Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Release

1 hour 30 minutes - Patrick Ness is one of my all-time favourite authors and this book was certainly brilliantly written. I love the characters and the lives they lead feel so realistic and immersive, and combined with the more abstract perspective of the ghost, made for an emotional and reflective story. I would have liked it better if the two perspectives were more intertwined, I think that would have made for a more interesting conclusion, but the ending as it was was written intentionally to reflect the title very well.

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ellawakley's review

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emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.25

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coolc4t's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

the side-plot with the girl in the forest confused me a bit. i liked the book and i saw my english teacher reading it so i read it

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lilymkara's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

thought the changing perspectives was weird and mostly unnecessary but interesting ending and easy read and beautiful writing. but it’s patrick ness so what else would u expect

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coophone's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.5

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carolined's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

No rating - this book is clearly not written for me so it didn't seem fair.

Like in 'The rest of us just live here' you have teenagers so caught up with their petty issues they don't realise the world is in danger however it's not so jarring this time as they have no way of knowing about the existential threat.
Anyway, there are two plot lines here, one of Adam dealing with teen drama somehow all condensed into one day and one of Katherine, somehow raised from the dead and not sure what's going on.
Unlike most of the other reviews so far I found Katherine's story far more tragic and compelling.
Also some reviewers have said that the religious bigotry is realistically portrayed, but for people outside the USA who don't have this normalised it's 'Oranges are not the only fruit' or 'Purple Hibicus' levels of crazy.

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