The Raising by Laura Kasischke

The Raising [**1/2]
by Laura Kasischke
**spoiler alert**
This book. THIS BOOK. I finished reading it at 11pm and my first instinct was to put my shoes on and take it across the street to the library drop box (yes I live across the street from the library, envy me), because this book! I had to get it out of my house immediately.

Okay, so, last year Nicole Werner was killed when the car her boyfriend Craig was driving went off the road. And of course she was blond and leggy and beautiful because that makes it much more sad than if she was fat and pimply faced. But anyway so she was killed in this car wreck and Craig was drunk or high, or whatever, but he was never charged with anything so now he's back for his sophomore year.

But oh wait, now we are back to last year. Because clearly someone took the chapters of this book, tossed them in the air, and then put them back together in whatever order they landed in.

And can I just stop right here to say what a great big pile of no this book is? Seriously.

But anyway so now people around campus have been seeing Nicole. In pictures, sneaking into their dorm rooms, etc. And Craig's roommate is taking a class about death and Craig is (obviously) depressed. And Shelly, the woman who came upon the accident, can't get anyone to listen to her and starts having an affair with a sorority girl, and ...

Ugh, I just ... Such a slow, tedious build up. Agonizing. And then [spoiler] it ends. I can't even ...

So minus one star for the mental anguish it caused me, and one because THIS BOOK HAS NO ENDING. Well, I mean obviously it ends, but it doesn't actually SOLVE anything. For serious. And minus another half because ugh, spoiled rotten, evil, over-privileged kids.

*I was not compensated in any way for this review. And even if I had been, it would not have been enough to cover the mental anguish and stress this book caused.