Amy
An easy and enjoyable read. I found the relationship between Smidge and Violet really interesting and found all of their chapters together entertaining. I feel the same way about Smidge and her mother's relationship except less entertaining and more thought provoking they gave me as a reader a more in depth perspective to Smidge both in terms of her psyche and the circumstances that lead to her running away. I think this book is lacking though. The parts with the travelling circus just fell short. I think the author might have been trying to do too much in a short amount of space, the cultish circus is a great idea but I don't think it was executed as well as it could have been.
Haven't watched the series which i felt made the story even better! A long read and sometimes tough but once i got into the flow of it, it was a really exciting read. The different point of views from different characters aided the story incredibly and pushed the plot along well. This also made me personally feel more connected to the characters. I will most definitely be reading the entire series after this book!!
A good book with a slightly monotonous ending however it conforms with most dystopian fiction so it makes sense!!!
A world where evolution is turning backwards it may be unrealistic but dystopian fiction doesn't need to be realistic to convey how society deals with disruption and disaster. Also covers some real life themes such as adoption and explores some native american traditions!
An exciting book which intertwined a murder mystery with themes of domestic abuse and violence. Throughout reading this book i learnt more about how abuse in relationships is not always in a physical sense. More and more i picked up on little things said to the main character in the book keelin, and realised how horrible and manipulative they were as well as being plain gas lighting. On top of this there was some relatability as I was able to make connections between some of the abusive things said to keelin into relationships i have seen in real life. Overall this is an easy read that highlights the close knit society that is rural Ireland! Also: this book reminded me of the Sophie Toscan Du Plantier murder, maybe due to the “closeness” of the two murder sights geographically. The downfall to this book is I feel as though i never receive a true sense for who keelin is despite it mainly being written from her point of view, I can't quite gauge her. I also would have loved a point of view from Alex but oh well!
I feel like I felt I was meant to enjoy it a lot more than I actually did. I found it very repetitive and in a way an instagram ‘activist' in book form. Despite this I did learn a few new things (because they were drilled into me every chapter). I did enjoy the illustrations though which for me broke the book up slightly.
