Review: A Night to Die For by Lisa Schroeder

Author: Lisa Schroeder

Publisher: Underlined

Publication Date: March 2022

 
All Mario wants is one normal night before he graduates. He's spent most of high school riding solo and gaming with his only friend, Lucas. But when his mom asks him to take Elana Dexter to the prom as a favor to her father, his mother’s boss, he figures this might be his chance to be less of a loner.

Only, the night takes a turn quickly. First, Mario gets crowned Prom King alongside the school’s it-girl, Maribelle Starr. Which is weird enough. But what’s weirder is that when they put the crown on his head, hundreds of worms slither out of it and all over Mario. Just when Mario thought the night couldn’t get any worse, he sees something on the side of the road while driving Elana home. That something is Prom Queen Maribelle Starr—murdered and left for dead.

All Mario wanted was to go to prom...but somehow, he ended up in hell.

In A Night to Die For, Mario finds a dead body in a ditch and ends up getting charged with her murder.  He says he is innocent.  There are several other people who had means and motive enough to kill hte prom queen.  This may get a little spoiler, but honestly I'm saving you time.  I don't really recommend this book.  I had just way too many issues with it.  

There were way too many perspectives in this book.  A few of them were completely unnecessary.  I listened to the audiobook  and it was narrated by a full cast.  Which was cool, but there were still too many. One thing I actually did like was Mario's friend.  He was a ray of sunshine and the only really likable character. The rest of them were stereotypes and annoying. I couldn't figure out if the author wanted me to like the victim or not.

Lets talk about the detectives.  There is no way that Mario would be charged for murder based on such minute evidence. No detective would arrest someone without really interviewing the crucial other person at the scene or do some ACTUAL detective work.   No DA would issue an arrest warrant based on one piece of small evidence.  Why did they not look for the victim's phone?  The reason behind the cop pushing for Mario to be the killer was awful and ridiculous. If this was real life, I would hope that man quit his job. I will say it again...never talk to the police without a lawyer.  EVER.  Also, tell your lawyer everything.  It will save you a whole lot of time and heartache. 

I wanted to throw this book across the room, but then I would have broken my iPod.  I predicted the killer very easily, I just couldn't figure out the how.  I think I could rant for a long time on this so I'll just end with don't bother with this one.  Save your reading time.