Margot Harrison

A unique and exhilarating mystery that asks, "Who killed the town's golden boy?"

We Made It All Up was unputdownable! This new YA thriller by Margot Harrison grabbed me from the start with its dual timeline of "Then" and "Now," told in alternating chapters. Harrison's writing style was easy to read, and the action and dialogue felt true to life. I could easily picture the characters and see the plotline's events as they played out as if I were watching them.

The five main characters – Celeste, Vivvy, Bram, Seth, and Joss – seemed genuine. I was drawn to each of them over the course of the book. Each was vulnerable in their own ways, all having experienced traumatic events in their pasts, and this informed their states of mind and actions in the story. However, the story unfolds from Celeste's point of view, and I found her backstory intriguing and the book's climax harrowing and exciting.

The book's setting is a small town in Montana where everyone knows everyone else and all their business. It is situated near a mountain riddled with an extensive system of caves. I loved that the mountain and caves played such an important role in the plot and they became almost characters themselves in the drama. I really liked the vivid place descriptions that once again put me right there in the story with the characters.

If you don't like figuring out "who done it" too fast, this book is for you; the plot had me guessing to the very end. So often, I thought I knew what had happened up on the mountain, only for the author to twist the story and change my mind. But in the end, the answer is plausible and was looking me in the face the entire time. I found the wrap-up immensely satisfying.

I highly recommend WE MADE IT ALL UP to readers who enjoy YA thrillers and mysteries.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author or publisher through TBR and Beyond.… (mais)

“All things are possible,” Vivvy said. “But you don’t know small towns, Celeste. You don’t understand what the sheer depth of boredom will drive people to.”

Thank you TBR and Beyond Tours for the chance to read and review We made it all up by Margot Harrison.

We Made it All Up is a YA thriller that was published by Little, Brown and Company on the 12th of July, 2022. It’s 343 pages long and already in the top 100 in two different Teen and YA fiction categories on amazon.

As Celeste moves to a small town in the US from Canada, she tries to just blend in. That’s really hard when no one new seems to have moved there for a hundred years (a girl is cheating on her boyfriend with her cousin of all things). She makes a friend in Vivvy, and the two of them write a fan fiction of two dudes in their grade, who seem to hate each other. As Celeste learns more about small town secrets and Joss ends up dead, she has to find out what’s really been going on or she might be in jail next.

As a whole, We Made it all Up is a good addition to the YA thriller/mystery genre. The way Celeste took the characters (in her story), Joss and Seth and spoke about her own trauma through those was really interesting. I loved Vivvy; she was my favourite. I totally called who the killer was 20% in. I felt so annoyed at Celeste’s parents, and in general, most adults in the town for just turning a blind eye to things for so long. The book was a little slow at the start, but when it picked up, it picked up.

I do wonder though, if had the genders of all the characters been changed, would the story have gone down as well? Two girls writing fanfiction about their male classmates is less sinister than two boys writing it about their female classmates.… (mais)

The most annoying thing is the whole absolute world is when you KNOW that you're right, or that what you're saying is true, and people refuse to listen or believe you.

A very close second is when people (usually parents) keep VERY IMPORTANT information away from the people it pertains, which always comes back to bite them in the butt. How hard is it to have those conversations with someone so you can introduce it gradually and make sure they understand??

So our poor Hedda heads out into the world of technology with no knowledge of why her mom dragged her away to an off-the-grid ranch for 10 years, and then is whomped by nobody believe her about the danger they're in.

Harrison does a great job of portraying technology as this kind of omnipresent evil, changing the actions and minds of those who use it. I felt Hedda's revulsion and confusion when she saw how much technology gripped the lives of those around her, but I wish that could have been explored a little more. There could have been some really interesting discussions.

OK, on to the plot: a big part of it is Hedda discovering that her parents are fallible people, with their own strengths and weaknesses. I mean, come one, she was on the Dark Web at age 6! That's so incredibly irresponsible and, yeah, negligent, of her parents to allow that. And then she goes crazy and is taken away from her life, left in the dark about all of it. She manages to transition pretty smoothly back into the "present" world, but discovers the game again, accidentally spreading it amongst her schoolmates. After some shocking suicides/murders, she teams up with a former friend to stop it all. I'm not going to quibble about it too much, because suspension of disbelief, but the idea of a computer code that controls your mind is pretty dumb.

Entertaining and a quick read, but not life-changing.… (mais)

Nina sees the Thief every night in her dreams. Unable to keep his secrets anymore, she travels to New Mexico with her former best friend Warren to stop the Thief in his tracks. But, of course, nothing is as it seems.

THE KILLER IN ME is a delightfully suspenseful tale examining the power of family and dreams. This book kept me up at night and stayed with me long after I closed it. This is a book to keep you up until 3 am because you can't sleep until you know what happens next. I can't wait to see what Harrison writes next.… (mais)