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michelle_pink_polka_dot's review against another edition
5.0
I was very excited about this book the minute I heard about it. I could tell from the description that it was going to give me all the things I love when it comes to Stephanie Kuehn books. Mainly, messed up main characters that you aren't sure if they're the good guys, the bad guys, or both.
I can't tell you a lot about this book because almost everything feels spoilery to me, so I'll tell you this: It's hiking and things go bad. It's DARK, and disturbing at times, and it has characters that you can't really trust or like.
Right off the bat, I was hooked. The beginning of this book delves into Ben's relationship with Rose. It started off as just something to do for Ben, but turned into "love" (I say that in quotes because I'm not sure if these characters really know what love is), eventually getting to a place where I wasn't sure what the heck was going on. Was Rose playing head games with Ben because she was jealous of his relationship with his mother?? Was Rose restless in their small-town and wanted something more than Ben could offer? Did Rose know something about Ben that we didn't? Her motivations to me were a mystery that I wanted to know.
One of the more interesting parts of this book for me was that Ben suffers from debilitating migraines due to a traumatic head injury in his past. Being that they were out on a dangerous hike to begin with, the threat of an oncoming headache made the tension that much higher.
I used to get migraines when I was young, and when important days came along (SAT day, graduation, first day of a new job), I used to worry that one would happen and I wouldn't be able to go. I've always hated the way people throw around the word migraine because it makes it seem like it's just a headache to people who've never had one-- it's NOT just a headache. It's not something you can just power through.
The best thing for me: I love the fact that Ben was this character that we as readers didn't know for sure if he was someone we should be rooting for. I wanted to root for him because he was telling the story, and he was someone who had giant shortcomings, but owned up to them. I respected that about him-- but due to his violent past and that we KNOW that he's going to have a violent future, I had to keep reminding myself that he's not necessarily a protagonist in this story.
I really love the way Stephanie Kuehn does the hero/villain blur. Everything gets confused and mixed together and by the end, I'm always left feeling a little icky. This one was no exception. The last line made me want to read this book all over again to look for clues that I missed.
OVERALL: Such a "me" book. It's dark, and there are no true heroes or villains. I love a YA book that plays with psychology and messes with my head. This book is heavy on the character development, but also has the tension of being isolated in the woods. I definitely recommend!
My Blog:
I can't tell you a lot about this book because almost everything feels spoilery to me, so I'll tell you this: It's hiking and things go bad. It's DARK, and disturbing at times, and it has characters that you can't really trust or like.
Right off the bat, I was hooked. The beginning of this book delves into Ben's relationship with Rose. It started off as just something to do for Ben, but turned into "love" (I say that in quotes because I'm not sure if these characters really know what love is), eventually getting to a place where I wasn't sure what the heck was going on. Was Rose playing head games with Ben because she was jealous of his relationship with his mother?? Was Rose restless in their small-town and wanted something more than Ben could offer? Did Rose know something about Ben that we didn't? Her motivations to me were a mystery that I wanted to know.
One of the more interesting parts of this book for me was that Ben suffers from debilitating migraines due to a traumatic head injury in his past. Being that they were out on a dangerous hike to begin with, the threat of an oncoming headache made the tension that much higher.
I used to get migraines when I was young, and when important days came along (SAT day, graduation, first day of a new job), I used to worry that one would happen and I wouldn't be able to go. I've always hated the way people throw around the word migraine because it makes it seem like it's just a headache to people who've never had one-- it's NOT just a headache. It's not something you can just power through.
The best thing for me: I love the fact that Ben was this character that we as readers didn't know for sure if he was someone we should be rooting for. I wanted to root for him because he was telling the story, and he was someone who had giant shortcomings, but owned up to them. I respected that about him-- but due to his violent past and that we KNOW that he's going to have a violent future, I had to keep reminding myself that he's not necessarily a protagonist in this story.
I really love the way Stephanie Kuehn does the hero/villain blur. Everything gets confused and mixed together and by the end, I'm always left feeling a little icky. This one was no exception. The last line made me want to read this book all over again to look for clues that I missed.
OVERALL: Such a "me" book. It's dark, and there are no true heroes or villains. I love a YA book that plays with psychology and messes with my head. This book is heavy on the character development, but also has the tension of being isolated in the woods. I definitely recommend!
My Blog:
kori_krc's review against another edition
2.0
In reality this was more of a 2.5 for me. The writing was really good. The description and characterization was done very well. The plot was interesting. I had moments while reading this where I felt the anxiety and panic of the characters. I think my main issue was that nothing felt resolved. I wish their rescue and things leading up to Ben's arrest was shown. I would have gladly ready 100-150 more pages to get that portion of the story.
lazygal's review against another edition
3.0
A little too heavy-handed on the menace part, and the characters are far too one-dimensional but the mystery of how and why Ben kills Rose will keep teens reading.
ARC provided by publisher.
ARC provided by publisher.
naomistrange's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.0
paigelm's review against another edition
1.0
the first part of this book was fine, but the level of impracticality on their school sanctioned trip made this story more and more unbelievable that I couldn't do it. i didn't care about the character motivations and felt that the whole thing was super bizarre. bah!
maya_alicia's review against another edition
3.0
I'd give this one a tentative 3.5. I absolutely loved the voice this was written in, very matter of fact no ridiculous metaphors or useless fluffy filler. I also loved that this was set for a majority in the woods, at any given time there's few other places i'd rather be than on a hike to a lake. What I didn't love, now hear me out, is the number of absolutely asinine decisions that were made by all the characters. Now I know it's a thriller so I shouldn't expect good decisions to be made or the plot wouldn't go anywhere but I'm also not one of those people who likes to hate read.
Ya know like in Gone Girl how everyone hated the characters but then loved the book for it? I'm definitely not one of those people. After a certain moment right before the climax I decided that I really didn't care what would end up happening to any of the characters because they had all made their beds. There's probably a whole lot more hidden in this one that I'm missing about the struggle between right and wrong and what that really means or the fact that no one can save you but yourself but I just cannot get past my lack of concern for the characters. Having said all of that though I would definitely recommend this book and am currently adding more books by Stephanie Kuehn to my TBR.
*Thank you to Penguin First to Read for providing me this ARC for review.
Ya know like in Gone Girl how everyone hated the characters but then loved the book for it? I'm definitely not one of those people. After a certain moment right before the climax I decided that I really didn't care what would end up happening to any of the characters because they had all made their beds. There's probably a whole lot more hidden in this one that I'm missing about the struggle between right and wrong and what that really means or the fact that no one can save you but yourself but I just cannot get past my lack of concern for the characters. Having said all of that though I would definitely recommend this book and am currently adding more books by Stephanie Kuehn to my TBR.
*Thank you to Penguin First to Read for providing me this ARC for review.
helenblake13's review against another edition
2.0
this book was generally pretty decent. i guess to me it was just kinda... meh.
i mean, the plot is overall interesting and i think the characters were pretty fun. none of them were suuuper likable, except for the teacher and his wife, but that's not why i rated this a four out of five.
i think the main reason why i took off a star is because sometimes i feel like things just happened sequentially with no real connection. like it was just sort of like, "oh. i guess this is happening now. huh." and i think the beginning set it up to be like some huge deal? and then it was like lol he kills her lmao and i was like... oh. again, the ending was just another sequential thing that simply happened.
i don't know really how to describe it. i mean, it was a fine book, and kuehn is a fantastic writer, but i wasn't like, into it into it.. i guess.
either way, the teacher, his wife, and tomás were the best characters. everyone else was just kinda annoying.
also, why the hell is the teacher just sort of letting them off onto the mountain on their own???? like yeah they're high schoolers and they can take care of themselves, but uh, isn't that a liability? like what if they just fell off a cliff or something? or like what if they get lost or attacked my mountain lions or whatever and no one's there to help them? like yeah okay ben is a decent map dude. that's great. shouldn't there be someone... with him????? ie. a teacher?????? i mean, honestly, all the problems started because the teacher was just kinda like eh do whatever you want on this random mountain.
whatever. i still liked him.
i mean, the plot is overall interesting and i think the characters were pretty fun. none of them were suuuper likable, except for the teacher and his wife, but that's not why i rated this a four out of five.
i think the main reason why i took off a star is because sometimes i feel like things just happened sequentially with no real connection. like it was just sort of like, "oh. i guess this is happening now. huh." and i think the beginning set it up to be like some huge deal? and then it was like lol he kills her lmao and i was like... oh. again, the ending was just another sequential thing that simply happened.
i don't know really how to describe it. i mean, it was a fine book, and kuehn is a fantastic writer, but i wasn't like, into it into it.. i guess.
either way, the teacher, his wife, and tomás were the best characters. everyone else was just kinda annoying.
also, why the hell is the teacher just sort of letting them off onto the mountain on their own???? like yeah they're high schoolers and they can take care of themselves, but uh, isn't that a liability? like what if they just fell off a cliff or something? or like what if they get lost or attacked my mountain lions or whatever and no one's there to help them? like yeah okay ben is a decent map dude. that's great. shouldn't there be someone... with him????? ie. a teacher?????? i mean, honestly, all the problems started because the teacher was just kinda like eh do whatever you want on this random mountain.
whatever. i still liked him.
booksdogsandjess's review against another edition
3.0
If this book had a trigger warning it would be for ... all the things
All of them, domestic violence, miscarriages, suicidal thoughts, mercy killing and it goes on.
Ben has a troubled past, due to that past he suffers from debilitating migraines, he has a girlfriend named Rose and the books starts with their" meet cute" sort of story, where Rose basically informs him he should take her out on a date at that very moment. Rose is a very "drop whatever your doing and do what I want to do" kind of girl.
We get Ben's back story entwined with the current events which are the preparation and subsequent school trip to a mountain top. Ben is assisting his favourite teacher/sort of father figure on this expedition for extra credit. So the teacher, Ben and about seven other students leave for what will turn out to be the worst school trip ever and it goes off the rails right from the start, and on top of all the bananas stuff to occur a gigantic storm
cult like campers
maybe bank robbers
and half baked schemes
we also get teenage melodrama out the wazoo
I did not love how this was paced, we get a page about a memory Ben was having about something god awful probably, but then for present day action only a few sentences would be dedicated to what seemed like an important and exciting moment. There was drama on top of drama here and it just seemed like the story got lost in that.
All of them, domestic violence, miscarriages, suicidal thoughts, mercy killing and it goes on.
Ben has a troubled past, due to that past he suffers from debilitating migraines, he has a girlfriend named Rose and the books starts with their" meet cute" sort of story, where Rose basically informs him he should take her out on a date at that very moment. Rose is a very "drop whatever your doing and do what I want to do" kind of girl.
We get Ben's back story entwined with the current events which are the preparation and subsequent school trip to a mountain top. Ben is assisting his favourite teacher/sort of father figure on this expedition for extra credit. So the teacher, Ben and about seven other students leave for what will turn out to be the worst school trip ever and it goes off the rails right from the start, and on top of all the bananas stuff to occur a gigantic storm
cult like campers
maybe bank robbers
and half baked schemes
we also get teenage melodrama out the wazoo
I did not love how this was paced, we get a page about a memory Ben was having about something god awful probably, but then for present day action only a few sentences would be dedicated to what seemed like an important and exciting moment. There was drama on top of drama here and it just seemed like the story got lost in that.