Skylar
This book just didn't hit the mark for me. It was very predictable. None of the male characters (aside from Drew and his hubby) had any redeeming qualities and the women all experienced some sort of sexual assault. I do think the reality and depiction of rape culture was pretty accurate; I just find that the characters all fell too neatly into the narrative she was trying to set. This caused the book to lack dimension and provided little opportunity to connect with each character.
My younger self was swooning over this Princess Diaries like novel. So glad I got to read it. This book was very cute and definitely young adult.
I feel the way she went about contacting her father was super weird. If my dad were a Prince who I'd never met there is no way I'd contact some random dude he used to be friends with and announce that to him prior to getting in touch with my father unless I absolutely had to. Just tacky to me.
I also felt like her friends characters could have been developed a lot better. The girls seemed like a group of average girsl so when Noora was giving the valedictorian speech towards the end it seemed out of the blue. At times, the younger kind lingo seemed a little overdone. I don't know if it was necessary for the feel of the book as sometimes it didn't seem to have any of that feel at all.
The reveal for who ousted her also seemed a little odd. Only motivation was money? Really? Seemed kind of lame. A deep hatred for her while pretending to be her bff would have been more interesting.
Overall though, I did enjoy this book. I wanted more of the Tokyo Tattler articles since they added a deeper perspective and maybe more about the mom and dad love story. Either way, I'm excited to see what the next book brings with Akio and Izumi's love story.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I think the narrator did such a good job bring each of the characters to life. I was immediately sucked in to this book because of the main character, Gracie, who is essentially a list and productivity enthusiast.
The idea of having someone stand in for a famous actress for their events is hilarious, however there were a few things that I feel were completely overlooked in the book. The main thing was that Gracie and Sam started galivanting all over without ever get caught. This seemed problematic considering the entire premise of the book started because she was mistaken for Fangli without trying.
The other odd thing was when Mei ousted Fangli because she was jealous of Gracie and Sam's relationship. This didn't turn into anything which seemed a little odd despite them trying to explain it by buying off the media. IRL I feel like this story still would have turned into something even if it was small
2.5 stars
There were quite a few problematic things in this book. To start, the first 150 pgs or so were incredibly dull. I appreciated the backstory later in the book however trying to read through it was like nails on a chalkboard for me. Throughout the book, the main character had many flashback to what happened with her brother, Sam. This was quickly dismissed after Elin found out what actually happened. To me, this was a little odd as the author spend so much time building this up in the beginning of the book.
Elin also made horrible decisions and did not seem to be great at her detective work. They seem to elude to the fact that she had been on leave, but this isn't something that should just be completely foreign to you when you need to do it again after a short(ish) leave. She just seemed to have everything so wrong after being absolutely sure she had it right fairly often.
I felt like reasoning behind these killings were sort of anticlimactic and didn't make much sense. Only one of the murders did I feel like really had a reason before it almost turned into more of a political statement. I was also incredibly surprised when the killer was revealed. Elin repeatedly referred to the killer as being big and strong which was a very good red herring as I would have never guessed who it ended up being partially because of this.
The last thing that really seemed to bother me was the epilogue. I understand who the author is making it seem like is stalking her, but what I don't understand is why. Maybe thats something I'll understand better if/when the sequel is written, however, seems odd that after getting away he would seek her out. Just my opinion on that, but I guess I'm also not in his situation.
I feel like this book could have gone in so many different ways and would have been a lot better. However, I do think the author did a really good job at creating the spooky atmosphere for this book in the beginning, but it just quickly fizzled once everything was revealed.
This book brought me back to high school again. The teenage drama was almost too well done. Wonderfully written book on one persons struggles as he navigates living in a world as a black transgender. The inner turmoil with the main characters gender identity even after starting the transition was a good addition to drive home the fact that so many people struggle tor longer than one mat expect
4.5 ⭐
Wow this was a phenomenal debut. I was a little iffy as to if I would like this book and it surpassed all my expectations.
The characters were so well written I feel like I know them personally. You really got in their head as to why they thought the actions they were making were what they thought the best actions given the circumstances.
There were quite a few twists in this book. The twist that was really the main defining moment in this story probably could have delved deeper into what actually happened or been a bigger to do, but that's my only complaint at all.
The author also tied every chapter together seamlessly by picking up where the last character left off in a way you don't see often. Each chapter ended with a quote from the coming character and started with that characters quote from the end of the previous chapter. It was all very well thought out and I appreciated the style more than I would have thought
I would have given this more stars as I truly do think this was wonderfully written. I am just having a hard time getting past the fact that she was 8 when this all started and by 13 they were practically having sex. The ending also bothered me that all was just well and felt so neatly wrapped given the complexity of this entire book/situation. Also the twist at the end — wtf why was that even significant? Was that to help humanize a pedifile? Nobody should feel sorry for someone who grooms little girls no matter how “mature” they seem. GROSS! IDK why someone would be okay with even writing about this.
The main thing that bothered me throughout the book was how much different aspects reminded me of other mainstream things. It was so similar I couldn't not think “wow, this is like xyz” which really took away from the book. Overall, I really enjoyed the last 1/3 of the book once ideas were more established.