A review by angrynerd
Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This book was one of my hardest to rate. I hesitated putting it under 3.0 because I for sure enjoyed it for what it was. It contained all the hallmarks of my more beloved stories. Even the AI generated personalized review, thought it would be a winner. But the writing didn’t grip me as much as my other 3.0 reviews and feels very strongly as if the larger story was just a means to flesh out a teenage ‘safe’ romance novel. 

For context, at time of reading I am nearly 40 years old. I read a lot of middle grade fiction and YA books (because thats what my kids are reading) and rarely do I feel as if I am reading “below my level”.  The story felt like it was constantly reminding me that I was not its target age group.

Each chapter starts with a snippet of another story as it’s introduction. They were written in a very faux formal style, which quickly became cumbersome. Was it trying - and failing - to sound ‘grown up’? I imagined that the ‘story within a story’ would come full circle by the end. About halfway through, I realized where we were going with them. By the end, I found myself skimming them. They didn’t add anything, that could not have been accomplished by including the characters backstory within the text somehow. 

‘Spicy’ novels aren’t my preference to begin with but the sexual tension was  thick and nearly immediate in the story. It was awkward, and presumably it was quite vanilla as MC is underage. 

There was a surprising amount of child death described. Not extremely graphic, but grotesque enough to bother some for sure.

2/3 of the way into the book I really felt as if not nearly enough had happened for me to fathom how it would be wrapped up. Yet somehow knew exactly where it was going. The ‘plot twists’ felt predictable. 

Other reviewers spoke of a surprise turn at the end, but I never saw it.
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