I KILLED ZOE SPANOS By Kit Frick

I received this book for free from Reviewer Purchase in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I Killed Zoe Spanos by Kit Frick
Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books on 6/30/20
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 381
Format: Ebook
Source: Reviewer Purchase
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What happened to Zoe won’t stay buried…

When Anna Cicconi arrives to the small Hamptons village of Herron Mills for a summer nanny gig, she has high hopes for a fresh start. What she finds instead is a community on edge after the disappearance of Zoe Spanos, a local girl who has been missing since New Year’s Eve. Anna bears an eerie resemblance to Zoe, and her mere presence in town stirs up still-raw feelings about the unsolved case. As Anna delves deeper into the mystery, stepping further and further into Zoe’s life, she becomes increasingly convinced that she and Zoe are connected—and that she knows what happened to her.

Two months later, Zoe’s body is found in a nearby lake, and Anna is charged with manslaughter. But Anna’s confession is riddled with holes, and Martina Green, teen host of the Missing Zoe podcast, isn’t satisfied. Did Anna really kill Zoe? And if not, can Martina’s podcast uncover the truth?

Short and Sweet Review

Anna is in the Hamptons for the summer for a nannying job. Anna wants to move on from the party girl she used to be and have a fresh new start before college. When Anna arrives in the Hamptons in the small village of Herron Mills she gets a strange reaction from the residents, mainly because she looks like Zoe Spanos, a local girl who just recently went missing. Anna believes that she and Zoe are connected somehow and starts looking into her disappearance, but two months later when Zoe’s body is found Anna is charged with manslaughter. Anna’s confession is a mess and there’s a lot of inconsistencies, the only person who believes that Anna is innocent is Martina, also a local resident of Herron Mills and she has a podcast discussing Zoe’s disappearance.

This book alternates between the past when Anna first arrives in Herron Mills and the present where we see her locked up and Martina doing the investigating. Anna for some reason feels like she knows Zoe and that was the weirdest thing for me because when we read from the present POV when she’s in jail and taking the blame for murder Zoe was already missing when she arrived in Herron Mills and Anna had no idea who she was. That was the biggest thing that threw me off because I knew that Anna didn’t do it even though she is an unreliable narrator because she has blackouts but now it was just like who in this town actually had something to do with Zoe disappearance and murder. Anyway I felt bad for Anna because she was basically coerced into giving a confession and it was just so strange because she sounded crazy. Martina on the other hand was basically rocking the boat, outsiders may have loved her podcast but people in town thought she needed to leave things alone.

This was a book that held my attention because I wanted to know where things would go especially with Anna’s weird confession and Martina’s mission to find the truth. The ending was okay, I feel like people in small town keep big secrets that are eventually going to be exposed.