BOOK REVIEW: Charlie, Presumed Dead by Anne Heltzel

This is a book review for Charlie, Presumed Dead by Anne Heltzel. I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. The scheduled publication date for this book is June 2, 2015. 

In Paris, family and friends gather to mourn the tragic passing of Charlie Price—young, handsome, charming, a world-traveler—who is presumed dead after an explosion. Authorities find only a bloodied jacket, ID’d as Charlie’s. At the funeral, two teens who are perfect strangers, Lena Whitney and Aubrey Boroughs, make another shocking discovery: they have both been dating Charlie, both think Charlie loved them and them alone, and there is a lot they didn’t know about their boyfriend. Over the next week, a mind-bending trip unfolds: first in London—then in Mumbai, Kerala, and Bangkok, the girls go in search of Charlie. Is he still alive? What did their love for him even mean? The truth is out there, but soon it becomes clear that the girls are harboring secrets of their own. 

Have you ever read one of those books where the ending made you say OUT LOUD: What. The. Hell? Yeah, that’s what this book did. This book had an awesome premise. Yes, there was a crazy love triangle. But since the boyfriend was presumed dead and the two girls were joining forces for revenge, I could get behind that.  The book told the point of view of the two girls, Lena and Aubrey. There were also a few chapters from Charlie’s POV thrown in. It took me a while to get into Lena and Aubrey’s story. First of all, they had way too many arguments about trust. Lena and Aubrey meet and the VERY NEXT DAY, decide to band together for answers about Charlie’s life. Both girls had secrets, about themselves and about their relationship with Charlie. Whenever one girl found out about a secret the other was keeping, the girl would cry and pout and talk about betrayal. Ugh. That happened way too many times. And let me repeat this again: they had only known each other ONE DAY before embarking on this adventure. Why on earth would you confess all of your secrets to a perfect stranger, especially when that stranger had been secretly dating your boyfriend? 

Despite all of this, I still became very engaged in their story and their developing friendship. They started getting to know each other and I felt like they really cared for each other. I loved that they placed their anger where it belonged: with Charlie. This could have gone in a horrible direction where the girls were pissed off and bitchy with each other, even though neither girl knew about the other.  The few chapters that had Charlie’s POV were just weird. His chapters went a little back in time to the point where he started cheating on Lena with Aubrey. I will try not to give away any spoilers, but this guy seemed mentally deranged. And because the chapters never went to far in depth with his character and because I only knew about him from Lena and Aubrey, I just didn’t get him. His actions were so far out there and I never understood what made him do all the things he did. He was a spoiled rich kid who was sent all over the world to different private schools. There was no reason for him to go as far as he did unless he was mentally ill.  But let’s talk about the ending. I can’t even deal with how messed up that was. I kept reading this story expecting some kind of closure or some kind of confrontation. WE GOT NOTHING!! Not only that, but there was a MASSIVE CLIFFHANGER with both Lena and Aubrey. Now I have never been opposed to open ended books, per se. It does depend on the circumstances, but sometimes I can understand it. But this wasn’t just open ended. I mean, this was straight up “where the hell is the rest of this book because surely this can’t be the end”. This book does not indicate whether this is a series or not. Honestly, I am not sure which answer would make me angrier. There is no reason to turn this book into a series, but then again, if this is the end, I just can’t deal. I did tweet the author to ask if there would be a sequel, but she did not respond at all. She favorited the tweet, but didn't actually give an answer. Arghhhhh!!! t swear, if this book weren’t on my Kindle, I would have thrown it across the room. My rating for the book went way down because of it.

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Skip!!!!!!