People of the Lake by Nick Scorza

The Quick Cut: A sixteen years old girl finds herself embroiled in a boy's death when she goes with her father to a small town for the summer. 

A Real Review:

Thank you to Sky Pony for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

 What happens when you spend an awkward summer with your dad that you don't have a good relationship with in a small town? Anywhere else but Redmarch Lake would be boring, where the people are odd and more than slightly off-putting. Especially when one of their own shows up dead in the lake. 

 Sixteen years old Clara has been spending every year trying to rebuild ever since her twin sister died at eight years old. Since then, it feels like a part of her has died and her relationship with her parents has suffered because of it. When she spends the summer in a small sleepy town her father's family has been in for generations, she finds herself puzzled by the strange manner of the people until she meets a boy she finally connects with. Too bad it's short lived and he ends up dead in the lake. How does Clara connect and what is really going on? 

 Truthfully, I didn't connect to this story. The way it started felt like you were dropped partway through the tale, which left me off pace from the start. The beginning altogether is very slow, which meant that I could not get into the characters or the story at all.

 Although I will say, this book did have some redeeming elements. The storyline about the sisters with their own language? I really enjoyed that part of the book and it's what grabbed my attention enough to pick up this ARC to begin with. 

 Unfortunately, this pacing left me wishing I was reading anything else. 

My rating: 2 out of 5