With Malice by Eileen Cook student book review by Alyssa

With Malice is the sort of book that, when you finish it, you’ll have to sit there for a few minutes completely blown away by how it ended. It follows the story of Jill Charon, a senior in high school who was accused of murdering her best friend while on a trip in Italy - but has no memory of the entire trip. Throughout the novel, Jill is faced with undeniable evidence that she was, in fact, the murderer: a motive, involving jealousy and a boy; fingerprints; even bystander confirmation; despite the fact that she knows in her heart that there is no way she would hurt Simone, let alone kill her.

The evidence in the story, for one, was very well written. As I went through the novel, I ended up going back and forth multiple times about whether or not I thought Jill was guilty, and by the end they had me so convinced of one side that I was amazed with how it actually turned out. Additionally, the relationship that is built between Jill and Simone was very well done, as I found that, through the use of not only Jill’s perspective and memories, but small excerpts of files from the police including interviews with classmates and others who had gone on the trip, I was able to form a good idea of both their personalities. I found it interesting how there was a lot of play on the bias of the mind, and the untrustworthiness of memories, and Jill had to figure out not only how to get her memories back, but whether the memories were actually real, or influenced by outside sources.

Some things to generally be aware of in regards to the maturity of the book is there are a few sexual references and descriptions of gore. The main character also goes through a lot of psychological trauma, especially with the negative media attention and truth of what she’s told she did. However, although that does affect the age range for the audience, I found that the brutal reality displayed in the book really enhanced the meaning of it, and that the book painted a seriously intriguing story that would be great for free reading.