A review by libertyreads789
Just Do This One Thing for Me by Laura Zimmermann

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This is going to be one of those reviews where "it's not you, it's me." I feel like this novel has a real audience out there. I'm just not it. I picked this one up thinking it was one thing when it was another. I was expecting a Murder Mystery and instead got a Contemporary novel...with one person who dies. It did not help at all that I'm a 34 year old woman reading about a 17 year old, 15 year old, and an 8 year old as they make some of the worst decisions. All I kept doing during the novel was begging for an adult to step in and help fix the situation. I know a lot of YA and Middle Grade novels require adults to not be in the picture or to be an antagonist, but Goddamn does this book need a real adult somewhere. And the whole time my anxiety was ratcheting up and up. When I took a break from reading yesterday, I told my husband that I just want the book to be over so I will hopefully stop going down the anxiety spiral. I guess that can be a good or a bad thing depending on whether you put weight in the idea of an author eliciting any type of emotion from the reader. Overall, this just isn't the book for me. I know there are going to be Contemporary readers out there who love this. I'm just not one.