Scan barcode
kkpines's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Bullying and Violence
Moderate: Cursing and Sexual content
Minor: Sexual assault, Death of parent, Murder, and War
danteeeh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Bullying
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Car accident, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War
kittyinatophat's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I described this book to one of my friends as “it’s like eating flour”. It’s becomes very unpleasant very quickly and might poison you.
Let me tell you folks something: I am a seasoned fanfiction reader and author, who loves to go looking for the weirdest content tags. Crack fics, filler plot, poor character development and general YA cringe doesn’t phase me. I consider myself to be someone who thrives on the most ridiculous, poorly written and at times barely coherent material, the worse the better.
But this book? It humbled me. What I believed was a high tolerance for poor writing was actually just barely scratching the surface.
I admit the mistake is mostly on me: I did 0 research going into this series and I had no idea of the overall feelings of it. I just got sucked in by the cover and the fact that I’m an astrology girlie ™️.
If (keeping with the flour analogy) this book is supposed to be a cake, there’s a reason why it isn’t cake and is instead literally just flour: we are missing a lot of other key ingredients to make a cake. I’ll highlight a few:
- Set in a “dog eat dog” world where it’s “everyone for themselves”. Frequent reoccurring s*xual harassment, groping, murder, really edgy stuff. Except…the both internal and external dialogue is heavily written in a YA style. This book can truly not decide if it wants to be raw, real and uncensored or a “freshly-turned-18-Mary-Sue-adventure”.
- Switching between grammar and spellings of words? i.e. Favorite vs Favourite??? Where is the editor? It seems like there are two people involved with writing and no editor.
- We spend the majority of the book without a plot. We get it, everyone is an antagonist, this is a harsh world, but what’s the overall plot? It sometimes reads like every chapter is a clean slate and we have to reestablish the entire narrative
- There’s way, way too many characters and none of them are well written or good people so they truly have no redeeming quality.
This book is literally missing everything else to be a complete story. The eggs, butter, sugar, everything.
My biggest issue is who this is supposed to be aimed at though. Because I found myself thinking as I read “Maybe I would like this more if I was reading this 15 years ago, when I was 15”. But with the non-con and detailed sexual descriptions this shouldn’t be in the YA category at all imo. If you’re writing adults for adults, please write adult dialogue.
The only thing that changed this book’s trajectory into my DNF pile was when one of my good writing friends jumped into the hellfire with me and it shifted from “reading for literature” to “reading for trash”. I wholeheartedly recommend reading this book with someone so you have another human to process the awfulness of it with.
Once I made that switch though the book got much better to the point where I will probably continue with the series at some point, if not strictly to see what the hell becomes of this world plot that doesn’t exist and all the loose ends. But I need a deep brain cleanse first.
P.S. Everyone knows the most dramatic ass people have blue hair (from someone who has had blue hair multiple times)
Graphic: Sexual harassment
Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment
Minor: War
lestie4short's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Bullying
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Sexual content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
Minor: Infidelity, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Toxic friendship, and War
hayleyvharrington's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Bullying
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Murder, and Alcohol
Minor: War
kellicat94's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Car accident
Minor: Grief, Abandonment, and War
of_course_it_is's review against another edition
- 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
3.25
Graphic: Bullying and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Child abuse, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War