Review of The Killing Jar by Jennifer Bosworth

Title/Author: The Killing Jar by Jennifer Bosworth
Publisher/Date published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, January 12th 2016
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley, thanks!

Goodreads summary: “I try not to think about it, what I did to that boy.”

Seventeen-year-old Kenna Marsden has a secret.

She’s haunted by a violent tragedy she can’t explain. Kenna’s past has kept people — even her own mother — at a distance for years. Just when she finds a friend who loves her and life begins to improve, she’s plunged into a new nightmare. Her mom and twin sister are attacked, and the dark powers Kenna has struggled to suppress awaken with a vengeance.

On the heels of the assault, Kenna is exiled to a nearby commune, known as Eclipse, to live with a relative she never knew she had. There, she discovers an extraordinary new way of life as she learns who she really is, and the wonders she’s capable of. For the first time, she starts to feel like she belongs somewhere. That her terrible secret makes her beautiful and strong, not dangerous. But the longer she stays at Eclipse, the more she senses there is something malignant lurking underneath it all. And she begins to suspect that her new family has sinister plans for her...

So I was pretty excited to start this because the summary hints at dark powers and a commune that could also be read as cult and I'm both fascinated and very scared by cults, so it's always interesting to me when they appear in a novel.

Sadly, I have to say that The Killing Jar didn't really work all that well for me. I mean, the plot was sort of interesting, but I kept getting annoyed by the characters. All of them. Most of all Kenna and her mother and also her grandmother and everyone in the commune. I mean, holy wow, can we just say people kept making REALLY bad decisions? And I'm not just talking about the teenagers, but mostly about the adults and I just cannot.

I mean, I'm sorry, but Kenna has done something awful and her mother KNOWS this and also knows what caused it and then she just sort of keeps Kenna at a distance and doesn't tell her about this? I mean, WHAT? And then all of a sudden something else happens and Kenna's mom decides to send her to this commune? I mean, WHAT THE WHAT? Without really explaining anything she just up and leaves Kenna there and OMG I got so angry at this! I mean, can we say bad parenting?

And Kenna herself... Well, I'm just not a fan. I felt like she was just completely ignoring what was right in front of her and why was she not questioning things more at the commune? I mean, maybe I'm just naturally suspicious, but something was OFF from the moment she got there and she's just like 'lalala, I'm just gonna sniff flowers and sing and dance and well, maybe the people here are weird and they don't tell me anything about anything, but I'm just gonna ignore that'. And the way she handled things with her twin sister was just not ok. I get that she's confused because of all the shiny things they did show her at Eclipse, but seriously, you have a brain, please use it.

The only reason I finished this because I wanted very badly to know what was behind everything at Eclipse. And we're sort of told about it, but my curiosity isn't really satisfied with the answers we're given. I think I just feel like this could have gone a lot deeper into things and now it felt very superficial and just not what I had expected.

My rating: 1,5 stars