What Happened That Night

Author: Deanna Cameron
Genre: Suspense
Type: e-book
Source: NetGalley
Publisher: Wattpad Books
First Published: Sept 17, 2019
Opening Lines: Bright yellow crime-scene tape blocked the Tomlins' property, looping around the telephone poles and their mailbox, on that Tuesday morning while my family prepared breakfast.

Book Description from GoodReads: Griffin Tomlin is dead. And Clara’s sister killed him ... 

Four months after the murder, the entire town of Shiloh is still in shock. For Clara Porterfield, the normal world has crumbled around her in a million chaotic pieces. Now Clara lives in a new reality, where her sister awaits trial for murder, her mother obsessively digs in a dead, frozen garden, and her father lives and breathes denial. At school, Clara is haunted by her classmates' morbid curiosity—and all of the unspoken questions they won’t ask.

But none of them knows what she knows . . .
Now Clara's sister wants something from her—the one thing in all of this that Clara isn't ready to face: the truth about what really happened that night. Because this story didn't die with Griffin Tomlin. There's another story that needs to be told. And sometimes, the lies we're told are nowhere near as deadly as the lies we tell ourselves...

My Rating: 2 stars

My Review: The old, battered barn on the cover grabbed my attention and, along with the publisher's blurb, I was eager for a creepy suspense read. There is a mystery surrounding a murder, but I thought more time was spent skimming along the surface of teen relationships than building a ominous suspense read.

Unfortunately, I struggled quite a bit with this story for a few reasons. First, while I appreciate the author's note of warning at the beginning, I wasn't ready to read the graphic rape scene. In fact, I put down the book for a couple of days but when I picked it up again, I felt underwhelmed by the plot and disconnected with the characters. 

It felt like Cameron wasn't sure what kind of book she wanted to write. A Contemporary Teen Fiction? Teen Romance? Mystery? Or graphic suspense read? The writing suggested it was a Teen read but the subject matter was too mature for that genre (in my opinion). The story teetered between being predictable and far-fetched (other reviewers said a couple of teens solving a mystery that stumped police gave this book a Scooby-Doo quality to it and I can't totally disagree). 

What Happened That Night has a good premise but suffered from weak execution in a few areas. With more depth, focus and tension, this book would have garnered a higher rating from me.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Wattpad Books for providing me a complimentary digital copy of this book, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.