Astrid Hawk
I had to force myself to keep reading for most of this book. I really dislike teenagers, and this book did NOT help - whether one can consider it an accurate take on modern teenage social darkness or not. I wasn't like this as a teen - I didn't understand the social strata, and frankly didn't care. Reading this makes me extra glad I didn't. It's hard to empathize with the "We" narrator - a heterogenous group of teens who play judge and jury of their peers on a Discord server - and with the titular character Lucy Vale, who is a victim and cannot be blamed, but is also seemingly a stereotypical teenage girl whose mental health revolves around being popular and having a boyfriend. Authors, parents, etc don't seem to ever teach their teenage girls that there is actually another way to be. Other things to care about. So much could have been avoided here.
Most of this story really dragged. I couldn't keep up with who was popular and who was out, and therefore what the jury-of-peers narrator thought about those kids. I think that was part of the point, but it was exhausting and frankly boring to read. I was expecting something like a more modern set version of The God of the Woods - but it lacked both the tone-setting and the suspense/creepiness of TGotW. The last portion of the book, after "what happened" actually happened, moved a lot faster... but as the pages crawled by it became pretty obvious that the ending was going to be dissatisfying.
There's a lot here that makes this book really uncomfortable. The narration technique, the subject matter, the unresolved nature of everything, the fact that no one who deserves to be held accountable ever really is, the fact that the kids maybe grow up and learn a little but not what you really want them to learn. The start out self-centered and they remain self-centered even after they collectively realize their part in "what happened".
I guess a book being angering or disturbing is perhaps the sign of a good novel, and not a ho-hum 2-3* read. But... I don't know. It just wasn't an enjoyable experience. I might have to let this one sit a bit.
I had to force myself to keep reading for most of this book. I really dislike teenagers, and this book did NOT help - whether one can consider it an accurate take on modern teenage social darkness or not. I wasn't like this as a teen - I didn't understand the social strata, and frankly didn't care. Reading this makes me extra glad I didn't. It's hard to empathize with the "We" narrator - a heterogenous group of teens who play judge and jury of their peers on a Discord server - and with the titular character Lucy Vale, who is a victim and cannot be blamed, but is also seemingly a stereotypical teenage girl whose mental health revolves around being popular and having a boyfriend. Authors, parents, etc don't seem to ever teach their teenage girls that there is actually another way to be. Other things to care about. So much could have been avoided here.
Most of this story really dragged. I couldn't keep up with who was popular and who was out, and therefore what the jury-of-peers narrator thought about those kids. I think that was part of the point, but it was exhausting and frankly boring to read. I was expecting something like a more modern set version of The God of the Woods - but it lacked both the tone-setting and the suspense/creepiness of TGotW. The last portion of the book, after "what happened" actually happened, moved a lot faster... but as the pages crawled by it became pretty obvious that the ending was going to be dissatisfying.
There's a lot here that makes this book really uncomfortable. The narration technique, the subject matter, the unresolved nature of everything, the fact that no one who deserves to be held accountable ever really is, the fact that the kids maybe grow up and learn a little but not what you really want them to learn. The start out self-centered and they remain self-centered even after they collectively realize their part in "what happened".
I guess a book being angering or disturbing is perhaps the sign of a good novel, and not a ho-hum 2-3* read. But... I don't know. It just wasn't an enjoyable experience. I might have to let this one sit a bit.
