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shrikesong's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body shaming
geraldine's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
picked this up because i read boy parts and liked the writing style well enough that i figured i would give her next book a go. and i liked her writing style here as well! i also liked this one better, for the record, even though it's a lot more complex. i do feel like i wanted to keep a little notebook with everyone's name and a basic summary because a few times i felt like i had forgotten who someone was, but this might just be a me problem. and by the end this was not an issue.
all other takes are spoilers from here-on out.
i hadn't remembered the synopsis when i checked out the library ebook, but the very beginning was promising to me, like the setup of the second release of a (fictional) true crime non-fiction book, i do like a commentary on true crime. and then imagine my surprise when i realized that it was not only this but specifically a commentary on serial killer fandom and RPF???????????????
i actually have a note in the kindle app on my phone (i read this on both physical kindle and phone app, for the record) from around the 57% mark when i realized she was drawing a direct parallel between what dolly was doing with her serial killer fanfiction and what alec was doing with his book. and for the record, i did think it worked.
my main complaint about this is the very end, that maybe she felt like she was being too subtle here? (she was not.) and then has that final interviewer sit down with alec and y'know... literally say out loud the thesis of the book. i feel like this was genuinely unnecessary! i don't think we needed that interview at all! i felt like the afterward up until that point, info from the editor explaining who was suing and why and who had complained etc, this was enough to get the point across. trust your readers to pick up on this even if you don't explicitly spell it out!
this also made me question one of the other things i thought i was picking up, like if she directly explained one of the things she was hinting at, does that mean that i was just reading into the other element i thought she was suggesting? or did she choose to leave that subtle and it was intended? because to me it also felt like alec was not only being voyeuristic and obsessing over the culprits here, but also that he is doing this to teenage girls, and there may be more to it than just this. he is a fifty year old man, obsessing about teenage girls.
he includes what heather says about dolly's father and the accusations that dolly refuted on the stand, and in his fanfiction moments he has other characters allude to the accusations being true, but then when heather explains what she saw, he defends dolly's father and directly compares himself to the father. with an example where he spends hours standing watching his daughter sleep. really wondered about this one for a while. perhaps i really am reading too much into it, but still.
that's all really. i thought she did a good job integrating like... i guess online and "fandom" concepts in a way that made sense for the story she was trying to tell. and not assuming that a random reader in a barnes & noble would automatically know what the term RPF meant.
anyway, vriska homestuck gets namedropped in this.
all other takes are spoilers from here-on out.
i actually have a note in the kindle app on my phone (i read this on both physical kindle and phone app, for the record) from around the 57% mark when i realized she was drawing a direct parallel between what dolly was doing with her serial killer fanfiction and what alec was doing with his book. and for the record, i did think it worked.
my main complaint about this is the very end, that maybe she felt like she was being too subtle here? (she was not.) and then has that final interviewer sit down with alec and y'know... literally say out loud the thesis of the book. i feel like this was genuinely unnecessary! i don't think we needed that interview at all! i felt like the afterward up until that point, info from the editor explaining who was suing and why and who had complained etc, this was enough to get the point across. trust your readers to pick up on this even if you don't explicitly spell it out!
this also made me question one of the other things i thought i was picking up, like if she directly explained one of the things she was hinting at, does that mean that i was just reading into the other element i thought she was suggesting? or did she choose to leave that subtle and it was intended? because to me it also felt like alec was not only being voyeuristic and obsessing over the culprits here, but also that he is doing this to teenage girls, and there may be more to it than just this. he is a fifty year old man, obsessing about teenage girls.
he includes what heather says about dolly's father and the accusations that dolly refuted on the stand, and in his fanfiction moments he has other characters allude to the accusations being true, but then when heather explains what she saw, he defends dolly's father and directly compares himself to the father. with an example where he spends hours standing watching his daughter sleep. really wondered about this one for a while. perhaps i really am reading too much into it, but still.
that's all really. i thought she did a good job integrating like... i guess online and "fandom" concepts in a way that made sense for the story she was trying to tell. and not assuming that a random reader in a barnes & noble would automatically know what the term RPF meant.
anyway, vriska homestuck gets namedropped in this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Drug use, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Alcohol
moonworld3's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
4.5
my three main thoughts:
- we as women need to be kinder to each other
- i understand the purpose behind the extensive fake crimes but really didn’t enjoy those portions
- the evisceration of true crime was well-done, from an analytical perspective, but did make for some boring sections, from an enjoyment perspective, BUT the narrator’s defense of himself was WILDLY entertaining
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Mass/school shootings
tctimlin's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I may have to sit with this book for a while. The Irish bookseller in Foyles in London convinced my friend and I to buy this book. I started it on the plane, then put it down for a while. At points, I was feeling less than enthusiastic about the story - but I realized at the end that I had been missing the point. Written as a “true crime” deep dive into the torture and murder of a teenage girl by three of her classmates (also girls), this journalist narrator presents his story using podcasts, social media posts, interviews with friends and family of the victim and the perpetrators. He claims to be writing the “definitive” account of the murder -the one that will explain the why behind this horrific crime. But is that really what he’s doing? And who is true crime written for? Who does it benefit? Whose appetites does it satiate? An exploration into society’s fascination with crime, especially the most unimaginable crimes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Body shaming, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Mass/school shootings, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
pixylprincess's review against another edition
4.25
I really enjoyed this book. I always think about the ethical and moral dilemmas involving my own personal interest in true crime, and I love how this book approaches this topic.
As someone who consumes true crime media regularly, Clark really captured the true crime world perfectly. Annoying podcasters, dramatizing the facts to make them “more entertaining”, profiting from families who have suffered from the crime, and theorizing and connecting your own dots about other people’s lives whom you know nothing about. People who think “I could’ve saved them” and fantasize about serial killers. It’s all in this book.
The writing was gripping and the girls felt relatable, especially if you also lived through and experienced the tumblr era. I enjoyed the background of all of the relationships and seeing how exactly it got to such an escalated point.
As someone who consumes true crime media regularly, Clark really captured the true crime world perfectly. Annoying podcasters, dramatizing the facts to make them “more entertaining”, profiting from families who have suffered from the crime, and theorizing and connecting your own dots about other people’s lives whom you know nothing about. People who think “I could’ve saved them” and fantasize about serial killers. It’s all in this book.
The writing was gripping and the girls felt relatable, especially if you also lived through and experienced the tumblr era. I enjoyed the background of all of the relationships and seeing how exactly it got to such an escalated point.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Toxic friendship
alexandra__rae's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Mass/school shootings, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
raebeiss's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Incest, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, and Mass/school shootings
jmcampbell57's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Murder, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Mass/school shootings, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
emilyb99's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
'Yaaaas, queen!' Joni hissed, when she spotted it. 'Slay!
Serving traction alopecia realness.'
This book was absolutely terrible. Did you kill the editor?? Is this actually true crime??? I kept moaning to my friend that it wasn’t over. I spilled wine on it too and I didn’t even care.
It’s like if Skins had a murder plot in it. Or if you enjoyed Bunny by Mona Awad you’ll like this book. But that’s about it. If you like mean girls who kill another girl then this is your tea party.
Prepare yourself for going down rabbit holes that don’t even allign with the storyline anymore. For example: someone’s immigrant aunty’s Indian takeaway and their school experience in Crown-On-Sea. Like does this shit matter? I asked myself this and the answer was no, this is nowhere near the plot. Like at all. So random and frustrating, can we please stop rambling? I was very disappointed and thought this book was going to be a lot better than it was, I didn’t think it was going to be some random jealous girl who kills the girl who talks to her girlfriend. It was also as if the author downloaded tumblr and used it for a week in order to get some lingo, find out what “shipping” was, and how the ask box worked. As someone who was THERE for fanfic tumblr in 2014, it was so yucky.
She literally put an entire chapter of gay school shooter fanfiction. I understand maybe it was to be like ‘ahhh Dolly is sooo fucked up!!!’ but I was reading it starting to wonder if the author published this book just so she could put her fanfiction of school shooters out there. Really odd that she writes in the style of a creepy middle aged man, I’m also pretty sure she made no descriptions of any of these girls, so many names thrown all over the place and then you had to remember their other names. I couldn’t picture a single one of them, as well as “oh that … was that one?” “Which girl did this?”.
I’m confused with the people who actually liked this book.
Serving traction alopecia realness.'
This book was absolutely terrible. Did you kill the editor?? Is this actually true crime??? I kept moaning to my friend that it wasn’t over. I spilled wine on it too and I didn’t even care.
It’s like if Skins had a murder plot in it. Or if you enjoyed Bunny by Mona Awad you’ll like this book. But that’s about it. If you like mean girls who kill another girl then this is your tea party.
Prepare yourself for going down rabbit holes that don’t even allign with the storyline anymore. For example: someone’s immigrant aunty’s Indian takeaway and their school experience in Crown-On-Sea. Like does this shit matter? I asked myself this and the answer was no, this is nowhere near the plot. Like at all. So random and frustrating, can we please stop rambling? I was very disappointed and thought this book was going to be a lot better than it was, I didn’t think it was going to be some random jealous girl who kills the girl who talks to her girlfriend. It was also as if the author downloaded tumblr and used it for a week in order to get some lingo, find out what “shipping” was, and how the ask box worked. As someone who was THERE for fanfic tumblr in 2014, it was so yucky.
She literally put an entire chapter of gay school shooter fanfiction. I understand maybe it was to be like ‘ahhh Dolly is sooo fucked up!!!’ but I was reading it starting to wonder if the author published this book just so she could put her fanfiction of school shooters out there. Really odd that she writes in the style of a creepy middle aged man, I’m also pretty sure she made no descriptions of any of these girls, so many names thrown all over the place and then you had to remember their other names. I couldn’t picture a single one of them, as well as “oh that … was that one?” “Which girl did this?”.
I’m confused with the people who actually liked this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Violence, Mass/school shootings, and Murder
coffeecass's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Toxic relationship, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury