It’s time to review Message Not Found by Dante Medema, but first…

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Rating: 2 out of 5

Genre: Contemporary, YA

Reasons to read it: If you like light mysteries and heartstring-pulling stories. 

I was all for giving this book 2 stars until she picked Florida State University. Now I want to burn the book and pretend that it doesn’t exist… just kidding. Sort of.

To my writing friends… If you need to pick a school in Florida, it should always be the University of Florida. *dah dah dah GO GATORS!*

Joking aside, I was expecting a lot more with Message Not Found. Starters, I thought it was going to have poetry again. Not a lick of it. We still got text messages and other tidbits thrown in, but why not poetry as well? And I hate to say this, but I think poetry is where Medema thrives. 

Medema’s style didn’t come across the page as well this time. The beautiful images were missing. The great word choices were missing. A friend told me she bawled while reading Message Not Found, while I didn’t shed a single tear. Maybe it’s because I didn’t find the characters that likable. Maybe it’s because the book was very YA for me. Maybe it’s because I always saw Vanessa for what she was. 

I should have waited to read this book and given the high bar a chance to lower itself a little. 

Message Not Found was just not for me. I’m a plot girl and this book wasn’t really about the plot. It was a story based entirely on grief and the people left behind. How they recovered when the answers were not answered. And that’s a huge problem with the ending – too much suspense was built up for the reveal. When you promise something, you really have to deliver for your readers. After the ending of The Truth Project, I was prepared for something else. Something deeper. If I didn’t know differently, I would have said Message Not Found was the debut book and The Truth Project was Medema’s second book.

I guess you could blame the decline on the sophomore slump. 

Which means that the third book will shoot for the stars. *knocks on wood* I will read it if there’s poetry.

Happy Reading Friends

Love,

Kait