A review by mcipher
Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt

4.0

This turned out to be dark in a very different way than I expected, which I was kind of happy about. It was really sad and bleak, though a glimmer of hope came through at the end. The teacher character was something of a cliche, but I loved Iris and her story and relationship with the girls. Warning: if you have low self-esteem and tend to blame yourself for stuff, this book is going to feed that feeling. The characters are all throwing that pity party and beating themselves up, and it brings you down. The end isn't uplifting enough to make up for that so you have to dig your own way out. Really good read, though, I love Leavitt's writing.