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kassiebee's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
A Pleasant and Not-So-Pleasant Surprise
i went into this book not knowing a thing- not even the synopsis. i saw the creepy cover (with the cat) and i thought “this looks spooky…lets do it”.
as i read the first few chapters, i was fully expecting a mysterious, killer-catching, revenge having, story. until the D.I.D implications started. i caught on pretty fast, but it wasn’t a deal breaker. I was intrigued but, I’m not gonna lie, I was a little disappointed too. the mystery of Girl with Popsicle really got me in the mood to figure out how, when, and where Ted pulled this all off. and SO excited to read a thrilling escape by Lauren and Olivia. I didn’t care if it didn’t make sense that Lauren could understand cats. (a flaw on my part)
BUT… after my excitement wore off, and changed my expectations… i was glad (accepted) where the story was going. As i read on, i found myself intrigued by the explanation of it all. it all really, really made sense. And i enjoyed it. i LOVED how Ward was able to make me feel icky about Ted at the beginning, to making me happy for him in the end. love that.
All in all, the slow reveal of Ted’s psyche for us to figure out was fun- you can tell that Ward did her homework.
Now on to what I didn’t like…
Dee, Dee, Dee… had so much potential. i didn’t care for her. i appreciated and understood her role in the story, but her death did not affect me as much as I hoped/should have. and bug man?? that incident in the bar/store was just bizarre, how he was just kinda left there and not really mentioned again. that’s a bookish pet peeve of mine ‘‘v.v …
Lastly , unpopular opinion, but i did not enjoy Olivia’s chapters …. oops. i found myself rushing through them to get to Lauren and Ted, even Dee. It took a while for her chapters to get interesting even though they had really important tidbits and clues. love this cute gay cat but i just idk…
would i re-read? nah
am i glad i did? yeah
i went into this book not knowing a thing- not even the synopsis. i saw the creepy cover (with the cat) and i thought “this looks spooky…lets do it”.
as i read the first few chapters, i was fully expecting a mysterious, killer-catching, revenge having, story. until the
BUT… after my excitement wore off, and changed my expectations… i was glad (accepted) where the story was going. As i read on, i found myself intrigued by the explanation of it all. it all really, really made sense. And i enjoyed it. i LOVED how Ward was able to make me feel icky about Ted at the beginning, to making me happy for him in the end. love that.
All in all, the slow reveal of Ted’s psyche for us to figure out was fun- you can tell that Ward did her homework.
Now on to what I didn’t like…
Lastly , unpopular opinion, but i did not enjoy Olivia’s chapters …. oops. i found myself rushing through them to get to Lauren and Ted, even Dee. It took a while for her chapters to get interesting even though they had really important tidbits and clues. love this cute gay cat but i just idk…
would i re-read? nah
am i glad i did? yeah
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Homophobia, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Religious bigotry and Abandonment
unphilosophize's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I did not enjoy this book. The story felt disjointed and like the author changed their mind what the book was about halfway through writing. One of the main characters was also severely undeveloped. The plot was fairly predictable.
I will never like a book that uses mental illness as a plot point.
A lot of folks talked about how they liked the afterward, and while I agree that it was an important thing to add it was poorly executed. I did not feel that her explanation really did justice to the diagnosis that she chose to exploit in her book, nor did it really talk about the controversy around that diagnosis in a good way.
Overall extremely disappointing.
I will never like a book that uses mental illness as a plot point.
A lot of folks talked about how they liked the afterward, and while I agree that it was an important thing to add it was poorly executed. I did not feel that her explanation really did justice to the diagnosis that she chose to exploit in her book, nor did it really talk about the controversy around that diagnosis in a good way.
Overall extremely disappointing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Animal death, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent