Rosebush Review

Rosebush by Michele Jaffe
From Goodreads:

Instead of celebrating Memorial Day weekend on the Jersey Shore, Jane is in the hospital surrounded by teddy bears, trying to piece together what happened last night. One minute she was at a party, wearing fairy wings and cuddling with her boyfriend. The next, she was lying near-dead in a rosebush after a hit-and-run.

Everyone believes it was an accident, despite the phone threats Jane swears were real. But the truth is a thorny thing. As Jane's boyfriend, friends, and admirers come to visit, more memories surface not just from the party, but from deeper in her past . . . including the night her best friend Bonnie died.
With nearly everyone in her life a suspect now, Jane must unravel the mystery before her killer attacks again. Along the way, she's forced to examine the consequences of her life choices in this compulsively readable thriller.

I had mixed feelings while reading this book.  On one hand, I really liked the thriller aspect to the book which reminds me of 80's and 90's teen thrillers I grew up with.  I liked that there was some diversity among the characters.  On the other hand though I really didn't like any of the characters very much.  It was hard to care which of the many characters would have tried to off Jane, because quite frankly I would have been tempted to send her sailing into a rosebush with my VW Bug if the opportunity presented itself one rainy night.

Rosebush is another novel that features rich kids behaving badly.  Maybe it's because I'm not a rich teenager, or the over-indulgent, over-schduled parent of a rich teenager.  Maybe it's because I'm tired of teens throwing wild, drunken parties without any real consequences.  In my day we had to drink in the woods, dammit!  There was nothing glamorous about it, we certainly weren't little mini-adults roaming around the great outdoors in designer shoes.  But I get that rich kids behaving badly is a popular trend these days, I'm just sick of it.  And the term "Freals" for "for reals" is used a dozen or more times than necessary.  It freals got on my nerves.  I grant Jaffe that teenagers are really that annoying though, which may be why I need to take a break from any YA books not featuring kids fighting to the death in a dystopian world. 

Rosebush wasn't all bad, it's got a beautiful cover, and there's many twists and turns along the way.  Jane has an adorable little sister and a bunch of potential love interests- most of the guys are appealing in one way or another.There are big mysteries, and little mysteries, there are lots of red herrings.  The ending resolves the major plot bunnies, but leaves one or two to possibly hop into a sequel.  The possibility that someone is trying to gaslight Jane, or that she's really going crazy was a nice touch too. It's all very dramatic, which is part of the reason I read YA.  I like drama, fiction wise at least.

Now, I don't want to spoil the ending for you, but I was a bit befuddled by it.  The hows and whys of Jane landing in the rosebush felt overly complicated and silly to me.  Do I think you might like this book, and would I recommend it?  For my younger readers, yes.  I think my 19 year old niece would like this.  For people who really like teen thrillers it's worth a read.  I don't regret reading this book although I'm unlikely to pick up any sequel.  I might even read Michele Jaffe's book Bad Kitty simply because I like the title. 

Rosebush gets a Midnight Book Rating of 9:30 pm (half an hour added on for the lovely artwork).