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aedhoppy's review
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
This book was seriously disappointing. When I first started reading it I was thoroughly obsessed with it. The idea was awesome and the main characters made be obsessed at first and I literally couldn’t put the book down. Until the middle, at least. It started to seem as if the main character was only used to bounce back and forth between boys. I don’t know how to explain it but she starts off as what seems like a strong thought out character and then once you get to the middle she deteriorates. The choices she makes felt like the author had decided the plot line and forced the character into it instead of making the plot and character work together. Like at points where she almost dies but then makes excuses for the people that were going to let her die. It made very little sense to me. Additionally, and what probably annoyed me the most, is that there was quite a few spelling or grammar errors throughout the book. I usually don’t mind books with errors but a lot of them made it difficult to read. There was some that were just misspellings and then some where it was talking about a girl but it said he instead of she so I was confused and had to use context clues for who was being talked about. Other parts repeated words like the author had forgot she already typed them, for example “she had she had thought about it” that’s not what it was but I don’t want to open the book to go searching for it. Lastly, the ending sucked. Left it just with no ending pretty much and left a lot of unanswered questions. I’m sure there must be another book and it might have been left like that so I’ll want to read the other one but the way it was done makes me want to do the opposite.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, and Sexual content
Minor: Body shaming
boopdbun's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Sexual content
earthybooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
It wasn’t a bad book but it wasn’t amazing. Lots of other reviews say the same thing - they had high hopes and the book kind of fell flat.
Some of the content and decisions made by the MC were hard to read (Although I guess that was also part of the character but still).
TRIGGER WARNING - There is an age gap between the MFC and one MMC that is borderline predatory. I tried to ignore the age gap (it’s not horrendous) but the fact that she’s underage when they meet is brought up MANY times and is a huge factor in why I rated this book so low. I made me feel icky and was really hard to move past.
The plot seemed to jump around a lot and there were a lot of things that didn’t feel like they fit in but were forced into the story. You can tell that more books are planned, but it felt like 6 different plots were dropped in and then didn’t go anywhere (but plan to in later books??).
I felt the last 25% of the books also felt rushed and was fairly anticlimactic.
Don’t get me wrong, there were times I was definitely enjoying this book and excited about it, but the characters felt too problematic to ignore, and the plot jumped around too much.
It was good enough that I’d probably pick up the second book in hopes that it would be better and reach the potential I had for this book.
Some of the content and decisions made by the MC were hard to read (Although I guess that was also part of the character but still).
TRIGGER WARNING - There is an age gap between the MFC and one MMC that is borderline predatory. I tried to ignore the age gap (it’s not horrendous) but the fact that she’s underage when they meet is brought up MANY times and is a huge factor in why I rated this book so low. I made me feel icky and was really hard to move past.
The plot seemed to jump around a lot and there were a lot of things that didn’t feel like they fit in but were forced into the story. You can tell that more books are planned, but it felt like 6 different plots were dropped in and then didn’t go anywhere (but plan to in later books??).
I felt the last 25% of the books also felt rushed and was fairly anticlimactic.
Don’t get me wrong, there were times I was definitely enjoying this book and excited about it, but the characters felt too problematic to ignore, and the plot jumped around too much.
It was good enough that I’d probably pick up the second book in hopes that it would be better and reach the potential I had for this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Gaslighting
Minor: Racism
hschlecht's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
milpeaches's review
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I eagerly awaited a new spin on the classic about the Boy Who Never Grew Up. Hastings writing mimicked the confused Never Girl who was forgetful and impressionable. As always, Hastings writing is beautiful and lyrical. It was easy to see her love of this story but it felt too much like a history of baggage that I put away a long time ago.
TW: This will be tough to read for survivors of abuse. Must be read with a clear understanding of what is and is not acceptable in relationships.
TW: This will be tough to read for survivors of abuse. Must be read with a clear understanding of what is and is not acceptable in relationships.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Sexual harassment
Minor: Kidnapping
jco1016's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
vodkaalmelone's review
challenging
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Obviously one star. I can't put it for some reason, but one star. If I could, i'd put zero.
Possibly one of the worst books I have ever read. I think this might actually be worse than It ends with us, and that is saying a lot. A torture to read. And I'm sad and disappointed to say this.
Everything feels off, nonsensical, weird.. Just wrong. Starting off with plot itself, and my god.. the characters..
Daphne was incredibly weird, totally a flat character, absolutely lacking determination and self-respect. Hook was the absolute worst, everything he said felt predatory, creepy, vomiting.. And the accent was exaggerated so much that it felt cartoonish and childish. But Peter Pan was (unbelievably) even worse. It made this book truly nauseating for me because he has the mind of a child, and he talks like one, and is extremely sexualized. Who approved this? I thought it was going to a be a sweet, dreamy novel (maybe with a touch of toxicity and drama in BJ style) but this was entirely TOO MUCH. It felt like a poorly written dark romance, with the worst tropes and most disgusting plot twists (wtf was that??).
Listen, it might just be me, but at a certain point it became too much to read, as in if I had known that I would have avoided reading it. Stuff like ''You are mine'', ''we aren't finished till I say we are'', there are a lot of toxic phrases like that, purity culture and virginity, characters turning physically violent.. triggered me. But then again, maybe I'm too sensitive to these things, idk.
At a certain point I stopped reading the footnotes because first of all most of them literally add nothing to what is being said, and secondly they reminded me of Daisy and I'm in total desbelief this book was written by the same author.
Also, it's littered with racist things. There are hints at political correctness at points, and colonial history and then SBAM we get stuff like ''brownies'', dirty skin, Benghazi.. How can someone miss these things? Stuff like this MATTERS. It all felt like a sick joke, ''brownies''? Really??
I'm in total disbelief, I agree with every other review that has been posted here, I'm glad I read them because I thought the problem was me.
I just want to forget I read this book.
Possibly one of the worst books I have ever read. I think this might actually be worse than It ends with us, and that is saying a lot. A torture to read. And I'm sad and disappointed to say this.
Everything feels off, nonsensical, weird.. Just wrong. Starting off with plot itself, and my god.. the characters..
Daphne was incredibly weird, totally a flat character, absolutely lacking determination and self-respect. Hook was the absolute worst, everything he said felt predatory, creepy, vomiting.. And the accent was exaggerated so much that it felt cartoonish and childish. But Peter Pan was (unbelievably) even worse. It made this book truly nauseating for me because he has the mind of a child, and he talks like one, and is extremely sexualized. Who approved this? I thought it was going to a be a sweet, dreamy novel (maybe with a touch of toxicity and drama in BJ style) but this was entirely TOO MUCH. It felt like a poorly written dark romance, with the worst tropes and most disgusting plot twists (wtf was that??).
Listen, it might just be me, but at a certain point it became too much to read, as in if I had known that I would have avoided reading it. Stuff like ''You are mine'', ''we aren't finished till I say we are'', there are a lot of toxic phrases like that, purity culture and virginity, characters turning physically violent.. triggered me. But then again, maybe I'm too sensitive to these things, idk.
At a certain point I stopped reading the footnotes because first of all most of them literally add nothing to what is being said, and secondly they reminded me of Daisy and I'm in total desbelief this book was written by the same author.
Also, it's littered with racist things. There are hints at political correctness at points, and colonial history and then SBAM we get stuff like ''brownies'', dirty skin, Benghazi.. How can someone miss these things? Stuff like this MATTERS. It all felt like a sick joke, ''brownies''? Really??
I'm in total disbelief, I agree with every other review that has been posted here, I'm glad I read them because I thought the problem was me.
I just want to forget I read this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Gaslighting
Minor: Colonisation
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