya, netgalley

Enter here to win a hardcopy of Dead To Me!

Dead To Me begins with the Gates sisters in the hospital. They’re both together now, after having been apart for four years.

Except, Annie Gates is barely alive, almost comatose, as she lies on the hospital bed, with no one but her younger sister Alice Gates beside her. And Alice, though relieved at her sister’s presence in her life after four long years, is afraid but ready to know who put her sister in this state.

And there starts her journey, where she ...more

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Nov 06, 2014 Shayna rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2015

Welp, thank goodness that's over. I went into Dead to Me not super psyched but hoping for a quick, atmospheric mystery, but instead got a mediocre story with characters that fell so flat I almost don't remember their names.

The first thing I noticed as I started McCoy's debut was that the setting for me was very weak. I didn't know going into it it was set in "old Hollywood," and had trouble situating myself in it throughout the story. The story itself read much more modern and didn't seem to Welp, thank goodness that's over. I went into Dead to Me not super psyched but hoping for a quick, atmospheric mystery, but instead got a mediocre story with characters that fell so flat I almost don't remember their names.

The first thing I noticed as I started McCoy's debut was that the setting for me was very weak. I didn't know going into it it was set in "old Hollywood," and had trouble situating myself in it throughout the story. The story itself read much more modern and didn't seem to have much to do with the time period other than a few scattered references to mystery novelists (?) that I had never heard of. The focus on the action was part of that I think, and perhaps if McCoy had stopped once in a while to give a little more description (I mean, how fun would it be to write about old Hollywood?!), that would have helped.

I also never felt any connection to the protagonist, Alice, or her sister, Annie. The first scene is when Alice finds Annie in the hospital, and I think the lack of build-up really contributed to me not caring at all what had happened to Annie. I found myself wondering why I should care about either of them or their relationship because all of the information was told to me in a way that made it basically impossible for me to actually feel it. We learn very little about Alice as a person outside of the drama with Annie, and it was almost like she was just a vessel for Annie's story rather than a true character.

Granted, I understand that this novel is meant to be a noir-style mystery, but while that style works in film and can be campy and fun as well as dark, this novel tried to be serious but failed because of extreme lack of emotional punch. In addition to long, info-dump-y passages about Alice and Annie's home life, I felt frustrated that all of the clues were fed to me in a way that left no room to figure out what was going on. It was very "here's this new character, he had this part in Annie's beating, here's this person, oh gosh, he helped!" and not particularly sophisticated or suspensefully paced.

I nearly DNF'ed this one and probably should have, but I had just abandoned Red Queen and was feeling anxious about only reading two for-fun books last month (between my new internship and my solo recital last month I've been absurdly busy), so I powered through. However, the outcome was less than satisfying due to its predictability (again, the author feeds us so much it makes it hard to even predict what's going to happen since you know she'll just spell it out), and I was left feeling certain I would forget even Alice's name because I still knew so little about her as a person. Overall, what I had hoped would be an entertaining, quick read turned out to be a tedious, over-told (but thankfully still quick due to some skimming in the last 20%) read that I probably won't remember tomorrow. ...more

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Feb 19, 2015 Cynthia rated it liked it

Shelves: first-reads-arcs, teen-bopper, its-history-ya

So I’m not sure if it’s the writing or the fact that I knew it was suppose to have the air of a film noir, but man, did I read a lot of this book in my head as Alice doing a monologue to me/the audience, ha.

It was interesting read with an interesting premise. The story took us from the glitz of the Golden Age of Hollywood into the dark and seedy underbelly of the so-call glamorous life. When Alice’s sister, Annie who’s been missing for 4 years, turns up nearly dead and in a coma, Alice gets So I’m not sure if it’s the writing or the fact that I knew it was suppose to have the air of a film noir, but man, did I read a lot of this book in my head as Alice doing a monologue to me/the audience, ha.

It was interesting read with an interesting premise. The story took us from the glitz of the Golden Age of Hollywood into the dark and seedy underbelly of the so-call glamorous life. When Alice’s sister, Annie who’s been missing for 4 years, turns up nearly dead and in a coma, Alice gets pulled into the detective life and the criminal world to try to discover who done it and why (it all goes back to a missing witness and murder! dun dun da). Annie’s beating was just one line of a dark and dangerous web of crimes. Alice soon find out is that things are never what they seem and you can’t trust anyone.

The mystery was suspenseful, there’s a lot of drama happening – a murder, blackmailing, kidnappings, backstabbing and shootings! It indulges in the dark side of Hollywood life and into the dysfunction family. However, despite the interesting premise, there’s patches of the book that just slowed down too much for me. The characters weren’t too bad. The bad guys are pretty terrible people and it’s hard to actually know who’s on the ‘good side’. Which actually made the characters more interesting since everyone seems to be in it for themselves, you always had to wonder about their motivates for any of their actions. The problem was a lot of the characters still just fitted into the boring typecast making them a bit predictable as soon as you knew who they were. Good news is even when I thought I had it all figured out, there’s still a few extra twist and turns to keep the ending from being too typical.

Overall, it was a enjoyable young adult meets film-noir-esque read that gave us a glimpse into the deadly lifestyle of the rich and famous.

{*Thank to Disney Hyperion & Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for the an honest review. Original review at Bookmunchies

...more

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Mar 19, 2016 Tanner added it

DNF.
Really, I wish I could have loved it, but, no.

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Jan 21, 2015 Peach rated it it was amazing

Shelves: amazing-moms, young-adult, the-loveliest-settings, 2015-releases, whoa, love-love-love, would-make-a-great-movie, historical-fiction

4.5

Apparently, I never completed my review of this. I only blurbed it. Shame, I thought it was fantastic.

The year is 1948. Los Angeles is a place of glitz and glamour. But after Annie is beaten into a coma, Annie's only known relative is her estranged, younger sister, Alice. And after Annie had walked out on their family years prior, Alice hadn't received word from her since, and upon looking at her sister's broken, battered frame, she can only wonder who would ever commit such a dastardly ...more

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Dec 19, 2014 Imillar rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya

This book is the YA answer to LA Confidential. Smart, gritty, and with a 1940's Hollywood setting that I've never seen for this age group before. Our heroine Alice on the trail of the person who put her sister in a coma, and she reluctantly enlists the help of a private detective. You never know who to trust in a noir, and the same's true here, which makes for some very exciting chase scenes, shoot-outs and close calls. I'm really hoping this becomes a series, because I would love to read more ...more

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Sep 23, 2014 Becky rated it it was amazing

THIS BOOK!!! Wow...it's brilliant. I am a huge mystery lover, but the genre often comes with a heavy side of cheese. DEAD TO ME was a *perfect* noir mystery with excellent twists, incredible characterization, and a revealing look at the ugly side of 1940s Hollywood.

This is going on my MUST HAVE FOREVER shelf. It's that good.

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Aug 23, 2014 Melliott rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery

Oh, this was a good one! It's going to be published as a YA novel, but honestly, it just reads like a good noir mystery whose protagonist happens to be 16. I liked all the detail with which it was filled, her characters were as interesting as they were diverse, and the mystery was good.

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Feb 06, 2014 Jen (Pop! Goes The Reader) rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, young-adult, mystery, thriller, favorites, read-in-2015

Did you find this review helpful? Find more of my reviews at Pop! Goes The Reader!

When I saw my sister in that hospital bed, she was different from how I remembered her. She’d changed her hair. Her cheeks were leaner.
And someone had tried to cave in the side of her head with a baseball bat.

Los Angeles. 1948. The doctors tell sixteen-year-old Alice Gates that Annie was lucky. That things could have been much, much worse. But as Alice stares down at the broken body of the once-beloved, ...more

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Oct 25, 2014 Stephanie Ward rated it it was amazing

Shelves: print-arc, owned, for-review, ebook, netgalley

4.5 Stars

'Dead to Me' is a gripping young adult historical mystery/thriller based in Hollywood during the late 1940s. The story revolves around our main character, Alice, as she digs into her sister's life for the past four years - since she left home without a trace. Now, Annie is in a coma and fighting for her life after being nearly beat to death one night. The hospital called Alice after finding her picture and phone number in Annie's shoe, and Alice can't believe that she's found her sister 4.5 Stars

'Dead to Me' is a gripping young adult historical mystery/thriller based in Hollywood during the late 1940s. The story revolves around our main character, Alice, as she digs into her sister's life for the past four years - since she left home without a trace. Now, Annie is in a coma and fighting for her life after being nearly beat to death one night. The hospital called Alice after finding her picture and phone number in Annie's shoe, and Alice can't believe that she's found her sister after all these years - and is more determined than ever to find out the truth of why Annie left home and never reached out to her. Alice also knows that her parents are lying to her about something big - and she has a hunch that it has to do with Annie and why she left. She's not about to lose her big sister again, so Alice feels it's up to her to find out what Annie's being doing since she left and who could want her dead? She'll have to go through the shady underbelly of Hollywood - with all of the dirty and nasty secrets that are hidden there - in order to save her sister and to answer the questions that have burdened her for years. What she finds will shock her to the core and she'll have to rethink everything she thought she knew about Hollywood, the so-called glamorous life of actors, and even her own life.

I love a good mystery or thriller and never pass up a chance to read one that sounds promising. I'm usually complaining that the YA genre doesn't have enough good thrillers out there, which I'm happy to say is starting to change, and this novel can definitely be added to that list. The plot of the book really isn't anything terribly original - a teen girl runs away from home after a big fight with her parents and isn't heard from again - until she turns up in a hospital, leaving nothing but more questions. The fact that the story is set in Hollywood during the late 1940s makes it much more fascinating. A lot goes on during the story, especially as Alice digs through her sister's past to figure out what happened to her. There are tons of smaller stories that are brought up during this time in the book - and all of them somehow tie in together to create the backbone of the central plot. These smaller story lines are detailed and intricate, which I feel only adds depth to the book as a whole. It's like a puzzle - all of these smaller stories and characters that Alice discovers are the pieces, and when put together in the right way, they show the entire picture of what happened to Annie and why.

I always try to figure out the mystery in the book before the main character does, but I wasn't really able to pin it down with this one. I kept building up theories in my mind, only to have a big twist in the story knock me back to where I started. When I can't figure out a mystery of any sort before the character, I consider it a strong indication of the writer's talent and ability. I loved the author's writing style throughout the book - all of the various elements were each done precisely and in great detail. After putting all of the different parts of the story together, the big picture behind it all is revealed in striking detail. When I found out that this is the author's debut novel, I could hardly believe it. The book is written with the skill and grace of a seasoned author and showcases the incredible talent the writer possesses. Part of the reason I loved the writing so much was the author's use of first person point of view - that of Alice. By using this technique, the reader gets a much deeper and intimate understanding of what happens during the book, sometimes actually feeling as if we've been transported to that specific place and time. With this novel, I felt as if I had stepped back in time and was experiencing the glamorous Hollywood of the 1940s, as well as the dirty underside that is kept hidden from the world. We experience everything as Alice does and are privy to her personal thoughts, fears, dreams, hopes, and emotions - among several other things. This style also allows the reader to connect with the character in a whole new level than would be possible using a different technique. The reader is almost immediately connected to Alice and can easily identify with her from the start of the book. I love being inside the main character's mind during a story - experiencing everything from their standpoint. Emotions, inner thoughts and dialogues, and other sensory information is vividly detailed and described from the character's viewpoint - which makes the reader feel as if they are inside the story itself and experiencing everything that happens alongside the character. This is a huge benefit of using first person point of view, in my opinion, and I believe it makes a book and it's characters all the more realistic.

Each part of the story - from the setting and scenery to the secondary characters and the events that unfold - is described in fantastic detail with lots of description and vivid imagery. It feels so realistic that the reader will get lost inside the pages, forgetting about the outside world, until they have finished the book - which is another sign for me that an author has true talent. Overall, I found this novel to be an exceptionally well written story with an imaginative plot and a mystery full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the very end. I very highly recommend this book to fans of mysteries, suspense, and thrillers - along with those looking for magnificent writing and a twisting narrative that will have you reading as fast as you can to find out the truth and who's behind it all. I'll most definitely be following this author and eagerly awaiting her next release!

Disclosure: I received a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. ...more

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Feb 26, 2019 Cassie Fischer rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, 2019, book-club

I don't think I've read anything quite like this. 1940's Hollywood, gangsters, dirty cops, starlets, and private investigators. This book is very plot driven, with not a lot of character development. The character arc isn't really the character growing, but instead, her discovering what happened to her sister. There were two spots in this book that threw me through a loop and I can't wait to discuss them with the ladies in my book club.

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Jan 10, 2019 Morgan Campbell added it

I enjoyed the book there where many things going on and there was a strong female lead to top it all off.

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Mar 14, 2015 Trista rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-ya, historical-setting, yabc-challenge, contemporary-challenge-2015, 2015-debuts, contemporary-challenge-ya-2015

Annie and Alice grew up in Hollywood. Their parents never really made it but were considered insiders, going to plenty of parties and putting their daughter on display when they hosted their own. Fed up with it all, Annie leaves. Alice doesn't hear from her in years. Until one day she gets a call saying Annie's in the hospital. She's been badly beaten and is in a coma. Alice's isn't the child Annie left behind anymore and she's determined to find out who did this to her sister. Even if that Annie and Alice grew up in Hollywood. Their parents never really made it but were considered insiders, going to plenty of parties and putting their daughter on display when they hosted their own. Fed up with it all, Annie leaves. Alice doesn't hear from her in years. Until one day she gets a call saying Annie's in the hospital. She's been badly beaten and is in a coma. Alice's isn't the child Annie left behind anymore and she's determined to find out who did this to her sister. Even if that means exposing a huge star in Hollywood and putting her own life in danger.

I am a huge fan of the era of Hollywood when this book was set, along with being a huge fan of film noir, and this book definitely had that feel to it. There were a lot of twists and it was fun to try to keep up with them all as I read.

Alice was a great character. I loved her determination and her fearlessness. She was going to find out who hurt her sister and she was going to expose them. She found herself getting into all sorts of situations and she faced them, even when she knew it would likely put her in danger. She was very Nancy Drew-esque, another character I love. She wasn't perfect in her investigating, she made mistakes, but also made smart observations and the way she put everything together made sense. She was the only character who got a lot of development, which was a little disappointing, but the story was pushed along by the mystery and by Alice, so it made sense.

Just because there wasn't a lot of development in the secondary characters didn't mean they were flat, which I appreciated. Mary McCoy did a great job in making even the most likeable of them seem suspicious at times. There was definitely a 'I like this character but can I really trust him/her?' feel through the whole book. They were hard to get a read on, and I loved it all.

The book had a lot of action in a short time. From the moment Alice decided to investigate Annie's attack, it seemed like there was something happening to push the mystery forward. Everything she did, everyone she met, had the potential to be or to give an important clue. It made for a read that I didn't want to put down because I wanted to see if I could figure out the mystery and if Alice would get out of each situation. It was fun, tense, and I really enjoyed it. ...more

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Aug 08, 2014 Anna rated it really liked it

A bit of a change of pace from my normal reading, what with the noir and all. Not my usual, but I do enjoy a noir mystery film from time to time - I even took a Film Noir class in college. Would you believe that some of it actually stuck? That said, this is also set during what could be conceivably called the Golden Age of Hollywood, when there were so many stars and great films it's almost unreal. Add into that particular time period an average teenaged girl, with a father who is a promoter in A bit of a change of pace from my normal reading, what with the noir and all. Not my usual, but I do enjoy a noir mystery film from time to time - I even took a Film Noir class in college. Would you believe that some of it actually stuck? That said, this is also set during what could be conceivably called the Golden Age of Hollywood, when there were so many stars and great films it's almost unreal. Add into that particular time period an average teenaged girl, with a father who is a promoter in the film business and whose sister left home years ago without a backwards glance. The girl, Alice, is startled to receive a call from the hospital that her sister Annie has been found almost beaten to death and they need her to come up there. When she meets a private eye in the hospital room, who claims to be Annie's friend, things spiral completely out of control. It becomes a game of cat and mouse, with the very real danger of death just around the corner. Is this a mystery that Alice can survive?

I appreciated that it's pretty clear whodunnit, and that's not where the mystery lies. The mystery of the story is the motivations, the connections and the how of the situation! There is a lot of action and I was always on the edge of my seat. No character was truly safe and the psycopathic movie star described in the book summary was truly terrifying once he became a major player in the novel. The reasons were not quite what I was expecting, but with the sleazy side of 1940s Hollywood being what it was, it wasn't entirely surprising in and of itself. Mostly, the bits and pieces of this one - story, plotting, characters, etc. - came together to form an entirely pleasant reading experience and genuinely intriguing mystery. This is an author I will definitely be watching in the future. Please excuse the vagueness of this review, as I'm trying to avoid spoilers due to the March 2015 release date!!!

VERDICT: 4/5 Stars

**I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is March 3rd, 2015.** ...more

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Mar 07, 2015 Once rated it it was amazing

Let me paint the scene for you...Old Hollywood, scandals, private detectives, parties, missing girls...it has it all!! There are so many things that I loved about this book! It's been awhile that I've read a story where I couldn't put it down. Not in the car, or at work, or even to go to bed! And isn't the cover amazing? I love the way the girl is peaking through the title.

I love the backstory that McCoy weaves through the story. It really gives you a better understanding of the time period and ...more

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Jun 25, 2015 Anna rated it it was ok

Shelves: june-2015, bland-as-bread

It was a decent and interesting story that made me want to finish it. However, I realized I don't like mystery. I can't say it's predictable because if it was then mysteries are no fun.

I didn't like how cliched it was. If it was modern day, I would understand but really Hollywood in the 40s? It didn't appeal to me.

Alice was an annoying character tbh. I have an older sister who is as useful as a rock. She clings to the past like one day her sister will return and everything will be back to ...more

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Apr 10, 2015 Barbara rated it really liked it

Shelves: alcohol, bullies, history, community, drama, jobs, incarceration, conflict, friendship, romance

Sophomore Alice Gates hasn't seen or heard from her beloved older sister Annie for four years. When Annie is beaten badly and lands in an LA hospital, the authorities contact Alice. Alice decides to unravel the circumstances that led to her sister now being in a coma. As she does so, she isn't certain who she can trust, and some of the unsavory information she unearths casts part of the blame on her father. Teen readers will relish all the twists and turns of this well-written detective story ...more

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About Mary McCoy

Mary McCoy

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Mary McCoy is a librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library. She has also been a contributor to On Bunker Hill and the 1947project, where she wrote stories about Los Angeles's notorious past. She grew up in western Pennsylvania and studied at Rhodes College and the University of Wisconsin. Mary now lives in Los Angeles with her family.