Don't Scream by Joan Lowery Nixon

This mystery thriller follows a high school senior named Jessica Donnally who lives a pretty normal life until 2 new kids enroll in Jessica's school who go by the names of Mark Malik and Scott Alexander. One of them, Mark, move into Jess's neighborhood. She grows a liking into Mark, and her best friend, Lori, grows a liking to Scott. Life is pretty normal for Jess at this point until her grumpy neighbor's cat and Jess's beloved cat disappear almost too coincidentally. Now she has to deal with the struggle of keeping her grades up, helping a young boy named Ricky, finding out the truth of the mysterious disappearance of these 2 cats, and the increasingly strange behavior of both Mark and Scott.

This book offers a mysterious story about 2 boys who grow increasingly stranger and stranger. The book takes a while to build up the suspense, but when it does, you're left desperate to finally know the truth about these 2 strange boys. The book is a bit slow in the beginning, but by the middle it really picks up it's pace and in the end is an extremely good mystery thriller and I would really recommend it to anyone who takes a liking into mystery books. This one's not the most complex mystery book out there, but it still is one that I much enjoyed.

Reviewed by Rolan, Grade 9
Glendale Central Library