The Sound - Sarah Alderson

Page: 308

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Release Date: 1^st August 2013

Edition: UK paperback, review copy

Other Titles by this Author: Hunting Lila, Losing Lila, Tormenting Lila, Fated, Severed

He is out there, holding his breath as I hold mine. Ears pricked, eyes scouring the darkness. I can sense him there waiting, just a few feet away...

When aspiring music journalist Ren Kingston takes a job nannying for a wealthy family on the exclusive island of Nantucket, playground for Boston’s elite, she’s hoping for a low-key summer reading books and blogging about bands. Boys are firmly off the agenda.

What she doesn’t count on is falling in with a bunch of party-loving private school kids who are hiding some dark secrets; falling (possibly) in love with the local bad boy; and falling out with a dangerous serial killer...

I unexpectedly fell in love with Hunting Lila and Losing Lila last year so I was so excited to hear about another contemporary thriller from Sarah Alderson. The Sound didn’t disappoint at all.

The premise of an English teenager going to spend the summer as a nanny on Nantucket is a dream job: hot American boys, away from home and gorgeous sunny beaches. The added risk of a serial killer and the threat of danger makes The Sound irresistible. I loved how it went from light and funny to dark and tense in a matter of pages.

As well as capturing a vibrant and vivid sense of place, Sarah Alderson really knows how to write a budding relationship and sexual tension so sparkling I was left with stars in my eyes. Good God, Jesse Miller. I thought Alex from the Lila series was hot, but in comparison, nuh uh. Just, yum. He’s also mysterious, sexy and secretly a sweetheart and I fell in love; completely and utterly in love. I liked the way that their relationship developed; it wasn’t leaped into and it evolved naturally over the novel.

It took an unexpected and serious turn when Jesse revealed a dark secret about one of the people that Ren came in contact with on the island. I was thoroughly surprised and it wasn’t an avenue that I was anticipating at all. The darker turn was refreshing and it actually ended up being really quite a poignant turn considering a lot of what’s been happening around Twitter and the media surrounding women being attacked, in a variety of ways, and hopefully it’ll stretch the idea out even further and to people who wouldn’t usually take notice of it.

It’s obvious that I loved The Sound but there was a minor thing that niggled me. I thought that the pop culture and YA references were brilliant, but Adlerson got quite a few of the names wrong. I didn’t think that was very good and it really should have been picked up during edits and I think that if you’re going to name drop characters, their names should be spelt right; everyone knows Twilight’s Bella’s last name is spelt ‘Swan’ and not ‘Swann’ and that Damon is the dangerous vampire brother in The Vampire Diaries, not Damien.

Sarah Alderson is a master at writing sexy, compelling thrillers and I’m already looking forward to her next book.

For my 2013 British Books Challenge and 2013 YA Contemporary Reading Challenge

Thanks to S&S for the review copy.

Sophie