Reviews

this book was so off-beat and a very different vibe than most other books I’ve read. It starts off as a literary fiction with characters waxing poetic about social justice and philosophizing about random things and it turns into a suspenseful novel partway through. It was super fun and I never had a good idea of where the vibe was going next, which was also really fun
As someone who likes to think about hypothetical questions a lot, I liked some of the silly conversations that characters like Mira and Shelley had
All of the characters are quite flawed in this book, so an additional fun layer was that I really didn’t know what I wanted to happen. I had some rooting interests, but the situations were so murky and messy and that was really fun

Cons:

it’s dense!! Only three chapters, and while the scenes switched, it made it trickier for me to pick out good stopping points. Some of the philosophical conversations got a little too dense for (I’m looking at you, Tony and Amber) but that didn’t really detract from my enjoyment of the book

Recommendation: What a fun, bizarre book! I recommend to folks who like offbeat literary fiction. The characters are what drive the novel here- there is a plot, but it’s slow to get going. If you like three-dimensional, flawed characters and unique plots, this could be a good one for you. Avoid if you want clear rooting interests, lovable characters, or hate seeing disasters unfold before you (because everything that happens in this book is like one disaster after another).

pribsflicks's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

orangeyouglad's review against another edition

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mysterious 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

4.5

angelica_jardinerica's review against another edition

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2.75

I had high hopes of this book after hearing so many positive reviews, but I was quite disappointed. So much of it is bogged down in really long-winded political discourse, with exceptionally long sentences littered with sub-sub-clauses that made me feel like I was reading someone's degree thesis on political theory. All the characters are clichéd to the nth degree, and I groaned at the supposedly intelligent, rebellious - and incredibly irritating - female protagonists who just can't help being attracted to, and seduced by, the psychopathic bad guy, as well as being caught up in typical jealous rivalry. There's way too much telling instead of showing, and there are a few too many after-the-fact explanations as to why a particular character does or knows something. The rather unconvincing, somewhat convoluted plot does gather pace and the tension builds towards the end, but the end was just too simplified to be satisfying.

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