Killing November is a Young Adult novel written by Adriana Mather. The story is about a girl named November, who one day gets sent to a secretive and dangerous boarding school by her Father. The main plot of the novel is November figuring out, why she was sent to the school while also trying to stay alive. But by doing so... some things are better left unknown.
This story is the first in an ongoing series, with a second book already out called Hunting November which came out last year.
To be honest, I'm not an avid book reader, but I appreciate reading once in a while. However, with this book, I wasn't able to keep it down for more than an hour and quickly finished it in a week! I really enjoyed November's character and was quite surprised I enjoyed her so much. Usually from Young Adult books like these, the main character is often quite annoying and out of touch from reality in my opinion, but November felt real and likable. Her actions and thoughts made her feel like a real 3-dimensional person. In stories like these, whenever the character finds out about some family secret or whatnot- they always seem to figure it all out automatically without much questioning. November on the other hand spent most of her time at the academy figuring out these long family secrets that were kept hidden from her. She also didn't do it herself either and needed the help of both Layla and Ash (both side characters). The main setting (which was the school) was really fleshed out and reminded me a lot like Harry Potter.
At some parts, the story felt aggravating and annoying to read, because of how many limitations there are in November's world. At the Academy, an unspoken rule is that everyone keeps all their family secrets to themselves, make sense right? This got annoying when people started getting mean to November due to her family's past, which we don't know yet. It felt hard to keep going when these things were getting in November's way because at the end of the day we all want her to succeed! So I guess this is good on the authors writing, as she really evoked this sense of anger and frustration onto November and to the reader.
I also liked the slow burn between November and Ash as the story progressed, it didn't slow the story down and wasn't the main focus either. A perfect addition to the mix of events that happened in the book. It was really satisfying seeing them get close with each other and learning more about the lives they were raised in as well. Furthermore, the friendship with Layla and November was also really nice to read as they both started off awkward and cold towards each other but towards the end, they warmed up to one another.
Overall the story was really captivating and got me hooked since page one! I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested.
(submitted last night but resending in case it wasn't seen, made the proper changes that were suggested)
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