To see my sister laid into the ground: BETH IS DEAD.

Beth Is Dead by Katie Bernet
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Beth March is dead, and there is no shortage of suspects, including her beloved sisters.

The four March sisters are famous thanks to their father's book, Little Women, which exploited their lives for literary fame. The book also killed off Beth, devastating her and making her both a fan favorite and a joke.

Beth is Dead excels at weaving in the original themes of Alcott's tale with a refreshed, rather graphic story. It plays on the tropes and stereotypes, accentuating certain traits of each sister. Meg is at Harvard, Jo is trying to hang on to a publishing deal, Beth is exploring boarding school for musical study, and Amy is reeling from a fight with Beth the night she died.

The problem is that the book goes too far, taking these character traits off the rails and eventually turning everyone into caricatures. The plot gives off whiplash, veering from one suspect to the next every chapter, without taking the time to fully the develop the characters, or allowing us time to care about any of them.

The book depicts what happened to Beth via flashbacks as the sisters conduct their (wild, uninformed, emotional) investigations. There are definitely moments that I loved, but overall this wasn't my favorite. 2.75 stars.

I received a copy of this book via Netgalley and Sarah Barley Books / Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers in return for an unbiased review.

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