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ollie_again's review against another edition
dark
tense
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
2.0
I was thinking about giving this book three stars up until the last 20% of the story. Overall the book is not thrilling, did not scare me or even squeezed any emotional response from me. The problem for the most part is that the blurb pretty much tells you everything the book is about and the only thing that is left to unravel is the ending, which was pretty disappointing and took about two chapters of the book.
The last 20% of the book was also kinda gross. The book is about 12-year-old kids, maybe genius kids, but kids nevertheless. On top of that, these kids have no real understanding of the opposite gender (because they were brought up to NOT know about it), sexual attraction, and physical affection but somehow the second they meet face to face, they have the urge to kiss and make out. They're twelve. And they don't have a concept of kissing. Including make out sesh and sexually skewed thoughts of the boy afterwards and I quote: "Just moments ago her body was pressed against yours…her lips touched yours, too…her legs…can you still see her legs?" This tells you the tone of the thought process of a 12-year-old boy after meeting a girl once. Nope, in which universe was this necessary to include this in the book?
And the second thing that bugged me was how the conversation about gender and sex was handled. In this book, there's only a gender binary with no nuance, and while that would be kind of understandable as the kids grow up in a practically agender environment, the lack of any discussion or consideration of non-hetero relationships was pretty off. There are about 50 kids in the experiment but the only scarecrow in the field for the two evil masterminds behind the experiment is a distraction from the opposite gender during "delicate years" which is a code word for puberty.
The finale of the book sealed the low rating for me. The conclusion is way too quick and shallow, with no real elaboration of what happens next. After the slow tempo of the first 300 pages, I was expecting at least some interesting or shocking twist but nope, a quick and low-effort end which was unsatisfactory in every possible way with an extra slice of that 12-year old romance. Yuck.
The last 20% of the book was also kinda gross. The book is about 12-year-old kids, maybe genius kids, but kids nevertheless. On top of that, these kids have no real understanding of the opposite gender (because they were brought up to NOT know about it), sexual attraction, and physical affection but somehow the second they meet face to face, they have the urge to kiss and make out. They're twelve. And they don't have a concept of kissing. Including make out sesh and sexually skewed thoughts of the boy afterwards and I quote: "Just moments ago her body was pressed against yours…her lips touched yours, too…her legs…can you still see her legs?" This tells you the tone of the thought process of a 12-year-old boy after meeting a girl once. Nope, in which universe was this necessary to include this in the book?
And the second thing that bugged me was how the conversation about gender and sex was handled. In this book, there's only a gender binary with no nuance, and while that would be kind of understandable as the kids grow up in a practically agender environment, the lack of any discussion or consideration of non-hetero relationships was pretty off. There are about 50 kids in the experiment but the only scarecrow in the field for the two evil masterminds behind the experiment is a distraction from the opposite gender during "delicate years" which is a code word for puberty.
The finale of the book sealed the low rating for me. The conclusion is way too quick and shallow, with no real elaboration of what happens next. After the slow tempo of the first 300 pages, I was expecting at least some interesting or shocking twist but nope, a quick and low-effort end which was unsatisfactory in every possible way with an extra slice of that 12-year old romance. Yuck.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Kidnapping, Grief, and Gaslighting