Wren
There’s a choice, when you know your fate’s to be hunted and gobbled up and used. You can give in like it’s inevitable or you can turn the tables.
The thing that I found the most interesting about the book is definitely its structure. It starts off the way the summary promises: there are three teens caught up in both an awkward not-quite-love-triangle and in a bank robbery. But this situation, while high-stakes and exciting in its own right, acts mostly as a framing device for revealing the MC’s backstory in a very twisty, non-linear way. Weaving all the threads together felt like solving a puzzle, and I’m very here for it.
While the backstory parts fascinated me, though, both in how they were constructed and what they revealed, I feel like the present-day part of the story suffered a little. All the action and tension in those bank robbery parts would have probably sustained my attention better if I wasn’t so eager to get to the next reveal about Nora’s past. I almost feel like picking a less action-y framing device storyline with lower, more personal stakes would have helped the story, because then those present-day chapters would have served as breathers.
Also, I definitely expected more teenage messiness with complex feelings and all. But while Iris and Wes both had their moments, I never felt like I got to know them as their own people and not just parts of Nora’s life. Frankly, I feel like Nora’s the only character in the story who genuinely had a fully realized personality. Everyone else is fairly one-note. Okay, maybe two-note at times. I guess that is what I get for picking up a novel that’s far more plot-oriented than character-oriented, lol. I did overall enjoy the experience regardless!
There’s a choice, when you know your fate’s to be hunted and gobbled up and used. You can give in like it’s inevitable or you can turn the tables.
The thing that I found the most interesting about the book is definitely its structure. It starts off the way the summary promises: there are three teens caught up in both an awkward not-quite-love-triangle and in a bank robbery. But this situation, while high-stakes and exciting in its own right, acts mostly as a framing device for revealing the MC’s backstory in a very twisty, non-linear way. Weaving all the threads together felt like solving a puzzle, and I’m very here for it.
While the backstory parts fascinated me, though, both in how they were constructed and what they revealed, I feel like the present-day part of the story suffered a little. All the action and tension in those bank robbery parts would have probably sustained my attention better if I wasn’t so eager to get to the next reveal about Nora’s past. I almost feel like picking a less action-y framing device storyline with lower, more personal stakes would have helped the story, because then those present-day chapters would have served as breathers.
Also, I definitely expected more teenage messiness with complex feelings and all. But while Iris and Wes both had their moments, I never felt like I got to know them as their own people and not just parts of Nora’s life. Frankly, I feel like Nora’s the only character in the story who genuinely had a fully realized personality. Everyone else is fairly one-note. Okay, maybe two-note at times. I guess that is what I get for picking up a novel that’s far more plot-oriented than character-oriented, lol. I did overall enjoy the experience regardless!