A review by clovetra
Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

ugh i wish i managed to squeeze this in for sapphic september but alas, it is an october read. which ngl im not too mad at seeing as it fits the vibes.
god i really get why this has so many fans. i was mesmerised with the writing, and all the characters were great.
sade was a wonderful protagonist who immediately gripped me and had me rooting for her; baz is the much needed comic relief yet also has depth to him; persephone was equally mysterious and intriguing; and the cast of ANA mostly didn’t feel flat. i say mostly because im ngl… the way the unholy trinity was built up, i was expecting mean girls 2. instead i got one interesting character and two who felt like they had zero personality outside of “money” and “lacrosse”. i mean hey i like money and lacrosse but ur side characters need more than that i beg. but honestly the characters kept this book going…. because its plot didn’t.
ok that’s so shady esp since im giving this 4-stars. but as someone who mostly vibes when reading…. i guessed the “culprit” like 20% deep. and the clues were JUST beginning to build. not only did i guess the culprit… i guessed the motive. cmon now.
and speaking of the mystery element…. it felt lacklustre. the way the “crime(s)” played out felt predictable and a let-down. i was expecting this book to just keep unravelling with its mystery, but instead i got something that could’ve been solved by the characters like 250 pages in if they stopped dicking about. like as much as i loved seeing sade just living her life, i was expecting a mystery. and instead i got class scenes, lunch scenes, a party, another party, swimming…. im contradicting myself i know. i loved the characters but the things that build them up, i seemingly hated. it’s just that the mystery was so appealing, and yet it felt dragged out because really, it could’ve been solved halfway through the book. it was so insanely simple i thought i was missing some extreme oversight, but no. i guessed most of the plot less than a quarter way through. and that’s fine! a mystery should have breadcrumbs a reader can follow! but when you are touting this as a mystery book…. and it is not a mystery at all what ha happened (/ref)……. yikes.
like i said, i honestly loved the characters so much the lack of complexity didn’t piss me off to the point i hated this book, but i can’t lie and say i loved this. if this was marketed as a contemporary? sign me up man. literally any other genre & i would’ve loved this. but the mystery was not mystery-ing for me.
i liked the mystery surrounding sade’s background.. but i have the same thing about her past to say about the plot itself. it was a letdown. i will say i didn’t guess what it ended up being, but when the book is pointing you in one direction, and then ends up dragging you to another and, and that end is disappointing compared to the other end…… yet again a chop for me!
anyways tldr i love sade but homegirl please stop having meet cutes with like 3 ppl at once and solve the mystery. i support you but also god damn girl let’s get the show moving and figure out what happened! 
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