When 18 year old Hattie is found dead in a barn in her rural little hometown in Minnesota, everybody is shocked. Everybody loved Hattie. She is the perfect daughter, a great listener for her friends, and an exceptional student. Who could have wanted Hattie dead?
But who is Hattie really? She played a role for everybody in her life. Everybody got the Hattie he wanted to see. She was a master-manipulator and played everybody to serve her interests. But she wants to be her real self. I kept asking myself if there really was a real Hattie. Had she really a personality of her own or was she just – that. A girl who was just acting all the time because there nothing else there inside her. She showed all signs of a sociopath. Her lies and deceptions came back to her and literally killed her.

The story is told from 3 different points of views. There is Del, the sheriff who wants to find the one who did this to his best friend’s daughter; Peter, Hattie’s English Teacher and Hattie herself. First I found it disturbing to read from Hattie’s POV, knowing that she would be dead by the end of the book. I don’t like to get close to a character when I know their fate. But it turned out that I did not like Hattie. I could not connect to her and the story did not really tough me, It is a tragic story indeed and it is well written and an easy read. Hattie is an interesting and very realistic character. I just happen to dislike her. Her lack of personality and her manipulative way of threating people was just not very appealing.

It was an entertaining read. The story is not very unique; there are tons of books where young girls in rural towns get killed. But was an easy read and the author did a good job. 3,5 stars

The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman is such a bittersweet story. I found the hardest thing about reading this book was that I liked Hattie so much. She was such a likable character, such a sweet girl, full of life and with the whole life ahead of her. And, then she was brutally murdered. Someone took her life, but why?

For sheriff Del Goodman is this case especially hard, he has known Hattie all her life, her father is a good friend to him and now he must find her killer. I loved that the story is told through three different perspectives, Del's, Hattie's and Peter, Hattie's English teacher. By giving Hattie a voice does the story come to life, this is not an anonymous dead girl, this is a girl that dreamed about Broadway, about becoming a star. It's the saddest thing reading this book, knowing that she will never ever fulfill her dreams.

I have to admit that the ending took me by surprise, I had the killer all figured out when the truth came out and I was astonished. It was not at all whom I had thought it would be.

Mindy Mejia has written a heartbreaking thriller with strong characters and a great ending. I look forward to reading more from Mejia in the future! PS. Love the cover for the book!

Wow.......this was truly an amazing read.
Superbly written and had me gripped from the get go I could not put it down ...amazing feeling when a book gets you like that.
5 big fat stars and one which I will defiantly read again

One of my favorite things about a thriller or mystery is when you're near the end and you're convinced that you've figured it all out only for everything to be turned on it's head. With this book that happened twice. I loved reading this book and while i was initially unsure about the three different POVs i quickly realized that it worked excellently.

When I heard about this book from a fellow newspaper reviewer, I was immediately intrigued, as I'm a big fan of character-centric rural US noir from the likes of John Hart, Wiley Cash, Tom Bouman, early Gillian Flynn etc.

I wasn't disappointed. THE LAST ACT OF HATTIE HOFFMAN (which is sold as EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE in the United States) is an exceptional crime novel.

Within the first few pages you know you're in the hands of a talented writer who's on a higher level than most. Meija has a lovely style which flows along, threading in lots of subtext and detail about character and setting without slowing a good narrative drive. The way she evokes rural Minnesota life is exquisite. The small town surrounded by farmland, where high schoolers and teachers who dream of more than football and blue-collar jobs (eg art, culture, city life) feel isolated and strange. The plain-spoken, hard-working people who are used to the cycling of the seasons and death as an everyday occurrence, but are jolted to the core when a local teenager is murdered.

The novel is told from three perspectives: sheriff Del Goodman, an aging Vietnam veteran tasked with finding Hattie's killer; Peter Lund, Hattie's drama and English teacher; and Hattie herselve.

Switching between three narrators and jumping back and forth in time could be distracting or a clunky device in lesser hands, but Meija handles it all beautifully, maintaining the flow and building an ever-deeper picture of the last year of Hattie's life, and what led up to her killing.

Meija shows compelling insight into her characters, the complexities and depths of human nature. How good people can make bad choices. How people can be one thing to some and completely different to others. How things that can easily seem black and white are really smudged grey. All the characters in THE LAST ACT OF HATTIE HOFFMAN, from the three narrators to parents, family, and friends, all feel achingly authentic. And understandable - we get where they come from or how they ended up taking various roads, even if we disagree with their choices and actions.

A superb page-turner that delights with huge depth when it comes to character and setting. One of the very best crime novels I've read in the past couple of years. Edgar judges and others take note.

This story is told from three points of view. Hattie, Peter and Del, the Sheriff. It is a good psychological thriller with a good pace and well written. The characters all had their little flaws. The book is about Hattie's last year in school and the events which led to her death. A very entertaining and easy to read book. Thank you Net Galley for my copy. I reviewed on Amazon and Goodreads.

I found this novel intriguing and a good read, with some interesting characters and a satisfying ending.

I really enjoy novels that are told from multiple perspectives, and The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman is told from three - Hattie herself, local English teacher Peter, and police officer Del. Each have a different part to play in this story, which combines suspense, mystery, relationships and murder. It's an interesting story, and one that I can't really say much about without giving too much away.

Hattie herself isn't always the most likeable character; she has her faults, as do all the characters really, but you're nevertheless rooting for Del to uncover what's happened to her. The story hops back and forward in time - obviously Hattie's narrative is before she's killed (no surprise there!) whilst Peter and Del's move between the past and present, revealing more about the situation surrounding Hattie's disappearance.

Around the middle of the book I found the story slowed down a little and I wasn't sure what to think, but it soon picked up again and by the end (ah that ending!) I was hooked once again.

This feels like a slightly different style to many other psychological thrillers - you get a more rounded impression of the events surrounding the murder and an insight into what life, and growing up, must be like in that small American town. You learn more about Hattie's relationships and friendships, and her state of mind. Everyone seems to have a different impression of Hattie, but is that because she changed with different people without realising, or is it all intentional? Is she as innocent as many thought?
The characters are interesting and well-crafted, and some are more likable than others, which gives it a more convincing feeling. The story is easy to read and I enjoyed finding out more. I would recommend this novel; it had the right levels of suspense, description and mystery to keep me intrigued!

Who is Hattie Hoffman and why would anybody want to kill her? Being set in the American Midwest the story truly felt different. So easily it could have fell into that Twin Peaks vibe but it's more than a story about small town teenage angst. The Scottish Play could be seen as a metaphor of sorts for the events surrounding Hattie's death and having her narrate part of the story is interesting. The twists are perhaps in a couple of cases a bit of a stretch and the end feels a tad rushed but this doesn't take away the atmosphere the story creates and the author has really done a fabulous job. Between right and wrong is were truth lies and in this book the author shows great skills at showing how real life is shades of grey!

review to follow once I've mulled this over a little more. I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hope to but I did like the way the plot twisted...

This novel is a murder mystery set in a small Minnesota town. 17 year old Hattie was an inspiring actress who had plans to move to New York as soon as she could. However, when she is found murdered, its up to family friend and Sheriff Del Goodman to solve the murder.
This novel is told through three points of views. We follow Del as he solves the murder in the present day, and we also read Hattie and her English teacher's perspectives from the months leading up to her death. This split perspectives works well in this novel, the split timeline also leaves the puzzle unsolved for a long time, it takes a large part of the novel before all the pieces fit together.
This novel definitely has elements of the psychological thriller about it. The split perspectives, which create a tension and mystery in the novel, and the mystery around Hattie and her 'true' persona created this feel to the novel, and I have seen this novel compared to Gone Girl, and there are similarities, not in plot but in the thriller aspects.
Hattie is a fascinating main character, because she isn't honest to anyone you never know whether you are actually seeing the 'real' Hattie in her perspectives or not. This unreliable narrator adds another layer to the narrative as you have to take everything you are told with a pinch of salt! Mejia also deserves praise for her excellent writing of a 17 year old girl. Some authors struggle to accurately replicate the voice of a 17 year old, but I think Mejia has got it exactly right in this instance.
If you are looking for an exciting 'who-dunnit' this isn't the novel for you. There are very few suspects from the beginning of the novel, it is more about piecing the events together, and less about the big reveal of the murderer.
This novel also wasn't the quickest read, the first 70% or so was quite slow, the pace of the novel only picked up in the last 30%, and I was a little disappointed that I wasn't drawn further into the story than I was.
Overall I enjoyed this novel, it was an interesting story about a murder in a small town where everyone knows everyone, with some interesting twists and turns within. However it just didn't draw me in, it felt slow paced and laboured at parts.

We know that things are not going to turn out well for Hattie as she is found dead in a barn within the first few pages of this book. The mystery is how she got there and who killed her.

Hattie is a teenager who enjoys acting, but not just on the stage, her whole life is a series of parts played to whoever is around at the time. This may be true of most people; we are different people for our colleagues, children, partners and parents, however Hattie is more scheming, purposely developing a character for a particular audience.

Unfortunately for Hattie people get hurt and they are not always going go along with her stage directions. I don't want to spoil the story as it is a great read. I swallowed all of the red herrings and thoroughly enjoyed the last few chapters as my suspicions were regularly confirmed and then rubbished. It is one of those books you can keep finding time to read, and I will be recommending it as a good summer read.

there is emerging with more skill than ever the tale told by an unreliable narrator - and in this one, it is even further elaborated - Hattie wants to leave the small backwater town, for NY, and she is found murdered. the daughter of the local sherriff's best friend, Del Goodman cannot bear to think what's happened - a revealing story emerges involving unhappy marriages and secrets - and then it all comes unravelled into the very last pages of the novel - clear and focused characters, with a variety of voices after someone else appears, make this a pretty gripping read that's for sure. really impressive

This multiple character viewpoint novel frequently makes for uncomfortable reading, but the story is all the better for it. The characters are complex and all too believable. I was pleasantly surprised by the ending. Overall, this is a story-telling triumph.

I really loved this story, and found myself reading it well into the night. The main protagonist was so well drawn that I felt I knew her, and although you know her fate from the beginning a part of you still hopes that maybe it isn't true. I was desperate to get to the end and find out who the culprit was, although the story still had some twists and turns even at the very end. This book is very well written and is a satisfying and enjoyable read. Definitely a tear jerker in places too.

“The first and most important lesson in acting is to read your audience. Know what they want you to be and give it to them."

Hattie has ambitions to be an actress and leave behind her small-town upbringing for life in the big city. She’s so used to acting a part that she has begun to believe she can control everyone around her; that she can see how everything will unfold, as if in a play. The trouble is the other people involved don’t know they’re just a character in her play; they don’t know it’s not for real. It’s what has caused her to end up dead.

Told from the perspective of three different characters, including Hattie herself, the reader gradually learns more about the events leading up to Hattie’s death and, eventually, the reason she was murdered. As the novel progresses, the unintended consequences of Hattie’s manipulations become apparent to the reader, in a way they were not to Hattie, providing a number of plausible possible suspects for her murder. The reveal at the end brings the story to a satisfying conclusion. Personally, I didn’t feel that Hattie came across as purely manipulative but rather as a needy person, seeking approbation and acceptance by others and feeling the only way she can achieve this is by being whatever they want or need her to be – perfect daughter, perfect girlfriend, perfect student. In this way, her premature death becomes extra sad. This is a really well-written, satisfying psychological thriller.

I simply loved this book! It was an easy but addictive read, well written, with realistic and masterfully drawn out characters and a brilliant plot. It had everything - murder, love, betrayal, secrets, lies, police procedural and much more. I wish I was just starting to read it - absolutely brilliant! I can't stop thinking and talking about it.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

If you only read one book this year it has to be The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman. I absolutely loved this book from start to finish. I sat down to read for an hour, 4 hours later I was still reading away. I loved the setting, the characters, the story, infact I just loved it all. I have nothing bad to say about this book. The story is so engrossing, I loved the character of Del who is the town's sheriff and Hattie's Dad's best friend. You could feel his pain and determination to find out who killed Hattie. I thought I had guessed who done it but I was wrong and actually really happy about it. I really dont know what to do with myself now and need to have a book night off. Hattie will be with me for a while. Highly recommend this book and even though its only January this could very well be my book of 2017.

I LOVED this book - feels like a cult read in the making. Will be recommending his to everyone I know!

Did not really enjoy this one. Plot was very predictable and I knew who the culprit was very early on in the book. Had hoped I was wrong, but I was not. Writing was sloppy and jumbled.