Scan barcode
cathi_p's review against another edition
1.0
Garbage. I haven't read Danielle Steel in many, many years and this book read like a first time writer trying to meet a word count. There was no character development everything was told to you instead of shown.
abbybroncos's review against another edition
1.0
This book was terrible for a lot of reasons but it wasn't unreadable. The first one or two chapters was literally just a list of names and descriptions and I didn't remember any of them the next times they came up. There was a focus on way too many characters, if it had only been 2-4 characters then the book would have been significantly better. Even if the perspectives would have been more separated the book would have been better but they were all line by line. There is a lot in this book that I don't think was researched at all. Police investigations, court sentencing and just the way that an average person speaks to begin with. There are so many thoughts in this book that are repeated over and over. Like I understand if that's how the character feels but show me don't tell me! Which is another issue with this book, everything is told instead of shown. The main event that happens in this book is completely smoothed over so quickly that its confusing that it happened in the first place. There are no details in this book its pretty much just generalizations of everything that happens. There are a lot of cliches in this book as well and some of them are slightly racist. The motivations for the characters made absolutely no sense to me. They were almost completely nonsensical. Plus there are side plots in this book that I honestly could not have cared less about. In fact the last 20 or so pages I skipped quite a bit because I didn't think it was relevant to the story itself. There are so many problems in the writing of this book that it honestly confuses me that she is such a popular writer. The ending was completely predictable because the last 100 pages the ending is alluded to through "opinions" of the characters. I did not feel an attachment to any of the characters. I just really don't understand how anyone could have loved this book.
shannanhicks's review against another edition
4.0
One of the things that I love about Danielle Steel is her ability to stick to a formula and execute it beautifully. As a reader, I find comfort in that. This book is very different, but it still has a formula that a reader can envision and hold dear. This is book takes place at a new England boarding school. for the many years of its existence, it has been all boys, but for the first year, girls are being admitted. All is going well until a student is injured and that is where the real meat of the story begins.
This was a good and quick read for me. I was not quite sure what to expect since this is not really a romance. But I was glad to see that even with her prolific career, she is willing to try a new story formula. I recommend this highly for library and personal purchase.
This was a good and quick read for me. I was not quite sure what to expect since this is not really a romance. But I was glad to see that even with her prolific career, she is willing to try a new story formula. I recommend this highly for library and personal purchase.
chloewhitehead_'s review against another edition
1.0
279/317. That’s how far I got. I fucking hated this book. I usually wouldn’t say I finished a book I haven’t but this isn’t even worth the last couple of pages.
It deals with teenage rape yet you see the side of the rapist and his friends. The girl is seen as a slut from multiple people. And it presents the ‘moral issue’ with deciding wether to protect your friend or fight for a girl who was hurt. It’s absolute bullshit. It shouldn’t be a fucking moral issue… I understand that’s why the author wrote the book, to convince others it’s ok to turn your friends in. But the way she wrote it genuinely kind of disgusts me.
The book was boring and moved at a pace that made me lose interest way too easily. It literally haunted me like a ghost. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone. It’s awful and made me want to scoop out my own eyeballs. Don’t buy it.
It deals with teenage rape yet you see the side of the rapist and his friends. The girl is seen as a slut from multiple people. And it presents the ‘moral issue’ with deciding wether to protect your friend or fight for a girl who was hurt. It’s absolute bullshit. It shouldn’t be a fucking moral issue… I understand that’s why the author wrote the book, to convince others it’s ok to turn your friends in. But the way she wrote it genuinely kind of disgusts me.
The book was boring and moved at a pace that made me lose interest way too easily. It literally haunted me like a ghost. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone. It’s awful and made me want to scoop out my own eyeballs. Don’t buy it.
lookicanread's review against another edition
2.0
The plot was interesting and had a lot of potential but I just felt like the mark was missed somewhere. Not an awful read, it’s manageable, but certainly not a read I would recommend.
pauline_chrn's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
onl1118's review against another edition
1.0
I don’t normally leave reviews for the books I read, but I felt that this particular book inspired some thoughts that I really needed to share.
First off, the writing is just bad. Very repetitive, lacking interest, poorly paced, unbelievable and random plot points. The dialogue often goes in circles, repeating the same sentiment over and over for no reason. Plus, the characters are very one dimensional and frankly they’re almost all terrible people. But aside from that, this book is extremely problematic.
Sexism, misogyny, and the objectification of young girls smack you in the face right from the beginning when the one male teacher despairs over the hair products the girls will be brining to school while another teacher (who is very much an adult) ogles a teenage girl’s legs and feels he understands why the male students can’t help but “be tempted.” These types of responses are laughed off and seen as funny by other staff. Which is clearly not okay.
The elitism and privilege of these characters is addressed very casually and the whole book is very, very white. The Black assistant headmaster is included in a way that seems a lot like tokenism to make up for the total lack of diversity. She is essentially a white character that for some reason was made Black and the matter of race is never touched on beyond describing her as being Black. The Asian American character is also portrayed in a very stereotypical, racist way that is just not okay.
In more than one instance, parents physically assault their children and no one does anything to intervene.
Furthermore, aspects of the crime and the response to that crime have some truly bizarre and unbelievable jumps in logic at times and it is all handled very, very badly. For instance, it was repeated more than once that rape victims used to be vilified at trial but that’s not how it is anymore. And I found that to be blatantly untrue as that is still the case in many instances. However, it was even more frequent for characters, even the victim, to despair over the perpetrators’ futures now that they’ve made this “mistake”. At one point it’s even said that, “the perpetrators were victims in a way too.” And it should go without saying that that is disgusting and the opposite of the point that should be made here. This book should be about bringing rapists to justice, believing women who are sexually assaulted, and dealing with the very flawed legal system in our society. Instead, it’s a book where the central plot points seemingly focus on giving privileged people a pass for committing crimes, debasing and mistreating women, and allowing a school, its staff, and the parents to worry more about their image and reputation than the actual students, and especially the victim.
This is quite possibly the worst book I have ever had the misfortune of reading.
First off, the writing is just bad. Very repetitive, lacking interest, poorly paced, unbelievable and random plot points. The dialogue often goes in circles, repeating the same sentiment over and over for no reason. Plus, the characters are very one dimensional and frankly they’re almost all terrible people. But aside from that, this book is extremely problematic.
Sexism, misogyny, and the objectification of young girls smack you in the face right from the beginning when the one male teacher despairs over the hair products the girls will be brining to school while another teacher (who is very much an adult) ogles a teenage girl’s legs and feels he understands why the male students can’t help but “be tempted.” These types of responses are laughed off and seen as funny by other staff. Which is clearly not okay.
The elitism and privilege of these characters is addressed very casually and the whole book is very, very white. The Black assistant headmaster is included in a way that seems a lot like tokenism to make up for the total lack of diversity. She is essentially a white character that for some reason was made Black and the matter of race is never touched on beyond describing her as being Black. The Asian American character is also portrayed in a very stereotypical, racist way that is just not okay.
In more than one instance, parents physically assault their children and no one does anything to intervene.
Furthermore, aspects of the crime and the response to that crime have some truly bizarre and unbelievable jumps in logic at times and it is all handled very, very badly. For instance, it was repeated more than once that rape victims used to be vilified at trial but that’s not how it is anymore. And I found that to be blatantly untrue as that is still the case in many instances. However, it was even more frequent for characters, even the victim, to despair over the perpetrators’ futures now that they’ve made this “mistake”. At one point it’s even said that, “the perpetrators were victims in a way too.” And it should go without saying that that is disgusting and the opposite of the point that should be made here. This book should be about bringing rapists to justice, believing women who are sexually assaulted, and dealing with the very flawed legal system in our society. Instead, it’s a book where the central plot points seemingly focus on giving privileged people a pass for committing crimes, debasing and mistreating women, and allowing a school, its staff, and the parents to worry more about their image and reputation than the actual students, and especially the victim.
This is quite possibly the worst book I have ever had the misfortune of reading.
literary_kel's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
thesandrapages's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0