YA Weekend: #MurderTrending by Gretchen McNeil
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
#MurderTrending by Gretchen McNeil
Mogsy’s Rating: 1 of 5 stars
Genre: Young Adult, Thriller
Series: Stand Alone/Book 1
Publisher: Freeform (August 7, 2018)
Length: 352 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
I hate giving out 1-stars, and if you’ve followed me for a while, you may have already noticed you don’t see that rating here very often. That’s because even if I didn’t like a book overall, there’s usually still something I enjoyed about it. With #MurderTrending though, I think I’d be hard-pressed to find anything too positive to say about this hot mess. It simply did not work for me—on any level.
But first, here’s the book’s premise for some context of everything I’m going to discuss: It is the near future, and the President of the United States is a former reality TV star who thought it would be a great idea to outsource the justice and penal systems to a psychopath television producer known only by his internet handle, The Postman. Court trials have become a farce where anyone who is merely suspected of murder is pronounced guilty and sent to a prison island near San Francisco, dubbed Alcatraz 2.0, where every inch and corner is surveilled by cameras mounted on robotic birds. This live footage is streamed 24/7 to millions of viewers around the world tuning in to see the prisoners executed in the most brutal ways by federally sanctioned killers with names like Gucci Hangman and Molly Mauler, whose cheesy names and shticks are an attempt to drive up their popularity on social media.
The book follows Dee Guerrera, a teenager who was sent to Alcatraz 2.0 after being wrongfully convicted of murdering her stepsister. She becomes the next victim of Prince Slycer, one of the island’s executioners whose gimmick involves dressing up his executionees as princesses from Disney movies, immediately earning Dee the nickname #CinderellaSurvivor when she manages to escape his clutches. Determined to find her stepsister’s true killer, Dee teams up with other teens on the island in order to expose the reality of Alcatraz 2.0 and bring down The Postman.
Oh boy, where do I start? As an avid reader of sci-fi and fantasy I consider myself to be pretty good at suspending my disbelief. But this book was beyond ridiculous. If it weren’t for the over-the-top gore and violence, I would have thought this was written for six-year-olds on account of how juvenile and ludicrous it sounds. Even leaving aside the more nonsensical elements, in today’s world where you pretty much can’t show anything on the television without getting someone up in arms over it, the idea of a 24-hour snuff show garnering wide acclaim and approval from the public isn’t just eye-roll inducing, it makes me want to bash my head against a wall.
And then there were the characters. Had they been written well, perhaps I could have put aside my incredulity of the premise. Unfortunately, at no point in the novel did Dee actually feel like a real person to me. She seemed detached and strangely unconcerned with her circumstances from the moment she arrived on Alcatraz 2.0. Sure, there might have been a brief flash of “Oh crap, I am screwed”, but this was quickly replaced by her utter conviction that she will find her stepsister’s killer—even though she has absolutely no resources on the island, zero places to start, and every reason to believe she’ll be up next on the literal chopping block. Yet there was no fear or sadness. No hopelessness or despair. This isn’t badass. This is bad characterization.
But maybe, just maybe, these characters were actually meant to be caricatures? After all, there was a character whose one memorable trait was his penchant to quote action movies from the 80s and 90s, and even as his friends were dying slow torturous deaths, he was busy channeling Rambo during the rescue mission. I mean, something this fucking goofy has got to be a joke…right? In fact, this entire novel was so absurd and extreme with its irreverence when it comes to violence and death, I was half convinced it was supposed to be ironic. But try as I did to see this novel as satire—a playful mockery on social media and the American obsession with Reality TV, perhaps—it was probably giving it too much credit. If this was meant to be satirical, then the author lacked the delicate expertise to pull it off properly. There was a desperation in the way her narrative attempted to justify the premise (with very flimsy logic) or to endear readers to the characters (by giving them very annoying quirks), and while sometimes exaggeration can be used as an effective device, in this case it was a complete disaster.
There were so many other problems with this novel, not least the fact the story gets even more unrealistic and ridiculous towards the end (believe it or not). Suffice to say, I think I’ve covered all the major disappointments so I’m just going to wrap this up by saying I probably won’t be picking up anything else by the author. I’ve heard that being this insanely over-the-top is part and parcel of her style, and clearly I am not the intended audience.
The BiblioSanctum 
Yikes! This one is starting to fall off my TBR because frankly this is the second negative review I’ve seen for this book just over the weekend! And I think I would have the same issues. The more I hear about it the less I think it’s my kind of thing, so I’m glad I’m seeing these reviews lol! I’ve read Gretchen McNeil before and sometimes she works for me and sometimes not- this sounds like a not!
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i tried and tried to like this and just couldn’t do it! My ability to suspend my disbelief can only go so far 🙂
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I heard this was way over the top and maybe that’s what the author was going for, or maybe they’re just bad at writing, lol. I admit to being curious about it, especially since it’ elicited such a strong reaction. 🙂
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It might be a bit of both, lol. She no doubt was trying for over the top. Thing is, I’ve read some over the top books and enjoyed them, and so I think it’s definitely a matter of how an author handles those elements.
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Oh yeah, over the top can be fun if done right.
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Oh dear, this sounds like a howler! I liked the sound of the reality tv angle but I think I’ll body swerve it!
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Yes, I can kind of see it being funny in a way 😛
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Sounds like a real winner to me.
/sarcasm
Good job on putting up a 1star review too 😉
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It’s been a while. Let’s hope it won’t happen again for another couple years!
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Great review! It is difficult to put one star indeed! I don’t know for you but it usually happens to me with books that sounds really great but are actually nothing like their summary say they are… I did see this book on Goodreads and were considering picking it up well I am warned now XD
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Books that don’t live up to their descriptions happen to me all the time, but very rarely do they get the 1-star treatment. Usually I can still see some positives, but I just couldn’t in this case 😛
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Sometimes you can’t save the books lol
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Oh my! This sounds so bad that it could be fun – in a very twisted way, of course…
As I read your synopsis of the book I kept thinking that this seemed like a badly executed copy of Hunger Games, down to the 24/7 TV coverage and outlandish costumes. But maybe that was just my innate meanness talking…
Thanks for the warning! 🙂
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So bad that it could be fun was how I just barely managed to finish this. Except I wasn’t actually having that much fun, just curious to see how much more ridiculous it could get 😛
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I was worried you might not post a review, but I think you summed everything up really well. And the key here is “Not the intended audience.” I was so surprised that respected reviewers like Kirkus and Publishers Weekly gave this book positive reviews.
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Oh no, I was definitely going to write a review, lol! Where else would I get to rant? 😛
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oh it’s are to see you give a 1 star review…. I think I’ll pass there
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It really is quite rare. I think my last one was two years ago.
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WOW…yeah no thank you. I agree with Men above, it is rare to see 1s here
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I don’t relish giving them. But sometimes I just can’t help it…
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OK, I have to admit to LOLing when I saw your rating. I knew I wasn’t the intended audience after reading Tammy’s review. I’ve read Gretchen McNeil before (and I have also DNFed Gretchen McNeil before). I’m going to bypass this one. 🙂
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Yeah, I’m new to Gretchen McNeil so I had no idea of her style. Well, now I know!
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Man, I’ve seen rating and reviews all over the spectrum for this one. I have to admit, it does sound pretty far fetched. I read Tammy’s review as well and I mentioned that I would only pick this up when I was in the mood for something mindless and slasher-like. Now I’m even rethinking that. Thanks for sharing your honest opinion – it’s really appreciated!
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Yes, I can confirm Tammy’s statement about picking this up only if you’re in the mood for mindless slasher stuff. Emphasis on the “mindless” part, because this was just so ridiculous! 😛
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This sounds… very much not my thing! Whoa.
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I wish it had been more my thing…the description made it sound like something I’d like, but gah, who knew that would turn out to be so wrong!
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Yikes… The idea of this book isn’t for me to begin with, but it sounds like the execution is really poor anyway. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy this one, Mogsy. But your review is very helpful!
Have a lovely day. =)
Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!
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I’m glad I could help. I do wish this had lived up to its promise, but oh well.
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Oh dear – I don’t think I’ve seen a 1 star review from you before. Wow, defo one to avoid.
Lynn 😀
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I think it’s been two years since I put up a 1-star review. This book broke my streak!
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Haha whoa, this must be the first time I’ve seen you give a book 1-star! I’d seen this book around but didn’t realize it was that bad. I totally believe your criticisms are valid though…when you were saying that it’s unrealistic for people to indulge in reality TV killings, I thought, “What about Hunger Games?” However, when your characters are that bad and the plot is so over-the-top, for sure that premise won’t work.
Excellent post! I enjoyed reading this rare 1-star review. 😉
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The Hunger Games was pretty ridiculous too, if you think about it 😀 But I think the reason was able to forgive Suzanne Collins was because her world was far removed from the one we live in. Whether it’s supposed to be a dystopian future or an alternate version of ours, Katniss’ world was a very original creation, and she was able to have freer reign with the culture and the perspectives of the people in it. #MurderTrending on the other hand takes place in our world of today, or in the near future, and she even tried to emulate the tone and attitude of the current state of our social media. Gretchen McNeil either went too far with it or not far enough, either way she just couldn’t pull it off in a way that could convince me, if that makes sense 🙂
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Ahh, I see the distinction now. That makes perfect sense to me. 😉
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