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teddy_books's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Moderate: Blood and Kidnapping
jesophie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Minor: Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail
itsredandread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Kidnapping
chris_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Bullying, Gun violence, and Kidnapping
Minor: Blood, Excrement, and Alcohol
maceydowns's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.25
Moderate: Gun violence, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail
that_person_logan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
I want to purchase a physical copy for myself so I can reread this and recommend it to everyone.
I love Unbelievably Greedy Gus and Kleptomaniac Gus with my whole heart.
Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Alcohol and Classism
Minor: Sexism and Suicidal thoughts
arieslofi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
that being said: this book is utter shit.
for starters, it's got a larger ensemble than it can possibly handle. you're writing a book for tweens, not the next agatha christie novel! when we got to the twist, i genuinely couldn't care because, with such a big cast, these two characters are virtually meaningless. they hold nothing for me.
speaking of, the characters are all so two dimensional it's not even funny. the amount of internalized misogyny coming from our main character is utterly insane, especially considering this is a book for TEENS(!!!) and came out in 2017. were we not better then? did we genuinely think a good female character shits on others for no reason other than jealousy and insecurity? you guys talk shit about twilight and bella being a "mary sue" but at least she was a girl respecter! the ensemble in general just sucks, it's spread too thin and the silly nicknames for the two brothers just made me sigh. i know this isn't for adults, but it truly did not feel endearing, just childish.
the two love interests are the classic brooding and sarcastic older guy and the sweet and protective same aged friend, which is just boring. nothing about them seemed interesting to me, and their chemistry with sophie was nonexistent. the forced moments of jealous banter were also just cringeworthy, nothing new or even plausible.
the plot itself is... something. it starts as a completely nonthreatening book, then i guess they told the author it wasn't going to sell well, so she had to throw in thriller elements that are boring and uninteresting, and then a thriller ending that is boring and uninteresting.
this also might be because of the translation, but the writing itself was pure garbage. why are there constant cliffhanger endings to the chapters? this isn't goosebumps. why is there constant lampshading that convinces me the author shoehorned the thriller aspects after her editor told her to? why is some of the dialogue so forced and unrealistic? who the fuck is pierre? literally who is that? i never went back to check because that's not my fucking job! it's your job to make me remember a character if you're going to make him be in the twist ending! which was ass, by the way. you can tell it's coming from miles away, and i'm not even a big thriller/mystery reader anymore.
tl;dr: too big of an ensemble, characters that are too shallow, writing that is too juvenile and borderline childish, cringeworthy dialogue and interactions. simply put, a waste of a whole month and space in my phone!
but it wasn't red white and royal blue, so it gets a pass for that. it could be worse!
Graphic: Misogyny and Kidnapping
Moderate: Incest
leofro's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Graphic: Gun violence and Kidnapping
silversparkles50's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Gun violence and Kidnapping
Minor: Alcohol
musicalpopcorn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
I will admit I am not very much interested in this kind of book to begin with, so maybe I’m coming down a little harshly, but I found this book to be predictable, weirdly slow for such a fluffy story, and at times massively boring. The story didn’t pick up until quite a distance into the book and up until that point it was mostly descriptions of working in a hotel. I can’t imagine feeling entertained by the first half of the book.
But I made it through and did find myself engaged by the end, enough to at least finish it. I suppose I would rate it 2.5 stars, but that does feel somewhat generous.
Minor: Kidnapping