A review by leahkarge
Dead Little Mean Girl by Eva Darrows
4.0
***I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***
SUMMARY:
DEAD LITTLE MEAN GIRL starts at the end. Quinn Littleton, the aforementioned mean girl, is dead in her family's garage. Told from the point-of-view of her stepsister, Emma, we learn of all the ways in which Quinn manipulates, uses, and abuses everyone around her, and how those very people manage to survive Hurrican Quinn.
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REVIEW:
I love this book. I love it for the characters, for how well it's written, but most of all for how real it is. There are people just like Quinn and her posse, and chances are, most of us have encountered them and come out mostly unscathed. (Either that or we are the Mean Person.) We build walls, means of self-defense, which is exactly what Emma and her family do in order to survive Quinn.
I loved how Darrows wrote all the characters and their interactions with each other. There are so many different layers and complexities, depending on who you're with, and in each character, we received their anger, their love, their vulnerability, their guilt, and so much more.
A noteworthy aspect of this novel is that the focus is not on the romance. Not that there's anything wrong with that, because lord knows I love me some romance. That's not to say there isn't a romance aspect! It's so simple and easy-going, with no drama. But don't come into this thinking it's basically a Cinderella retelling where Emma gets swept away and saved by the Prince. More than anything, this book is about siblings (or pseudo-siblings), family, divorce and how it affects children, the meshing of families when new relationships are formed, and the coping mechanisms we develop.
It's may be rough to read in certain spots, as it pokes and prods and potentially reopens barely healed wounds, but it's absolutely worth the read.
SUMMARY:
DEAD LITTLE MEAN GIRL starts at the end. Quinn Littleton, the aforementioned mean girl, is dead in her family's garage. Told from the point-of-view of her stepsister, Emma, we learn of all the ways in which Quinn manipulates, uses, and abuses everyone around her, and how those very people manage to survive Hurrican Quinn.
------
REVIEW:
I love this book. I love it for the characters, for how well it's written, but most of all for how real it is. There are people just like Quinn and her posse, and chances are, most of us have encountered them and come out mostly unscathed. (Either that or we are the Mean Person.) We build walls, means of self-defense, which is exactly what Emma and her family do in order to survive Quinn.
I loved how Darrows wrote all the characters and their interactions with each other. There are so many different layers and complexities, depending on who you're with, and in each character, we received their anger, their love, their vulnerability, their guilt, and so much more.
A noteworthy aspect of this novel is that the focus is not on the romance. Not that there's anything wrong with that, because lord knows I love me some romance. That's not to say there isn't a romance aspect! It's so simple and easy-going, with no drama. But don't come into this thinking it's basically a Cinderella retelling where Emma gets swept away and saved by the Prince. More than anything, this book is about siblings (or pseudo-siblings), family, divorce and how it affects children, the meshing of families when new relationships are formed, and the coping mechanisms we develop.
It's may be rough to read in certain spots, as it pokes and prods and potentially reopens barely healed wounds, but it's absolutely worth the read.