A review by electraheart
Escape Theory by Margaux Froley
3.0
I'm ambivalent about this book because while there are a handful of good aspects, there are equally as many negative.
For starters, the negatives: The first section of this book is filled with an overabundance of product placement which threw me off. While the book had good intentions, the whole idea of it completely put me off. We surprisingly don't know much about Devon, so having her become a peer counselor came off as strange to me. She definitely didn't seem fit for the position, and the footnotes with instructions from the manual felt unnecessary. While I know it's typical for people to be angsty about therapy, it was annoying that every single character had an attitude toward Devon about the situation. All of the characters are completely flat and don't change whatsoever throughout the book; none of them have intricate backgrounds and the bigger characters don't add much to the actual story. I was surprised by how greatly the unimportant characters affected the plot. Also, can we talk about Presley? Because she got on my nerves like no other; the redundant about of slut-shaming thrown into literary references and her constant singing was obnoxious. While she might have been meant to be the comic relief of the story, she came off as incredibly ignorant instead.
Despite the novel I wrote about how awful this book is, there are some perks: Devon & Co. might not be the greatest characters, but Hutch was interesting as hell. I was constantly intrigued by his story, and I was happy that Devon was trying to get to the bottom of his case. While the author basically gives away part of the plot within the first dozen pages, the biggest plot twist was a surprise.
Overall, I'm not incredibly thrilled with this book, as it has plenty of ups and downs, but it wasn't awful. I don't think I'll be reading the sequel (because seriously, what could it be about?), though.
For starters, the negatives: The first section of this book is filled with an overabundance of product placement which threw me off. While the book had good intentions, the whole idea of it completely put me off. We surprisingly don't know much about Devon, so having her become a peer counselor came off as strange to me. She definitely didn't seem fit for the position, and the footnotes with instructions from the manual felt unnecessary. While I know it's typical for people to be angsty about therapy, it was annoying that every single character had an attitude toward Devon about the situation. All of the characters are completely flat and don't change whatsoever throughout the book; none of them have intricate backgrounds and the bigger characters don't add much to the actual story. I was surprised by how greatly the unimportant characters affected the plot. Also, can we talk about Presley? Because she got on my nerves like no other; the redundant about of slut-shaming thrown into literary references and her constant singing was obnoxious. While she might have been meant to be the comic relief of the story, she came off as incredibly ignorant instead.
Despite the novel I wrote about how awful this book is, there are some perks: Devon & Co. might not be the greatest characters, but Hutch was interesting as hell. I was constantly intrigued by his story, and I was happy that Devon was trying to get to the bottom of his case. While the author basically gives away part of the plot within the first dozen pages, the biggest plot twist was a surprise.
Overall, I'm not incredibly thrilled with this book, as it has plenty of ups and downs, but it wasn't awful. I don't think I'll be reading the sequel (because seriously, what could it be about?), though.