Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - The New Girl

Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The New Girl by Jesse Q. Sutanto

13 reviews

theoceanrose's review

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emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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jenn_o_3's review

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

Read her other books instead

I love this author so was disappointed by this book. It just wasn’t as good as her other novels. I know this is more of a thriller than a mystery, but thrillers usually rely on perilous circumstances to create tension while most of the tension here was all in Lia’s head. It was like being in a non-stop panic attack.

The whole second half of the book is Lia

dealing with her guilt about Werner’s death. I’ve seen a lot of people in the reviews call it murder, but he was trying to kill her. Even if her actions killed him, and it’s not clear they did, it would be self defense. But it really was an accident in the midst of an assault BY HIM!! I can understand her not trusting the cops after all the adults who’ve already betrayed her so far in the story, but the starving herself out of guilt seems misplaced. Speaking of that, she’s on a track scholarship and the coach doesn’t notice she’s dropped too much weight until the day of the meet?

At the end, they never explain why Lia is wearing an ankle monitor. They say Danny never revealed her involvement in Werner’s death, and the rich parents covered up the drugs. What was she guilty of?

Less important, but annoying, is the track storyline makes no sense. There’s only 8 girls on the track team? They never mention the boys track team even though meets are always mixed. Track on the west coast is a spring sport, not fall. Sports college scholarships aren’t offered to sophomores. Her coach doesn’t notice that she’s lost an unhealthy amount of weight? If you’re going to make something a large part of your character’s story, do some basic research.

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fkshg8465's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I wish I’d read this one before The Obsession since that would’ve been chronologically correct. I always feel discombobulated when reading or watching series out of sequence. But there really isn’t much connection between the two books either, other than one character who spends most of the story off script. So it shouldn’t have bothered me so much other than these events of The Obsession lost some of the logic for me. Also, ask the characters were dispicable and disposable.

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honestlyyours77's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I will note that I listened to the audio version of this book which I fear is completely responsible for my lack of enjoyment of it.
I wish there was a user based app where there was at least an audio book section to rate the reading of the book since it has such an impact on the consumption of the work.

I wanted to scream at the characters but most likely because of how Eunice Wong performed it. I honestly wonder if some of there female audio readers of a certain age have ever had interactions with a teen. Their caricature like performances are getting more and more ridiculous and completely taking the consumer out of the story. This may not be the authors fault directly but they are ultimately responsible for their work and need to figure out something better as not to ruin their novels.

Audio readers need to walk the line of reading the book with energy and nuance to get a reader engaged and know the intent of the emotion going on but not step into completely taking over and not allowing the consumer to build their vision of the world being put forth.

Spoilers…

For the book. It was terribly predictable. Just once I would like the nice good looking boyfriend that the protagonist didn’t think they could “get”, to not be the culprit in the end. Other than the predictability if it, it is contributing to a very sexist mindset in many facets.

The biggest issue with the work is that it’s simply not believable. While nobody should be ridiculed or even commented on for their race, sex, financial status etc… it’s no wonder she isn’t liked as she is so over the top.

Stories are recycled often and that is fine but you need to do it well and this just does not hit the mark. It has the “been there , heard that” feeling of gossip girl, mean girls and a hint of pretty little liars all rolled into one and it just doesn’t live up.

It was also an edited mess. There were many holes that should have been caught by the editors or in the editing the holes inadvertently got created. Either way it was a fail.

Positives? The color of the cover is pretty. It’s also nice to have diverse characters that are from different cultures. I just just a shame it didn’t have more positives to go along with it.

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sienna1508's review

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is a good book but I found the main character to be a bit cringy in some parts. The author used a lot of current-day teenager slang which I feel will get a bit out of date in a few years.
I wouldn't say this book is bad, but it isn't as good as The Obsession.
I feel like there were a lot of weird moments where the book was really rollercoaster-ish. It does deal with a lot of sensitive areas which I can see as being problematic because they feel very stereotypical and underdone.
I feel like the cover doesn't really match the book. I feel like if the book was more like the cover it would've been a much better book. Jesse Q. Sutanto is such a great writer - especially in The Obsession - so tbh this wasn't really what I expected.

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