Review: Hanging by a Thread by Sophie Littlefield - Juhina

Title: Hanging by a Thread 

Author: Sophie Littlefield

Publication date: September 11, 2012
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Genre(s): Young Adult (Paranormal/Mystery)

Source: NetGalley
Format: Digital ARC

Pages: 288

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Summer is the best part of the year in Winston, California, and the Fourth of July is the highlight of the season. But the perfect town Clare remembers has changed, and everyone is praying that this summer will be different from the last two—that this year's Fourth of July festival won't see one of their own vanish without a trace, leaving no leads and no suspects. The media are in a frenzy predicting a third disappearance, but the town depends on tourist dollars, so the residents of Winston are trying desperately to pretend nothing's wrong.

And they're not the only ones hiding something.

Clare, a seamstress who redesigns vintage clothing, has been blessed—or perhaps cursed—with a gift: she can see people's pasts when she touches their clothes. When she stumbles across a denim jacket that once belonged to Amanda Stavros, last year's Fourth of July victim, Clare sees her perfect town begin to come apart at the seams.

In a town where appearance means everything, how deep beneath the surface will Clare dig to uncover a murderer?

Hanging by a thread is a murder mystery novel with a touch of paranormal. We’ve got our main protagonist, Clare, who has recently moved back to her mother’s hometown. Town is an exaggeration; it is more like a cluster of people living within each other’s earshot. Which is why everyone was shocked when a murder occurred in two consecutive years. The whole town is scared, which is why when Clare and her mom moved, the town wasn’t welcoming. This is mainly due to the fact that her family line has been known to be a little too para-normal, with creepy freaky things happening. No outsider knows but when Clare touches someone’s clothes, she can remember the darkest, most wrongful thing the wearer has committed. Convenient for a town that has witnessed two murders right? That’s not what Clare thinks. She just wants to be normal and enjoy designing and sewing her line made form vintage clothes. 

I really enjoyed Clare’s voice. She wasn’t whiny, but life has handed her an unfair hand. She is physically, emotionally, and mentally suffering by getting involved in figuring out who is the murderer, but her guilt would eat her up if she doesn’t. I also really liked the mystery behind it; In all honesty I couldn’t guess who was the murderer until the very end. Also, you get to witness a little of the dark side of every connected character in the novel when Clare touches a piece of their clothes. This definitely added an aura of mystery and distrust for every character; even the one Clare has started to develop a crush on. 

The author’s writing was not complicated at all. You get so sucked into the story and there are no complex words to get in the way of your reading. The build up of the plot and the addition of this paranormal theme to a mystery novel all added up my enjoyment level while reading Hanging by a Thread. I would definitely recommend it to all young adult lovers. You get a bit of contemporary, paranormal, and mystery all in one book you don’t want to miss out on!