A review by keekalee
We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets

dark reflective tense medium-paced
  • 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? Yes

4.5

i really liked this book, i'm so surprised by the reviews! personally, i don't mind an open ending and don't necessarily think it should have been wrapped up neatly. i also think it made sense for the main character and underscored how deeply her actions were impacted by the work she did (
having been confronted with her own acts of abuse against sigrid, kayleigh comes up with a "noble" gesture to make it up to her - going to the home of a young girl who had died by suicide, and whose video of self-harm had been reviewed by sigrid, and asking the parents to absolve sigrid of her inaction. kayleigh, unaware and delusional as ever, breaks in when she realizes they're not home. it's not until the end, when she's made her way to the girl's bedroom and hears the girls parents come home, that she has a moment of lucidity and asks herself what the hell she's doing.
).
i think it succeeded in showing and exploring how constantly being exposed to disturbing content and acting as the judge of what is acceptable impacts the characters' sense of morality - they're so desensitized to what they see, and so used to permitting offensive content, that they don't seem to recognize when they're enacting harm on others.
i can understand wishing the characters and story were more fleshed out, but i kind of liked how it felt like briefly peering into this secret world that none of us have access to - the format of it being written as a letter worked very well for this reason imo.
overall, i definitely recommend - read in two days and got me out of a reading slump! 
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