Review: No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale - Friendship & Psychos

Title: No One Else Can Have You 
Author: Kathleen Hale 
Publisher: Harper Collins Canada
Publication date: January 7, 2014

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

Source: Publisher

Format: ARC

Pages: 384

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Small towns are nothing if not friendly. Friendship, Wisconsin (population: 688) is no different. Around here, everyone wears a smile. And no one ever locks their doors. Until, that is, high school sweetheart Ruth Fried is found murdered. Strung up like a scarecrow in the middle of a cornfield.

Unfortunately, Friendship’s police are more adept at looking for lost pets than catching killers. So Ruth’s best friend, Kippy Bushman, armed with only her tenacious Midwestern spirit and Ruth’s secret diary (which Ruth’s mother had asked her to read in order to redact any, you know, sex parts), sets out to find the murderer. But in a quiet town like Friendship—where no one is a suspect—anyone could be the killer.

No One Else Can Have You was one of my most anticipated books of 2014.. have you LOOKED at the cover? the synopsis? I love murder mysteries so all those things looked promising. Unfortunately as soon as I started reading it.. I noticed myself disliking so many things in this book and the best way for me to do that is to just rant. Brace yourselves people, this may be long: 

What raised red flags for me initially were all the psychotic characters in this small town: Every single character in this book had issues. I don't think there was a single character that was normal by human standards, but what annoyed me was that for them that was normal. How can a sheriff blatantly ignore clues that are right in his face and convict some dude just because he screwed with his daughter? how can a girl take advantage of another girl's death and bluntly start a fund in the name of the dead girl just to spruce up her application for colleges. How can a dad send his daughter to a mental institute just because she was grieving for her friend and tried to takes matters into her own hand and find the killer herself? how can everyone call everyone by their full name? WHY IS EVERYONE SO FREAKING WEIRD? 

There is also the writing & plot: Both just didn't sit well with me. Everything was written in a nonchalant way, as if we aren't in the middle of a murder mystery. Also, I can't really explain it well, but everyone acts in such a childlike way.. I could only attribute such behaviors to sociopaths.. the whole plot was SO weird.. and it was way too long and so many unnecessary detours were written up that had me scratching my head in confusion. oh! think the Joker and the way he behaves in The Dark Knight.. that's how everyone behaves. I honestly could not feel any sincerity or true remorse from any of the characters, including the main protagonist. Who the hell says for the eulogy that their friend was "Super duper".. during the FUNERAL? just.. *shakes head*  

Then there is the dad.. he seriously needs a whole paragraph on his own because he wins the award for the most infuriating character in book history. He was so overprotective of Kippy, the main protagonist, and always called her the weirdest nicknames that made me want to throw up. Some include "Pimple" (????), "Chocolate butt" and "Cactus".. like what the hell? and his vocabulary is mostly limited to "YOU BETCHA!" if I hear or read that word one more time, I am ready to go kill someone. If the author tried to make him look cool.. she failed because he was such so lame, annoying, and the last person I would label as a father figure. 

Lastly, is the overabundance of swear words and explicit talk in this book as well as Kippy's friend who passed away, Ruth. We get to read a couple of passages from Ruth's diary through Kippy and I have to say that is the only enjoyable part in the whole book. Ruth said it like it is but was also pretty messed up (having an affair with someone that is three times her age). It is a horrible combination.. the feel that this book might appeal to younger readers more because of the immaturity of everyone but not being able to recommend it because of all the swear words and explicit talk. This book gave me the weird uncomfortable shivers. I honestly won't be recommending this book to anyone and I'm quite sad that a murder mystery was wasted, since there are so little of those in the YA world.