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emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
i was kind of worried i'd have to give this book a lower rating; the first half of it felt slow, sometimes frustrating and confusing, but there was just enough to keep me interested and invested in getting answers. about three fourths of the way through, i got them. then it was a lot of "oh my god", some of the prior issues i'd had made sense, and i'd say overall the 'revelation' and ending was satisfying enough.
unfortunately, that first half of the book does keep the rating "lowish". the jumbled timeline might have been easier to keep up with if i'd had a physical copy rather than an audiobook, so i won't put too much pressure on that. i also struggled to care about the main 'pairing' for a number of reasons, so whenever the focus was on that, i was uninvested and ready for it to move on to something else.
if this were out of 10, it'd be a 7 (overall positive feelings, might come back to it just to re-read with the knowledge i now have). the narrator also did a fantastic job in the final chapters. like, she did great overall, but you could feel those last few chapters.
SPOILER TIME BELOW
things i liked:
unfortunately, that first half of the book does keep the rating "lowish". the jumbled timeline might have been easier to keep up with if i'd had a physical copy rather than an audiobook, so i won't put too much pressure on that. i also struggled to care about the main 'pairing' for a number of reasons, so whenever the focus was on that, i was uninvested and ready for it to move on to something else.
if this were out of 10, it'd be a 7 (overall positive feelings, might come back to it just to re-read with the knowledge i now have). the narrator also did a fantastic job in the final chapters. like, she did great overall, but you could feel those last few chapters.
SPOILER TIME BELOW
things i liked:
i really loved mirren and johnny. my love for mirren was more or less immediate, but johnny took a bit more warming up to. the twist genuinely took me off guard. i'd written down a handful of suspicions for what could have happened or why gat and cady couldn't be together. i was devastated along with cady when she remembered the dogs had died in the fire. so, when you get to that semi-final fairytale, and the witch starts handing out matches, there's this deep feeling of dread that starts to form in your stomach. it was effective, and a nightmare to think about. the overall reflection toward the end of the book was very nice. i still can't quite tell if the liars were actual... ghosts that cady was interacting with, or if they were more something she was only experiencing in her own head. i guess it doesn't matter? i don't remember if she ever caused uncomfortable moments in the "present day" sections by mentioning she'd been hanging out with the liars to the other family members. i liked the concept of writing phrases on the back of your hand. THAT was a "teenage thing" that felt nostalgic or familiar to me (bringing this up due to other things i'll mention below). and i like both that the book ends with her writing a phrase on her hands, and with a nice one as well.
what didn't jive:
like i said, the first half of the book felt... slow. and it was frustrating in the sense that so many scenes kind of felt like they went nowhere, and even with the perspective of how things end, i think the book could have been a bit tighter. the only thing that really kept me engaged WAS the possibility of answers being dangled in front of me like a carrot on a stick. again, i liked mirren and johnny well enough, but most everyone else fell quite flat. considering who's left in the end, i'm kind of bummed there was so little exploration of her relationship with her remaining family members. her only real relationships were with the liars. that being said: i very much did not care about gat/cady. it made the moments where she'd be like "my gat" kind of exhausting or dramatic in that teenage life-or-death kind of way that, yes, i'll admit i never experiences and therefore can't really understand. i have so many notes in my journal consisting of variations of "go away, gat" or "shut up, gat". his behavior DOES make more sense once you get to the twist, but not enough so that i believe in how much they cared for each other or that they were in love or whatever. out of all the liars, her relationship with gat felt the weakest. some of the prose was quite melodramatic on cady's end. albeit, i'm sure this could also be connected back to her being a teenager and my personal eye-rolling comes from that inability to understand, again. like, saying that she gets her blood everywhere as a way of just saying she's sad. it was... interesting? the first time, but i quickly got a bit irritated with it.
yep! that's all i can really think of right now. this one's been on my list for a while, and even though i was discouraged and kind of frustrated in the first half, i'm super glad i stuck it out and got to finish it. maybe i'll circle back to it and find that with Knowledge™, the earlier sections will be a bit less of a drag.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Classism
Minor: Alcoholism, Racism, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Grief
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug use, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Racism, Blood, Alcohol, Classism
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Cancer, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Grief, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Alcoholism, Dementia
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
toxic family dynamics, racists grandfather, classism, to many rich people problems
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Dementia, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Drug use, Death of parent
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
first of all, the writing in this felt like poetry — so beautiful and tender and real.
secondly, i think i almost like this story more with time, it’s something i still think about and feel sad about.
this book was unlike the books i normally gravitate towards so in that way it was something new and interesting. some people are hesitant to read YA but this book didn’t have that cringey, dumbed down vibe that YA books typically get a bad rep for.
i like how nothing was over-explained; the author respects the readers enough that they are following along and leaves them with questions (but not in a bad way). it deals with heavy topics and doesn’t shy away from the uglier parts of life.
secondly, i think i almost like this story more with time, it’s something i still think about and feel sad about.
this book was unlike the books i normally gravitate towards so in that way it was something new and interesting. some people are hesitant to read YA but this book didn’t have that cringey, dumbed down vibe that YA books typically get a bad rep for.
i like how nothing was over-explained; the author respects the readers enough that they are following along and leaves them with questions (but not in a bad way). it deals with heavy topics and doesn’t shy away from the uglier parts of life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Alcoholism, Racism, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Dementia, Grief
Minor: Suicide attempt
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
it was a quick and easy read, compelling enough to get through fast. the book drew me in right from the first chapter and i liked the fast pacing of the first 10-20%. then it slowed, which made me impatient at first. then, once i had gotten used to the new pace, it suddenly picked up again in the end, which felt a bit off again. but overall the pace was okay. the writing itself was okay too - sometimes trying to be beautiful and poetic but it didn't resonate with me much. i also didn't connect to the characters well enough to be emotional in the end, even though i'm very prone to crying over books. it's the typical kind if book where you're trying to solve the mystery at the same time as the main character is also getting more and more information. the hints and sings are very obvious, but it took me a while to figure out what they meant. i caught on a bit before the big twist was revealed, which is just perfect in my opinion. but now that i know the twist i wouldn't particularly enjoy reading the book again i think. i don't feel like i missed important clues, which is something that makes me want to re-read books with lots if clues and a twist. it's a good book overall, but to me it's not a great one because it didn't move me much. it's not something i will be thinking about for long.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Racism, Grief, Fire/Fire injury