Official Review: The Body in the Road

[Sydney Lee]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Body in the Road" by Donna M. Zadunajsky.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The Body in the Road by Donna M. Zadunajsky starts with 17-year-old Sara driving through a storm to get away from home and her ex-boyfriend Brad. She can barely see through all the rain, but she can clearly see that something is in the road. Upon looking more closely, she discovers it’s a body of a girl, though further investigation shows that this body is alive. Preparing to get her help, she turns around only to turn back and discover the body gone. Not wanting to stay out in the rain and seeing there’s nothing more she can do, she gets back in her car and ends up at the town of Craven Falls. She seems to find a home there, but the body in the road doesn’t want to stop haunting her thoughts, strange things start occurring, and Brad might not be too far behind her. Did she make a mistake by staying in Craven Falls?

So this book is the third book in a mystery series, though you do not have to read the previous two books to understand this one. I read it just fine, though I believe there are some references to the previous two books if my research is correct. However, while there might be some spoilers for the two books, I don't think it would ruin the experience of reading them.

I’ve decided to rate this book 2 out of 4 stars for several reasons. The first reason being the multiple errors. Some of it was spelling, but also there were multiple occurrences where I would be reading a sentence and there would be a paragraph break for no reason before the sentence was finished. I also wasn’t fond of the writing style. It seemed choppy at times and there would be several uses of a question mark where there didn’t need to be one.

I also had an issue with how things were described in the book. There would either be too much description and there would be repetitiveness or there wouldn’t be enough in the descriptions. I felt there were a couple of times where Sara jumps to conclusions without much explanation as to how she came to her conclusions, like when she thought Edith might know about why Sara was in Craven Falls -- there wasn’t much explanation as to why she would think that so quickly. There were also many occurrences where the character would think something, then backtrack and wonder why she would think those thoughts. I can see this happening once or twice in a book -- it’s not unusual -- but for it to happen almost every time the character thinks something, it’s too much. Also, I have to note that there was a scene that disregards an earlier conversation without any explanation; that was very confusing.

But I give it my review because I still enjoyed some parts of the book. I liked the mystery portion of the book and there were times that had me nervous for Sara. I questioned some of the decisions that were made by Sara -- she took quite a few risks -- but she is a curious teenager, so her personality sort of fits in with the story. I do like the idea of the story, I just think the execution could have been better. My recommended audience age would be 16 and up due to some graphic descriptions and if the writing were better edited and more smooth, I’d recommend this book to people who like mysteries. But with how the book is now, it wouldn’t be a recommendation of mine.

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The Body in the Road
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[Vetto]

I love mystery books, despite the book having 2 of 4 I will definitely give it a chance.

[Sydney Lee]

I love mystery books, despite the book having 2 of 4 I will definitely give it a chance.

I say go for it! Maybe your experience will be different from mine. Thanks for commenting!

[PeterRabitt20]

You back up your ratings properly. When something is described too much, it can be just as bad as not enough description. The story does sound intriguing. Great review!

[Sydney Lee]

You back up your ratings properly. When something is described too much, it can be just as bad as not enough description. The story does sound intriguing. Great review!

Thank you so much!

[Mevin Nyamache]

I am a fun of mystery books looking forward to read this one

[Sydney Lee]

I am a fun of mystery books looking forward to read this one

I hope you enjoy it!

[Reader-247]

The story sounds really interesting yet the errors pointed out cannot be ignored. Thanks for an insightful review.

[Sydney Lee]

The story sounds really interesting yet the errors pointed out cannot be ignored. Thanks for an insightful review.

It was definitely interesting, but it could have been better executed in terms of the grammar. Thank you!