She got her justice, thanks to us — and, thanks to her, we will always be watching the road, to see who might climb the hill and take the place of one of us. To see who might claim our guilt, so we could be innocent, too.

Mixed emotions. That’s all I have to say.

I discovered this book at Barnes and Noble last weekend under the “books to keep you up at night.” Can I say how much of a wimp I am? Normally I steer clear of these but the cover (again a cover deceived me) and the synopsis intrigued me.

On the outside, there’s Violet, an eighteen-year-old dancer days away from the life of her dreams when something threatens to expose the shocking truth of her achievement.

On the inside, within the walls of the Aurora Hills juvenile detention center, there’s Amber, locked up for so long she can’t imagine freedom.

Tying their two worlds together is Orianna, who holds the key to unlocking all the girls’ darkest mysteries…

The story flips between two people: Violet and Amber. Violet is a ballerina and if you’ve seen Black Swan you can only imagine how Violet acts. She’s an obsessed dancer, always wanting the attention on her and being rather judgmental.

Amber has been in prison for three years now. She loves books, describing the entire building in a lot of detail, and soon, Orianna.

Now Orianna, she’s about as perfect as perfect can get. Violet is jealous of her, Amber adores her. And yet she just can’t seem to see it. She doesn’t want to bask in the glory like Violet or stay quiet like Amber. Orianna is different.

The actual story has some faults. There’s so much exposition and long paragraphs that the book goes off course for a while just to get in some backstory that’s not really needed. I love a lot of detail, but at times, I just didn’t care and even skimmed over some parts.

This doesn’t mean the book is bad, it’s not even close. The writing is excellent. The way Suma writes attracts a lot of people and if you have to give the book one thing, it’s written beautifully.

Not one of us was truly innocent, not when we were made to stand in the light, our bits and cavities and cavity fillings exposed

What could have been a creepy thriller or mystery turned into something supernatural at the end. Hell, the ending confused the crap out of me. I had to go on Google. I should not have to go on Google to understand an ending to…well anything. But when I did start to see the light I looked back and saw the signs and it was kind of cool. Kind of still don’t get why it needed the paranormal.

I’ve read other reviews and many sum it up rather well: this book is for certain people, but not all. Many find it amazing with twists around every corner. A small percentage (I’m in there) could see the twists before it happened. Okay there was one I didn’t.

Where some people found it disturbing, I really didn’t. Am I supposed to? Is it the characters themselves and how far they’ll go or the tone of the book? There were creepy moments, but nothing to freak me out. This is coming from me, a big wimp. At the same time I got a weird feeling afterwards that’s hard to explain. This book is different there’s no doubt about that.

Overall, I do recommend this book. The writing and real characters are the best parts of the story. It lacks in plot, but makes up with the eeriness in setting. But words of caution: it’s not for everyone.