And here is your one warning:
It begins with Deena and Jade hanging out while Jade makes her hair more shiny with Jell-O. I don't quite get it, but her mom is a stylist and it works, I guess.
They decide to add some excitement to their lives by prank calling all of the hottest boys. Then Deena describes her sexy yet semi-criminal half-brother who will be coming to live with her. There are some slight incestuous tones (eww) but Jade is instantly in love with the strange, troubled guy.
Chuck (danger-brother) is almost instantly seen as a hero as he saves a little boy's puppy from an exploding car on the way home from the airport. <3 But he's got an attitude problem.
It seems as though Jade and Deena spend a lot of time together. But don't worry, there's nothing sexy there. Hot Jade is always described as wearing jumpers.
They decide to make more prank calls, and Chuck eavesdrops and picks on the girls, especially poor lonely Deena whose only connection with the class hunk is whispering sweet nothings to him over the phone. But Chuck has a better idea!
He decides to first call a bowling alley. I was half expecting him to use my old prank call:
Yeah, no. Dude called in a bomb threat. The girls go cray cray like "THAT'S ILLEGAL!" But no worries for Chuck - Caller ID doesn't exist yet. Fun side note: There was an article in the paper about the bomb threat and our old friend Cory the gymnast was one of the poor souls evacuated because he was bowling when the threat came in.
On another night when Deena's parents are mysteriously out of the house (AGAIN! Do these teens have no supervision?!?) Chuck calls a house on Fear Street and a woman answers. She's yelling and scared and needs help/ These kids are her last hope! So they do the logical thing: Call the police Drive over to Fear Street to break into her house (884 Fear Street, if you're keeping track). They get to the house to find Mrs. Farbersen, the screaming lady, on the ground dying. Big Scary Man (tm) in a ski mask comes down the stairs and Chuck throws a knife at him so they can escape. A car chase ensues, and the kids make it home.
Police come, arrest Chuck for having prints on the knife, and question Deena. Blah blah blah. Then the next day. we are re-introduced to Cher Lisa (also from The New Girl) as she tries to get Deena to do an exclusive interview for the school paper.
The story goes on and on with Deena and Jade trying to find evidence clearing Chuck. They find a few things that we in real life know wouldn't hold up in court, but teens in books are dumb and think they have the key. At one point, Mr. Farbersen is interviewed on TV and OMG HIS VOICE IS THE SAME AS SKI MASK GUY!!! It's at this point anyone with half a brain realizes that Mr. Farbersen killed his own wife!! But it drags on a bit as the girls gather non-evidence and whine a lot.
And it keeps dragging on. Deena visits Chuck in jail, Chuck says he'd go to the Farbersen house if he were out, then the light bulb goes off in Deena's head.
Jade and Deena go to the house, Ski Mask guy (a.k.a. Mr. Farbersen) catches them, cops come because of being psychic, and all is well in the world. Jade and Chuck hook up, Deena and Hunk agree to go do some coke together, the end.
Here we are at the end, and I need to give a rating. This wasn't as exciting as the last one. Story was good, writing was good, but the real killer was so predictable way early. From that point until the end, it seemed like a lot of filler content. So, my rating for The Wrong Number is...
THREE Q-STARS!
Plus points for good writing and action scenes being pretty dang fun. Minus points for trying to stretch a short story into a full novel.
If your're interested in reading this book, please consider using my Amazon affiliate link. I'm not paid or sponsored for this review. It's all just for fun.
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