Review: If You're Out There

If You're Out There by Katy Loutzenhiser
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

🔎Book Review🔎
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A few months ago I found out that @malapropsbookstore has a shelf full of ARCs for those who spend more than $50 in a visit- cue literally the best day of the year for me. I pulled this copy from the shelf and I’m glad I did! This was close to a 4 star read for me.
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🔎Main Characters: 4/5🔎
Zan is our main character- a girl whose best friend, Priya, suddenly ghosts after moving away. Zan is hurt, but what does she do? She decides that foul play must be involved and decides to investigate. Zan, although a bit kooky and maybe unrealistic, is a well characterized MC who is entertaining.
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🔎Secondary Characters: 5/5🔎
One of my favorite parts was Loutzenhiser's secondary character development. She developed these characters so neatly and expertly- you just love them almost as much as you love the main characters.
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🔎Writing Style: 2/5🔎
I struggled with the pacing in the beginning/middle and was getting bored there for a bit, but that also could have just been the fact that the nerdy guys behind me playing Dungeons and Dragons at the cafe I was reading at were having a fascinating game.
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🔎Plot: 3/5🔎
The premise was a little odd to me at first- a play on "ghosting", Zan is confused and concerned when best friend Priya ghosts on her after she moves. Zan struggles to understand why Priya would do this, and begins to wonder if there isn't something more sinister going on. Overall, even though there were some mystery and thriller elements, If You're Out There still had that good summer beach read feeling with a great romance element.
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🔎Ending: 3/5🔎
If you can put aside some sense of realism, this was a really great ending. Clearly I found it a little unrealistic, but it ended on a sweet note and wrapped up really nicely.
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🔎Total: 17/25🔎 3 Stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Summary: (view spoiler)[ Zan and Priya have been best friends since middle school, and why not? Their moms were college roommates and long-distance friends until Priya's mom passed away and Priya moved to Chicago with her step-dad Ben, where Zan and Priya instantly re-connected. But when Priya moves to California and ghosts Zan, Zan is devastated. She throws herself into work and ignores everything else to try and hide her pain. However, a new boy in school named Logan begins breaking through some of her walls and the two become friends.

As Zan sees Priya's social media and gets increasingly more upset, she starts to notice some weird things- Priya doesn't sound like herself, she's posting old pictures, and she starts emailing gibberish to Zan. Zan starts to suspect that something is wrong, even though no one else believes her. Zan and Logan break into Priya's old house and even more clues turn up- something is definitely not right. In the midst of this mystery, Zan and Logan have a falling out when Zan pushes Logan's past too hard.

The two make up when Logan admits that something weird is happening with Priya and tells Zan about his addict mother who he took the fall for before moving to Chicago. All the pieces start coming together when Logan mentions how often "blueberries" come up in Priya's posts- that was the girls' secret codeword for something going on. Zan and Logan find out that Ben and Priya never did move to California, but went to Indiana to stay with Ben's mom. They find Priya but Ben (who had gone off the deep end), attacks Zan. Zan discovers that Ben was in a financial scheme through Priya's mom's charity, and when he cut out his partner in India, they started threatening his life, so he took Priya against her will and ran. With the help of Logan and Priya's long lost dad, Priya and Zan take down Ben and call the police.

Months later, Zan is taking a gap year in India working with the charity, Ben is at college, and Priya is living with Zan's mom. The two continue to stay in touch and promise to always be there for each other. (hide spoiler)]

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