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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Blood, Car accident, Murder, Abandonment
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is definitely a slow book where it takes a while to get going. The story doesn't really start to unfold until about half way.
Which, I didn't mind. I enjoyed the atmosphere and the introduction to the characters. Overall, I liked the mystery and was very invested in what was going on.
This book mainly loses stars for a few things:
1. I got annoyed at how many times the main character brought up the death of Griffin Walker. But then every time is like "BUT NO. That's too awful to think about!" so you don't really learn anything in spite of guessing early on roughly what happened. This just got kind of tedious. Like, stop teasing something that happened and not visiting it. Once or twice might have been fine, but it felt like every chapter was "And everything changed when Griffin died. And the three of us were never honest about it... but now's not the time to focus on that."
2. I'm annoyed at how quickly/easily the FMC believed that her brother was capable of awful things. Like, OK, he did some dumb stuff as a kid and could be kind of impulsive, but to go from that tomurdering Autumn seemed like a wild jump to me.
3. The thing with smoke was never explored? They found the dog when they were teenagers. By all accounts, the wolf dog is 20+ years old. And he seemed to have been kind of a familiar to Johnny? I don't know, there are questions there that never got explored.
4. The last chapter.I don't hate pregnancy in a book, but ffs, the ending was overly sapphic. Oh no, my unplanned bebeh won't meet my unpredictable, unstable, dark brother. Not to mention, I hate that she left six rivers largely to not become her mom. That she goes back, settles down with her high school sweetheart, and has a baby just ruins her as a character for me. If she had just gone back and been with Michah, I would have been fine. But nope, no couple is complete with BEBEHS!
Which, I didn't mind. I enjoyed the atmosphere and the introduction to the characters. Overall, I liked the mystery and was very invested in what was going on.
This book mainly loses stars for a few things:
1. I got annoyed at how many times the main character brought up the death of Griffin Walker. But then every time is like "BUT NO. That's too awful to think about!" so you don't really learn anything in spite of guessing early on roughly what happened. This just got kind of tedious. Like, stop teasing something that happened and not visiting it. Once or twice might have been fine, but it felt like every chapter was "And everything changed when Griffin died. And the three of us were never honest about it... but now's not the time to focus on that."
2. I'm annoyed at how quickly/easily the FMC believed that her brother was capable of awful things. Like, OK, he did some dumb stuff as a kid and could be kind of impulsive, but to go from that to
3. The thing with smoke was never explored? They found the dog when they were teenagers. By all accounts, the wolf dog is 20+ years old. And he seemed to have been kind of a familiar to Johnny? I don't know, there are questions there that never got explored.
4. The last chapter.
fast-paced
tense
slow-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
Do not waste your time on this book!! This book was genuinely awful. It is the worst book I have read all year so far. And I struggle to think of any book that I could read that would take its spot because it was that bad. Sorry in advance because I wrote this review through a voice recording, and there are mechanical errors that I can’t be bothered to go back and fix.
Where do I even begin? I think I will begin by talking about the characters in this book. They were insufferable Truly, I did not like a single character.
First, we have James. She is the female protagonist and is investigating the “accidental” death of her twin brother, Johnny back in their small town of Six Rivers. She spends the entire book repeating the same monologue over and over in her head, and because we are trapped in first person POV you cannot escape it. Allow me to summarize the monologue for you and save you about 75% of the book:
“Johnny was mysterious.”
“No one understood him.”
“I feel tethered to him.”
“I thought I understood him, but I was wrong.”
“I always cleaned up after Johnny’s mistakes.”
There. I just saved you hours of time. She repeats this SAME FREAKING THOUGHT SPIRAL every spare moment she gets. Now let’s get into the super weird part of this book: her relationship with her brother. Throughout the whole book, James speaks of her brother in a way that is obsessive and at times made me wonder if she was actually in love with her brother. Hear me authors: that is never something I want to wonder about a sibling relationship.
Furthermore, she spends much of the book discussing how she often had to cover for Johnny when he would make mistakes and do bad things But throughout the book, we are given very little in terms of what Johnny brought to the relationship, at one point James even says that she was “afraid” of her brother because he was unpredictable and mysterious. Why on earth would you continually sacrifice yourself and cover for someone who is doing very bad things and doesn’t even act like he cares or acknowledges that you care for him?? Allow me to list some of the things that Johnny did:
-drive drunk and almost kill someone
-steal repeatedly from stores
-spend wayyyyy too much time alone with an 18 yr old girl from the high school
-string along his high school crush for YEARS, knowing full well he didn’t love her
-lie on bank statement and transactions
-poaching animals
And James wants to excuse ALL THOSE THINGS AWAY. What kind of person does that???
Now let’s turn our attention to Micah, the love interest. He was about as interesting as a piece of cardboard. He made no impact on me. Supposedly he had loved James for years, but made no attempt to contact her for TWENTY YEARS. The story could have existed without him.
And finally, Johnny. The dead twin in question. He SUCKED as a person. Awful. Everything I learned about him made me like him less. And yet, at the end, I’m supposed to applaud him as a hero, like the whole town does??? Just because he didn’t have a sexual relationship after all with this 18 year old girl?? Are you KIDDING ME?? He was not just “a wild heart who was misunderstood.” No. He barely kept in contact with his own sister when she left town for twenty years. I cannot find a single redeemable quality about him other than he cared about helping pay for a girl’s tuition to college. Mind you, it’s the same girl he spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME WITH alone outside of the school setting.
Now the mystery: it didn’t pick up until 75% into the book. You read that right. 3/4 of the book was pull-out-your-teeth boring. It was soooooo slow. Even when the mystery did pick up, I barely cared. I just wanted it to be over.
And finally, I cannot write this review without discussing one particular scene in the book that gave me a major ICK. At one point, James is talking to her old childhood best friend named Olivia who is working as an art teacher at the local school. In the insufferable inner monologue of James she thinks about how “it’s so sad that Olivia had to settle for becoming an art teacher instead of making it big in New York like I did.” She then doubles down and says that “becoming a teacher and staying in your hometown” is the kind of thing people for sorry for you about because you couldn’t make your big break. Newsflash: Some of us chose to be teachers because we actually wanted to be and believe it is a noble profession. Your narrative about this is gross, Adrienne Young. And then, surprise surprise!! That same teacher ends up getting arrested at the end. So I guess she became a villain because she was a teacher and cared too much about her students. Eye roll.
In conclusion, this book was insufferable. I only continued it because of book club. And by the way, James returns to her hometown and immediately becomes pregnant by boring-as-a-paper-towel Micah. Yippee.
Where do I even begin? I think I will begin by talking about the characters in this book. They were insufferable Truly, I did not like a single character.
First, we have James. She is the female protagonist and is investigating the “accidental” death of her twin brother, Johnny back in their small town of Six Rivers. She spends the entire book repeating the same monologue over and over in her head, and because we are trapped in first person POV you cannot escape it. Allow me to summarize the monologue for you and save you about 75% of the book:
“Johnny was mysterious.”
“No one understood him.”
“I feel tethered to him.”
“I thought I understood him, but I was wrong.”
“I always cleaned up after Johnny’s mistakes.”
There. I just saved you hours of time. She repeats this SAME FREAKING THOUGHT SPIRAL every spare moment she gets. Now let’s get into the super weird part of this book: her relationship with her brother. Throughout the whole book, James speaks of her brother in a way that is obsessive and at times made me wonder if she was actually in love with her brother. Hear me authors: that is never something I want to wonder about a sibling relationship.
Furthermore, she spends much of the book discussing how she often had to cover for Johnny when he would make mistakes and do bad things But throughout the book, we are given very little in terms of what Johnny brought to the relationship, at one point James even says that she was “afraid” of her brother because he was unpredictable and mysterious. Why on earth would you continually sacrifice yourself and cover for someone who is doing very bad things and doesn’t even act like he cares or acknowledges that you care for him?? Allow me to list some of the things that Johnny did:
-drive drunk and almost kill someone
-steal repeatedly from stores
-spend wayyyyy too much time alone with an 18 yr old girl from the high school
-string along his high school crush for YEARS, knowing full well he didn’t love her
-lie on bank statement and transactions
-poaching animals
And James wants to excuse ALL THOSE THINGS AWAY. What kind of person does that???
Now let’s turn our attention to Micah, the love interest. He was about as interesting as a piece of cardboard. He made no impact on me. Supposedly he had loved James for years, but made no attempt to contact her for TWENTY YEARS. The story could have existed without him.
And finally, Johnny. The dead twin in question. He SUCKED as a person. Awful. Everything I learned about him made me like him less. And yet, at the end, I’m supposed to applaud him as a hero, like the whole town does??? Just because he didn’t have a sexual relationship after all with this 18 year old girl?? Are you KIDDING ME?? He was not just “a wild heart who was misunderstood.” No. He barely kept in contact with his own sister when she left town for twenty years. I cannot find a single redeemable quality about him other than he cared about helping pay for a girl’s tuition to college. Mind you, it’s the same girl he spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME WITH alone outside of the school setting.
Now the mystery: it didn’t pick up until 75% into the book. You read that right. 3/4 of the book was pull-out-your-teeth boring. It was soooooo slow. Even when the mystery did pick up, I barely cared. I just wanted it to be over.
And finally, I cannot write this review without discussing one particular scene in the book that gave me a major ICK. At one point, James is talking to her old childhood best friend named Olivia who is working as an art teacher at the local school. In the insufferable inner monologue of James she thinks about how “it’s so sad that Olivia had to settle for becoming an art teacher instead of making it big in New York like I did.” She then doubles down and says that “becoming a teacher and staying in your hometown” is the kind of thing people for sorry for you about because you couldn’t make your big break. Newsflash: Some of us chose to be teachers because we actually wanted to be and believe it is a noble profession. Your narrative about this is gross, Adrienne Young. And then, surprise surprise!! That same teacher ends up getting arrested at the end. So I guess she became a villain because she was a teacher and cared too much about her students. Eye roll.
In conclusion, this book was insufferable. I only continued it because of book club. And by the way, James returns to her hometown and immediately becomes pregnant by boring-as-a-paper-towel Micah. Yippee.
mysterious
dark
emotional
mysterious
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:
Yes
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dark, creepy, mystery
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
This book is brought to you by the California Academy of Sciences
Also so happy you andMicah have your baby and your art but remember your nephew who just found out his mom killed his dad maybe you should check on him
Also so happy you and
4.5 ⭐️
This book plucked a string in me and it’s still reverberating. It was a love letter to unique familial bonds and the feeling of coming home after too long a time away. It made me feel like there are places where we belong with our heart and soul. It was beautiful, the prose spoke to me. Adrienne Young, you’ve got me forever.
This book plucked a string in me and it’s still reverberating. It was a love letter to unique familial bonds and the feeling of coming home after too long a time away. It made me feel like there are places where we belong with our heart and soul. It was beautiful, the prose spoke to me. Adrienne Young, you’ve got me forever.