Review: The Last Good Place of Lily Odilon by Sara Beitia

Jan 16, 2011 by shanyn

Title: The Last Good Place of Lily Odilon
Paperback, 312 pages
Author: Sara Beitia
Publisher: Flux
Publication Date: October 1, 2010
Source: Publisher
Buy: Amazon

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Book Summary:
We’ve been over this, he says. We have to get to her first.

I know! Olivia snaps. I’m keeping company with a suspected murderer and I’ve probably become an accessory at this point, and a runaway besides. So don’t tell me what I need to do. I’m doing it.

Lily Odilon—local wild child from a small Idaho town—has vanished after spending the night with her sometimes boyfriend, new kid Albert Morales. Suspected in her disappearance, Albert sets out to discover what happened to her. Kidnapped? Runaway? Murder victim?

Joining Albert is Lily’s prickly younger sister, Olivia. Their distress is mirrored in a fastpaced narrative that jumps through three timelines. Each thread adds a new level to the mystery and reveals clues that paint a startling picture of all three teens. Theirintertwined destinies come to a head in an unconventional climax.

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Review:
The Last Good Place of Lily Odilon reminded me a lot of Paper Towns by John Green, and this comparison is actually mentioned in the book’s press release – so I am here to say that this is very accurate.

Our plot consists of a girl going missing (like Paper Towns), and her best friend looking for her (like Paper Towns). The process and adventure, of course is different – poor Albert in this book doesn’t have much to go on at first, and it gets pretty intense because we find out much more about Lily’s past and how this has affected her and possibly forced her to run away.

The cover of this book is very nice, and the writing is as well. It skips back and forth between the past and the present, from what Albert is thinking and what has happened. At some points this got to be a little long winded for me, but overall I enjoyed this book and had no trouble reading through the longer passages to get to more action.

Towards the end you assume you know how everything is going to pan out, but it’s likely you haven’t got it exactly, which adds a little quirk to the book. The end is not really how I expected it to be at all – and I’m not sure if I’m a fan of it or not… though I think I like it.

Buy: Amazon

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