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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
What a frustratingly good book. The mother daughter relationships were so realistic, I couldn't help but cringe remembering how I was at 18.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
I usually like Chevy Stevens writing. I don't know what the heck happened in this one.
Toni is a young girl who is all in lurve with a bad boy named Ryan. They smoke pot, have sex and pretty much are the typical whiney teenagers. Her younger sister is perfect in every way. Then Toni has ticked off a major teen drama queen and the bullying begins. The thing is I liked none of the characters. None.
The first half of this book is written so childish that I almost DNF'd it. I kept on and it did somewhat pick up in the second half. Toni and Ryan are convincted of her sister's death. It's obvious that they did not do it and I had to suspend belief that they were convicted. The whole thing was just head shake worthy.
I never did connect with Toni's character either when she was being bullied, the whole prison sentence or at any time.
She was bullied in high school, in prison and in the half way house? It just seems like too much.
I will say her mom in this book is probably the worst case of some one who should never have had children that I have ever read.
I was given an ARC copy of this book by Netgalley for a honest review.
Toni is a young girl who is all in lurve with a bad boy named Ryan. They smoke pot, have sex and pretty much are the typical whiney teenagers. Her younger sister is perfect in every way. Then Toni has ticked off a major teen drama queen and the bullying begins. The thing is I liked none of the characters. None.
The first half of this book is written so childish that I almost DNF'd it. I kept on and it did somewhat pick up in the second half. Toni and Ryan are convincted of her sister's death. It's obvious that they did not do it and I had to suspend belief that they were convicted. The whole thing was just head shake worthy.
I never did connect with Toni's character either when she was being bullied, the whole prison sentence or at any time.
She was bullied in high school, in prison and in the half way house? It just seems like too much.
I will say her mom in this book is probably the worst case of some one who should never have had children that I have ever read.
I was given an ARC copy of this book by Netgalley for a honest review.
I'll come back with a more complete review soon, but basically my impression was that it was a decent story that was held back by sub-par writing.
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Okay, so, the writing in this novel is terrible. The vast majority of the characters, the writing style, the setting, and yes, the sentences on the page are all handled extremely poorly. We are reminded of things we already know ad nauseam, as the author repeating things is used as a crutch for poor description and character development.
This is much the same from Stevens' last book, so it seems her writing ability has hardly improved.
"That Night," however, has a much better story than "Still Missing." It doesn't seem like it on the surface, but the book is actually quite thrilling towards the end. There is some set up and payoff, and despite some of the plot being quite obvious I do like the way the pieces come together.
The narrative style of switching back and forth between the prison and high school settings is somewhat creative, but does not complement the story much, and really only serves to delay the murder scene to keep you in waiting.
There are some nice flourishes here or there, things that make you sit back and go "Wow, that was good." The murder scene was haunting, some descriptions of Toni getting used to prison life were made relatable and sad (I like the detail of her feeling ashamed to put her return address on letters to her grandmother). And despite the characters being mostly two dimensional, most of them had some nice moments.
2 stars. Only gets above 1 star by virtue of the story, which if executed well, could've been turned into a quality book, but is sadly held back by the writing.
---------------------
Okay, so, the writing in this novel is terrible. The vast majority of the characters, the writing style, the setting, and yes, the sentences on the page are all handled extremely poorly. We are reminded of things we already know ad nauseam, as the author repeating things is used as a crutch for poor description and character development.
This is much the same from Stevens' last book, so it seems her writing ability has hardly improved.
"That Night," however, has a much better story than "Still Missing." It doesn't seem like it on the surface, but the book is actually quite thrilling towards the end. There is some set up and payoff, and despite some of the plot being quite obvious I do like the way the pieces come together.
The narrative style of switching back and forth between the prison and high school settings is somewhat creative, but does not complement the story much, and really only serves to delay the murder scene to keep you in waiting.
There are some nice flourishes here or there, things that make you sit back and go "Wow, that was good." The murder scene was haunting, some descriptions of Toni getting used to prison life were made relatable and sad (I like the detail of her feeling ashamed to put her return address on letters to her grandmother). And despite the characters being mostly two dimensional, most of them had some nice moments.
2 stars. Only gets above 1 star by virtue of the story, which if executed well, could've been turned into a quality book, but is sadly held back by the writing.
Wow.. this book totally and complete blew me away. It was very hard to put down, but sometimes it was so hard to read. This story is about a girl and her boyfriend who are convicted of murdering her sister. This novel jumps around to when Toni is in prisoner, what lead her there, and the after effects of this life she had. Chevy the author completely understands teenagers and their mentality, and sold me on how prison would harden someone. I cried multiple times during this novel.. it just really got to me. The twists in this story are insane, and I loved being on this ride. I enjoyed this book so much I can't wait to pick up my next Chey Stevens novel!
This was such a good book! Highly recommend this to anyone looking for a great read. I'm now going to look up other books from this author and hope they are on the same caliber.
mysterious
medium-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:
Yes
Wasn't terrible but didn't particularly wow me either. The jumping back and forth between the past and present didn't flow very well. What actually happened on the night in question is pretty easily guessed long before Toni ever gets to that point - which isn't necessarily bad or a sign of bad writing but coupled with the way the chapters bounced around made the book a bit of a slog to get through.
Captivated by Toni and Ryan's story and had to keep reading to find out why and how it ended!
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes