Review: No One Else Can Have You by: Kathleen Hale

No One Else Can Have You by: Kathleen Hale (Jan. 2014)

380 pages

Genre: YA/Mystery/Thriller

Publisher: Harper Teen

Source: The Library

Purchase: Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository

Goodreads Summary: Small towns are nothing if not friendly. Friendship, Wisconsin (population: 689 688) is no different. Around here, everyone wears a smile. And no one ever locks their doors. Until, that is, high school sweetheart Ruth Fried is found murdered. Strung up like a scarecrow in the middle of a cornfield.

Unfortunately, Friendship’s police are more adept at looking for lost pets than catching killers. So Ruth’s best friend, Kippy Bushman, armed with only her tenacious Midwestern spirit and Ruth’s secret diary (which Ruth’s mother had asked her to read in order to redact any, you know, sex parts), sets out to find the murderer. But in a quiet town like Friendship—where no one is a suspect—anyone could be the killer.

My Review

No One Else Can Have You has been seen a lot around the blogosphere and with its unique cover I had to read it even though the reviews have been all over the place. This novel wasn’t really like anything else I've read before, and I enjoyed it a great deal.

No One Else Can Have You may not handle mental illness well, and it may depict small towns in a bad light, (Therefore, if you have a problem with these and aren’t ready for some gross things, it’s probably best that you skip this book) BUT I honestly believe this book was meant to be a satire, and by reading it that way I enjoyed it immensely.

All of the characters in the book bring a little something unique to the table, each one is different and are kind of crazy in their own right. The main character, Kippy, is snarky and always has something to say about pretty much everything, always making me laugh, even when I probably shouldn’t. Here is an example:

“Anyway, I’ve never really understood the whole candlelit-vigil thing. Some of the seniors put a few together after the school shootings down south, and from what I can gather it’s usually just a bunch of girls crying with all their might on purpose. The whole idea of people, like, weeping while holding fire seems irresponsible to me. Whenever I imagine vigils, I think of a hundred ponytails bursting into flames.” – Kippy pg. 111

The small town setting had me nodding in agreement. I lived in a small town for four years of my life and I can see where the snide remarks about living there came from. Not to mention my family is originally from Minnesota, so the Wisconsin setting and their phrases rang true to me. (Although some phrases were over used, which did get a little annoying.) I also want to point out that I know some people had problems with how dumb/irritating the cops are in this book, but there does turn out to be a reason for this, and well like I said, the book is poking fun at the whole "small town doesn’t know how to handle something big that happens routine."

The mystery of the murder and Kippy’s journey to discover who killed her friend was a laugh-out-loud adventure. I did end up guessing who the murderer was before the big reveal, which was a little sad because I like to be surprised, but it didn’t bother me too much. There are instances where the plot seems overly crazy/unbelievable and there was some predictability, but considering the type of book it is, a satire, it mostly just added to its charm.

Obviously I am in the group that favors No One Else Can Have You and would recommend it to others, but if I were you I would maybe read a few reviews from others that both love and hate this book to see if it is a good fit for you before giving it a try. This is one of those books that you are either going to enjoy or not, there really isn’t an in-between.