The teen daughter of a convicted murderer attempts to prove her own innocence after a deadly weekend getaway in the chilling and captivating YA horror thriller I Didn't Do It by Elle Gonzalez Rose (The Girl You Know).
It's been more than a year since Dina Soto's father, a "beloved soccer coach," was sentenced to life in prison after confessing to the murder of two teenage boys. The crime turned the Sotos into "villains" in their small town of Millcreek, and Dina's already overprotective Mami now insists that Dina stay close to home when not at school. Dina's only escape is volunteering at Sunny Hills Assisted Living, where she meets the popular, charming, Black and Puerto Rican Kai Thompson. When Kai invites Dina for a getaway at his parents' cabin in the nearby woods, Dina's attendance means defying her Mami and spending the weekend with teens who see Dina as the daughter of the man who killed their classmates. By the end of the group's first night at the cabin, the house is "soaked in blood" and Dina is the "only girl left standing."
I Didn't Do It is a taut, sinister thriller that pairs shocking twists with moving explorations of grief and fraught familial relationships. Rose makes skillful use of slasher-movie tropes combined with memorable characterization to create a distinctly suspenseful and emotional narrative that includes thoughtful commentary about prejudice and persecution. I Didn't Do It is a satisfyingly unsettling story for readers who, as Rose writes in the novel's acknowledgments, "find comfort in stories that take place in the dark." --Alanna Felton, freelance reviewer