Blood Donor by Karen Bass [book review]

Blood Donor book Summary

Blood Donor is a YA thriller that follows seventeen-year-old Jo McNair. She’s only one minute late from curfew and her parents lock her out of the house. She has no money and nowhere to go. After a few hours of wondering, someone introduces themself as someone who helps homeless kids get back on their feet. Granted Jo isn’t homeless but she needs somewhere to stay. She follows the woman back to the shelter only to find out she walked into a trap. Jo and other teenagers are being held captive, drugged, and forced to donate their blood. What’s so special about their blood? Will anyone even notice she’s gone?

What I thought about Blood Donor

I actually picked up Blood Donor off of NetGalley one because of the cover and two I love YA thrillers. I always find them exciting and wanting to read more. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get that excitement with Blood Donor. For this type of book, I kind of feel like the whole story needs to be a little bit longer than what it was.

The Character(s)

Throughout the whole story, we only get the perspective of Jo McNair. She seems like she’s strong mentally especially for a seventeen-year-old. On top of that, she seems like she’s the type of girl that’s fully able to take care of herself on her own. I know I know, how is she good at taking care of herself if she’s the one that got herself stuck in this situation in the first place. Considering this is something that could have been avoided by her parents in the first place. I understand there need to be rules for kids and consequences when they don’t follow them, but that doesn’t mean you should leave them out on the streets.

On top of that, I feel like most seventeen-year-olds would fall into a trap like this. Especially if the person who is trying to help actually looks trustworthy then it’s something I would probably fall for. It’s hard to judge someone who actually looks nice even though nice people aren’t always nice.

My only thing with Jo is the fact that we don’t really get to know her well. We hardly get to know her at all. I blame this on the fact that the book is short and probably could have used an extra hundred pages. The story is a bit rushed and in return, Jo is lacking a little bit. She doesn’t have a lot of depth even though we get the idea that she’s able to take care of herself. I mean she kind of has to if they are willing to leave her out on the streets after being one minute late.

The Plot

Going off of what I said earlier, the story is pretty short. There’s nothing wrong with short books but certain books, especially ones like this, need to be a little bit longer. Thrillers need details and a lot of them. On top of that, there needs to be some sort of character development within the story which doesn’t really happen. Jo doesn’t seem to have any growth at all other than learning that she probably shouldn’t trust anyone. I can’t really blame her for that though.

I wish there were some details about her parents to start off with. Why is her dad so controlling? Does her mother never stand up for her? And what did they think about the situation Jo managed to get herself in? There’s literally not a lot about them other than the fact they leave her on the streets when she’s late. This is where more details would need to come into play and actually make the story better.

I can’t help but to wish we got a little more of the bad guys as well. We get a few moments where they take the kid’s blood or when they are being threatened but that’s about it. We don’t get a lot from them and I can’t help but want more of them.

This is a pretty scary situation that really lacks the details it should have gotten in the first place!

Do you guys have a favorite YA Thriller?

If you enjoyed this review then you might also like The Cousins.