Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I simply want every book I read, even in a series, to be a stand alone on the basic plot. Characters can develop and situations can change in future books featuring the same main characters, but no one should be forced to buy a second book to complete a basic story line. This author literally asks at the end of this book, "What will happen to Macy next? Will she manage to get away from Chester?" Tell you what, I don't care, and how old are you, anyway?. Neither the story, nor the writing were good enough to make me think that I must find out the ending by buying book 2. The characters are cliche and the plot line unoriginal. I typically stay away from books that are this short, and I wish I'd done that this time instead of being persuaded by the many 4 and 5 star reviews which absolutely baffle me. Had the author simply added another hundred pages to bring the thing to a resolution, I would have given this 3 stars - perhaps 3.5 for teenage readers for whom this might be appealing. If you want an easy to read mystery, there are plenty of better options out there. Seriously, I almost threw my ipad off the bed when I got to the end of this one because I felt cheated out of the couple of hours I spent reading it.