Reviews

I think Natalie Haynes is a great writer. That being said, I wish this book were a bit more concise. I really liked it, but found that some of the chapters dragged a bit. The book is about a young play director who starts teaching drama at a school for troubled youth after the death of her fiance. Mystery surrounds his death and a future foreshadowed event, and I liked how it all played out slowly. For a while, you don't really know the timeline of the narration. It definitely kept my interest, but I think a little more editing would have helped. I listened to the audio version and the narrator was pretty great at the different accents- English, American, and Scottish.

melodyrose's review against another edition

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emotional informative inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

discountexorcist's review against another edition

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2.0

this book was disappointing, for multiple reasons. the weird usage of single quote marks ~~'like this'~~ instead of quotation marks, and the present tense parts of the storyline had no quotation marks at all. aside from mel, the kids don't really have anything unique or distinguishing about them, and there's a huge lack of character development. the story is paced way too slowly; the first three acts dragged on and on (with the first act being completely forgettable) and all of the action taking place in the last two acts, but it isn't a satisfying payoff because for half of the story you have absolutely no clue what the fuck is going on. it's more of an "oh, so this is what happened?" moment.

the book had an interesting premise, it just wasn't executed in an interesting way. at all.

miranda_bird's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious sad fast-paced

4.0

davidreyno's review against another edition

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Not what I wanted

danrue's review against another edition

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3.0

I know I just wrote a shining review of another book by this author and praised all of her books I just didn't think that this genre or book matched the talent she showed in the others. I was also hoping to learn about the furies, and the book took another approach. I felt that the characters and narrative felt unfinished. I was intrigued by the other books I have read and by the suspense of children being inspired by greek mythology and dangerously going to far but it felt built up too soon or dragged on too long. I enjoyed the characters but felt that they were all pretty flat and based on a singular character trait, behavior, or hobby. For a book trying to show that "problem children" are intelligent and just like everyone else, it felt wrong that they were so boxed in as to be the kid who likes make up or the kid who like video games. I did enjoy the class discussions of greek mythology and appreciated the questions she asked. It was the type of class that I would have loved to have and still would. Overall, I was disappointed but I am going to pick up another one of her books from the library tomorrow

sapphicmacbeth's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

4.0

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