Reviews with content warning for Gore - Even If We Break

Plot seemed messy and all over the place, too much going on at once with various character's personal circumstances. Book needed to be longer and go into much more depth about various things to get the feel I think it was going for. Felt like I didn't have time to properly absorb or care about character details. Some of the dialogue and text was too on the nose. I love a good found family, creating your own meaning from life and facing it together sorry, but I didn't need to be beaten over the head with that being one of the main themes. I really wanted to like this book and finished it out of curiosity to see how it ended but I couldn't get into it and just didn't care like it wanted me to.

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parasolcrafter's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

2.75

this book could have been so much better, but it fell miles short </3

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longlost's review

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dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

3.0

wow the villain of this book is a real piece of shit huh

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madarauchiha's review

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slow-paced

2.5

This feels like fanfic but not really in a good way. I guess if you like DND then you'd like this book. I don't, so I didn't. Also I'm an adult and I'm not into reading about being a teenager. Been there done that.

The writing was ok. I think it held suspense well enough. It was a very standard 'group goes to isolated location, gets picked off until the ending' story.

The ending was irritating and felt shallow.

major plot spoiler

Spoiler

livia is the villain because all her friends are doing better than her. ok sure whatever. also she was abused as a child which made her evil.. Um. No.

content warnings
minor ableism, medical content, animal cruelty, animal hunting,

medium child abuse, car accidents, injuries, ableism, transphobia, hate crime,

major addiction, drug abuse, death, murder, gore, drug use, panic attacks,

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serenitycaptain's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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piperhill's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Okay this book has one good thing going for it and that’s the representation among the 5 main characters:
Finn is trans and lives with a disability that impacts his mobility & causes him chronic pain
Ever is non-binary and their family lives in poverty
Maddy is autistic (and I think bisexual) and also deals with chronic pain as a result of an accident
Carter and Liva both come from rich families & it’s hinted that Carter is bisexual.
& I love that this is an OwnVoices novel - the author is also autistic, disabled and non-binary.

Other than that, this book was really disappointing. The story felt weighed down by the frequent jumping into the past or the characters’ subconscious thoughts - I found myself skimming most of what probably could have been great character development had it been formatted differently. Because of this, a lot of the suspense was dampened. Also the villain revealed at the end just didn’t make sense?? And then the ending felt too romanticized and unrealistic when it came to the responses characters had to the disturbing events?
To be fair, I read to end because I wanted to know what was going on & I cared about the characters. And I’m freaked out by everything that happened! But overall this book fell flat for me.

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nyoom's review

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dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

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plumpaperbacks's review

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dark medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I added Even If We Break to my tbr on impulse because it sounded intriguing. Unfortunately, I only liked three of the five leads, and I wasn’t really invested in the story. Not only am I hardly interested in roleplaying, but it was also quite easy, in my opinion, to guess who the antagonist was. By the time I was halfway done, I had two predictions, and one of them ended up being correct. If I’m being honest, it was disappointing. Said antagonist didn’t have a good reason for any of their actions.

I nearly gave the book two stars, but bumped it up by half because I did end up really liking Ever, Finn, and Maddy. Their friendship was sweet and genuine, and Ever and Finn’s budding romance was super cute.

Ultimately, I’m not sure I’d recommend this, and I’m not sure Nijkamp’s work is my cup of tea. Thrillers really are hit or miss.

Representation

trans bisexual protagonist that uses they/them pronouns
trans protagonist that uses he/him pronouns
autistic bisexual protagonist with chronic pain
bisexual protagonist

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