The Opposite of Here by Tara Altebrando

So here’s the thing about saying something like, “I don’t really like thrillers.” (Which is a thing I say.) Hard & fast statements like that are made to be broken.

Mine was broken most recently by The Opposite of Here by Tara Altebrando, a new YA thriller that I am obsessed with.

There’s no hiding on a cruise ship – not even from yourself.

Natalie’s parents are taking her and her three best friends on a cruise for her seventeenth birthday. A sail-a-bration, they call it. But it’s only been a few short months since Natalie’s boyfriend died in a tragic accident, and she wants to be anywhere but here.

Then she meets a guy on the first night and sparks fly. After a moonlit conversation on a secluded deck of the ship, Natalie pops down to her cabin to get her swimsuit so they can go for a dip. But when she returns, he’s gone. Something he said makes her think he might have . . . jumped? No, he couldn’t have.

But why do her friends think she’s crazy for wanting to make sure he’s okay? Also, why do they seem to be hiding something from her? And how can she find him when she doesn’t even know his name? Most importantly, why is the captain on the intercom announcing the urgent need for a headcount?

So here’s the thing. I’m already not a fan of cruises; I get seasick easily, the cabins are tiny, and honestly, the idea of being stuck on a boat for extended periods of time just makes me feel all sorts of anxious. So the idea of a thriller being set on a cruise ship, makes perfect sense to me.

The mystery of this book completely sucked me in, and I become so intensely determined to figure out what was going on, that I ended up staying up waaaaay too late one night to read this in a single sitting. And every time I thought I had it figured out … NOPE! Altebrando kept me guessing and on my toes, right up until the very end.

And speaking of the very end … HOLY PLOT TWIST, BATMAN! The last two pages of this book are what elevated The Opposite of Here from an entertaining summer thriller to a crazy insane book that I haven’t stopped thinking about since.

Seriously. Go read it, and come back so we can talk about it together! I’ll wait.

The Opposite of Here is the addictive summer read everyone should be talking about. Look for it in stores now.