Ever get the feeling that somebody is trying to kill your 70-year-old, filthy-stinking-rich employer? That’s precisely what happens in Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize by Margo Rabb.
Here’s the deal: I can’t get enough of YA murder mysteries.
I blame A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder for totally smashing my reading slump into next Tuesday.
So when I heard Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize described as “a whimsical story about a sixteen-year-old girl tasked with preventing a murder,” I snagged a copy immediately.
I was ready for a heart-pounding Young Adult mystery full of suspense and thrills. I wanted a twisty whodunnit that would have me clutching the edge of my seat.
But what did I get instead?
Let’s jump right into my Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize review and find out.
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What is Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize About?
Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize by Margo Rabb
Published May 11th, 2021 by Quill Tree Books
Sixteen-year-old Lucy Clark has always felt like an outsider, even in her own family. When she’s shipped off to The Boarding School From Hell by her inattentive parents, that feeling only intensifies.
But everything changes after Lucy accidentally pushes one of her many bullies down a flight of stairs. As punishment, Lucy’s parents send her to New York City to work for a rich old woman named Edith.
It doesn’t take long for Lucy to realize that somebody is out to get Edith, and it’s up to her to figure out who. Can she prevent a murder and save Edith’s life?
Lucy’s willing to risk it all to find out.
FOR FANS OF: Margo Rabb, YA murder mysteries, girl detective books.
Content + Trigger Warnings
Teenage pregnancy, parental neglect and emotional abuse, poisoning, Polio disease, murder attempts.
Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize Review
What I Liked About Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize
1. The Protagonist!
Lucy Clark has a sweet vulnerability to her that makes her an insanely relatable main character. She’s just a broken girl looking for her place in a broken world.
And we’ve all felt like that at least once, amirite?
“I wasn’t myself anymore—I wanted to get back to being myself, but who was that? I wanted to be a person without a hole inside her.”
She’s heartfelt in her desire to help those she cares about. Her genuine love for both her deceased Nana and her cat Gertrude squeezed my heart in all the best ways.
Her sincerity stood out instantly, and I liked her from page one.
2. The Found Family Trope!
The simple truth is I love a book with the found family trope.
I adore when a bunch of quirky misfits band together, and Margo Rabb certainly delivers on that front. This group of eccentric characters consists of…
- two boarding school dropouts
- a rich horticulturist
- a police intern and closet fern lover
- an old broadway star
…and I couldn’t help but love this unusual group dynamic!
3. The Message!
If you get nothing else out of my Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize review, then at least remember this:
The message of this book explores the true meaning of unconditional love.
As Lucy struggles to sort through her rocky relationship with her parents, she realizes something life-changing. Something I wish I understood at her age.
Simply put: love shouldn’t be dependent on what you achieve or your performance. You have value and worth just as you are.
“I’m not something you fix like a broken plate or revise like a term paper. I’m a person. You love a person by accepting who they are, not constantly fixing them or trying to shape or change or teach them”
Ultimately, Lucy learns that she shouldn’t apologize for who she is. And let’s be real for a minute—who doesn’t need to hear that powerful message?
What I Disliked about Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize
4. The Writing!
So here’s the deal: I actually enjoyed Margo Rabb’s writing. The first chapter was funny, witty, and grabbed my attention like a toddler reaching for a hot stove.
“Once upon a time, in a girls’ boarding school in Texas—long before I needed to stop a murder—it was Pancake Day. On Pancake Day, everyone lost their freaking minds.”
So why am I mentioning this here?
Because that first chapter was the best part of the book.
The writing only went downhill from there.
The rest of the story struggled to recreate that same clever humor and was tonally inconsistent as a result.
If I’m honest, the book read like a debut novel and I was shocked to discover it wasn’t.
5. The Suspense!
Here’s the rub: some authors can genre jump. Take V. E. Schwab, for example. She can write middle grade, fantasy, historical fiction, romance…you name it.
Margo Rabb? Not so much.
Her writing style does not suit the murder mystery genre, and it showed.
There’s no denying that this story is cute, but a mystery novel shouldn’t be cute. It needs to be gripping and suspenseful. A healthy dose of urgency and a dash of high stakes are essential.
And while I hate to say this in my Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize review, I have to:
This story didn’t have any of those things.
6. The Resolution!
It is a truth universally acknowledged that I have two working brain cells.
So if a book’s plot is…
- overly confusing
- outlandishly far-fetched
- unmistakably contrived
…then I’m going to struggle with it.
And the way Margo Rabb wrapped up this cozy little not-so-murder mystery was all three of those things.
The result? I just wasn’t following.
Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize Review:
The Final Verdict
Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize by Margo Rabb is a cozy murder mystery that was too much cozy and not enough mystery. I wanted suspense, thrills, and heart-pounding action.
What I got was one too many garden parties.
But where the mystery fell flat, the quirky cast of characters shone through.
So if (like me) you want a little more murder to keep you up at night, then check out my The Box in the Woods review.
Rating: 2 Stars
To learn more about how I rank YA books, check out my Book Rating System.
Now I want to hear from you!
What did you think of my Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize review?
Share one thing from this article that made you want/not want to read Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize by Margo Rabb.
