Book Review: Fix Me

From NetGalley:

Fix Me by Lisa M. Cronkhite; Publisher: North Star Editions; publish date: November 28, 2017

---

Although it is being touted as a mystery/thriller, it's more like horror/supernatural. Unfortunately, I had too many places where I couldn't suspend disbelief. I felt disconnected to the story in a number of places.

MANY SPOILER ALERTS:
If Pen hadn't called Jenelle, how would Jenelle have gotten into the story? Was that a supernatural occurrence or coincidence?

Even simple things interrupted my flow of the story, like some problems with the school the author created:

1. No punishment for cutting from school
2. Baloney that the librarian would let Pen off without a pass - twice

Factual applications of the use of drugs, even a made-up drug - don't match what would be expected… Drugs don't last as long as the author purports (up to 8 weeks in bloodstream). Even though this is fiction, I was distracted from the more realistic time frame of 3-6 weeks in urine and 3 days in blood.

Other drug side effects the author created weren't used consistently: for example, recurring visions of unknown people, even when a person is not currently high. But Pen has been on for a year, so wouldn't that mean that Pen would have had extra-Nate visions before now? What about the inconsistency of when Pen becomes nauseous and vomiting?

The police scenes are so unrealistic. Pen and her friends are minors taken to the police station without a guardian or a lawyer!

And why would the rehab let Pen out immediately after she just had what they think is a reaction to the meds they’ve put her on?

I don't think the story knows what it wants to be. Ghost story? Mystery? Realistic fiction with hallucinations? It wasn't the story that was a mystery; it was the editing. Ouch...sorry...