A Study in Charlotte [Charlotte Holmes, #1] by Brittany Cavallaro

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, you all. With the threat of COVID-19 now so close to home, I really hope you all are staying safe and healthy. Social distancing isn't easy, but it is necessary to keep this disease from spreading. 

Stay safe at home, everyone. And remember to wash your hands frequently! 

A Study in Charlotte [Charlotte Holmes, #1]
by Brittany Cavallaro

Genre: YA mystery

My Rating: ★★★★

Description:

Going to school in Connecticut wasn't Jamie Watson's idea. Not only is he going to be moving within driving distance from his estranged father, but Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the descendant of the famous Sherlock, who has inherited both his renowned intellect and caustic personality. It's awkward, and things just get worse when a Sherringford student ends up murdered. And it looks like Jamie and Charlotte have been framed.
Now, it's a race against time to find the killer and clear their names... before anyone else ends up dead.


Overall Thoughts

I liked this book. It's not a new favorite, but overall, I thought it was a great story, and I enjoyed reading it.
I had heard mixed things about A Study in Charlotte before I ever picked it up. In fact, I avoided it for the longest time because of some of the things I'd heard regarding content. While those warnings were definitely founded (this is not a book I would be recommending to young teens) it was still a good story and I genuinely enjoyed reading it.

The Characters

The characters were great. I enjoyed Jamie's narration of the events, and even though I tend not to like first person, retrospective, I did enjoy it in this book. I feel like the style worked really well for the story, especially since Jamie had a very unique and recognizable character voice and personality.
Charlotte was also a very interesting character. I can't say that I liked her all that much -- she's not a very likeable person, overall -- but as a character, she was well-developed and interesting.
The other characters were all over the place. I feel like a lot of the secondary characters got sidelined, without too much development. I also feel like several adults in the story sometimes didn't feel quite genuine/real/whatever -- their reactions didn't exactly seem human. But overall, those were really small portions of the book, and I still liked the characters overall.

Plot/Pacing

The mystery was fairly slow moving in terms of how the pieces were put together. I did like how active Charlotte and Jamie were in the plot -- they made the decisions, and those decisions propelled the plot forward. There was no "oh boy, we stumbled on this clue by accident, ha ha, how cool is that" stuff happening, for which I was very grateful.
The pacing of the book, however, was well done. I was never bored, despite the length of the chapters, and the writing style kept me engaged throughout the story.

Content (potential spoilers)

Recommended for ages 16 and up.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Drug abuse, sexual assault, rape, references to suicide.

Violent content includes a fist fight between two characters. Gun use. An explosion occurs at one point. Characters are poisoned. At one point in the story, a girl is attacked and it's found that a plastic jewel has been shoved down her throat. References to rape and sexual assault, which could be triggering to some readers.
Sexual content includes kissing, several instances of innuendo and a few references, as well as mentions of rape and sexual assault (as discussed above.)
Swearing includes several (maybe ten or fifteen) uses of the f-bomb, as well as other offensive language.
Drug abuse is discussed, and a character takes drugs (recreationally) at one point in the story. Discussion of drug dealing. A character smokes.