Review: Six Months Later by Natalie D. Richards

Title: Six Months Later
Author: Natalie D. Richards
Publisher: Raincoast
Publication date: October 1, 2013

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

Source: Publisher

Format: ARC

Pages: 336

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Chloe didn't think about it much when she nodded off in study hall on that sleepy summer day. But when she wakes up, snow is on the ground and she can't remember the last six months of her life. Before, she'd been a mediocre student. Now, she's on track for valedictorian and being recruited by Ivy League schools. Before, she never had a chance with super jock Blake. Now he's her boyfriend. Before, she and Maggie were inseparable. Now her best friend won't speak to her.

What happened to her?
And why can't she remember?

Contemporary mystery novels have officially become a favorite sub genre of mine. Six Months Later is a strong addition to this sub genre. I love how creative authors get with the mysteries but never cross the line to an absurd and unrealistic plot line. Six Months Later follows Chloe, a high schooler who wakes up one day in the library with no recollection of the past six months of her life.. and what is weird is that her life took a 180 degree turn. She is now top of her class, the top 1% percentile with her SAT score and is now miss popular. Frustration isn't the only emotion Chloe exhibited throughout the novel. If I was in her place, I would have gone crazy. 

What I liked about Chloe is that she was calm, collected, and didn't blabber on to everyone about her memory gap. However I kind of disliked her naiveté in reading people and the situation she is in. Maybe the author made the readers too observant but when Chloe would speak to people, sentences like "He's suddenly jittery and distracted. Shuffling papers and checking his phone" would always be present and very obvious to us. Chloe is making this observation, and it wasn't the first or last observation she has made that is like that so I kept on hoping she would confront these people but nothing, nada. I also wished she confided in her parents but her mother is a nightmare, she herself needs to get into therapy for her constant anxiety, so I somewhat understood her difficult situation. 

Reading Six Months Later was like watching an episode from a crime/police show (think The Mentalist if it was pre-death, or Criminal Minds) with that heavy feeling on your shoulder that something is up and something big is going down at the end of the episode, or book in this case. I always eat that up. I know I got frustrated in the process but I still needed to know what the deal is with the memory loss and the sudden shoot up of Chloe's IQ and popularity. Natalie D. Richards narrates it in a way that doesn't give anything away so you are seriously left making up the randomest and weirdest theories to try and figure out ahead of time what the plot twist is.. and no, I wasn't able to guess, at all. There is romance in Six Months Later and I thought it was very adorable and stomach butterfly inducing. The characters are all very mysterious, to keep them suspicious, so you don't get to find much about most of them but they all felt like they had a legitimate backstory and history that is purposefully kept away from us on purpose. 

I am a sucker for mystery novels, but I AM picky regarding them since I watch so many mystery shows that I can now accurately predict plot twists left and right. Which is why it is hard for me to really enjoy a mystery novel but Six Months Later was fantastic. I definitely recommend it to mystery novel fans. 

        Other books similar to Six Months Later:

        Truly, Madly, Deadly by Hannah Jayne 

        The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry