Audio book review - Everything You Want Me to Be by Mindy Mejia

Everything You Want Me to Be 

Written By Mindy Mejia

Narrated By Caitlin Thorburn, John Moraitis, Jeff Harding

Genre Psychological, Contemporary Women, Suspense

Publisher Simon & Schuster

Release Date1-2-2017

Full of twists and turns, Everything You Want Me to Be reconstructs a year in the life of a dangerously mesmerizing young woman, during which a small town's darkest secrets come to the forefront...and she inches closer and closer to her death.

High school senior Hattie Hoffman has spent her whole life playing many parts: the good student, the good daughter, the good citizen. When she's found brutally stabbed to death on the opening night of her high school play, the tragedy rips through the fabric of her small town community. Local sheriff Del Goodman, a family friend of the Hoffmans, vows to find her killer, but trying to solve her murder yields more questions than answers. It seems that Hattie's acting talents ran far beyond the stage. Told from three points of view-Del, Hattie, and the new English teacher whose marriage is crumbling-Everything You Want Me to Be weaves the story of Hattie's last school year and the events that drew her ever closer to her death.

Evocative and razor-sharp, Everything You Want Me to Be challenges you to test the lines between innocence and culpability, identity and deception. Does love lead to self-discovery-or destruction?

✰✰✰ 3.5 stars for story

✰✰✰✰✰ 5 stars for narrators 

It’s no secret I'm a HUGE romance reader.  I love all things romance, BUT my second guilty pleasure is a good mystery/suspense/thriller.  I had seen Everything You Want Me to Be a couple of times and when I had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook I didn’t pass it up.  Everything You Want Me to Be is told in 3 different point of views.  Hattie -  the senior in high school (before her death), Sheriff Del Goodman (the head sheriff investigating Hattie’s murder), and Hattie’s English teacher Mr. Peter Lund.  Once I saw that Hattie’s English teacher was a narrator I was so excited because I love to read anything forbidden / taboo and since he had a key point in telling his story I figured there might have been some aspect of that going on.  If you read the synopsis you know that Hattie is found murdered, and basically, you’re taken on a journey of finding out who killed Hattie.  I’m not going to lie, I thought from the very beginning I knew who did it.  It wasn’t until half way through that I started second guessing myself.  I was shocked when I found out the truth to what had happened.

The book was very well written.  It continuously makes you think outside of the box and second guess your thoughts.  I like when I’m reading a book and it really makes me think.  Extra points if I can’t figure anything out at all.  For a debut, Everything You Want Me to Be was great.  It had many aspects of a good suspense book.  As I was listening I found myself not wanting to stop, so I can find out the truth to what happened to Hattie.  The writing kept me engaged, and the story left me hungry to keep listening until I finished the whole book. 

This is the second audio book I’ve ever listened to.  I wasn’t sure which audio book to pick, or what to really expect from the narrators, but when I listened to the sample of Everything You Want Me to Be I loved what I heard.  All the narrators were phenomenal.  Weirdly enough, they all portrayed their characters perfectly.  While listening to Caitlin Thorburn, she sounded like a high schooler, and made me feel like that’s exactly who I was listening to.  Jeff Harding hit the English Teacher personality head on.  He was great.  I believed his character through his words and loved listening to him.  Lastly, John Moraitis I think was the most believable in his character.  He sounded exactly as I would imagine a sheriff sounding.  He had a tone of authority, and I believed the part he played.  He did an awesome job playing sheriff. All three narrators were amazing, and fit perfectly to the characters of this book.  I enjoyed listening to them so much.  They really did a fabulous job in reading this story.

All in all, Everything You Want Me to Be was a great listen.  I recommend this audio book to anyone and everyone who loves a good suspense book.  I found myself listening while driving, cooking, cleaning, and doing anything else that required my hands.  I look forward to reading more from Mindy Mejia, and listening to the narrators again!

-Jill Mac

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