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sienna1508's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-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? It's complicated
4.25
I kinda guessed the mystery for this one but I still liked the character-building in the story. It was mostly fast-paced except it was a bit repetitive. But overall I enjoyed it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Alcoholism, and Abortion
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Grief, and Gaslighting
Minor: Vomit, Sexual assault, Mental illness, and Blood
emily_mh's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This was such an improvement from They Wish They Were Us, which aside from problematic books I read, was probably the worst book of 2021 for me. They’ll Never Catch Us was more enjoyable, the message on misogyny and sexism shone through, and the conclusion was much better. I also liked how Goodman didn’t sanitise how teenagers act. I did have three major criticisms, though. The first is that Ellie and Stella’s voices were incredibly similar. I sometimes had to check halfway through a chapter whose perspective I was reading from. The second is that the inciting incident didn’t happen until 37% through the book, so it was quite a slow start. The third is spoilery: essentially, I wished the cold cases played a bigger part in the mystery. Because they were already technically solved before the book began, I would have liked a more definitive statement that X person definitely did do Y but the police screwed it up, rather than X person probably did Y but the police screwed it up. Regardless of these criticisms, this book has shown me that They Wish They Were Us was probably a one-off bad book, so I’m interested in what Goodman writes next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abortion, Murder, Child death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Infidelity
Moderate: Cursing, Addiction, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, and Drug abuse
Minor: Bullying, Sexual assault, Ableism, Toxic friendship, Car accident, Blood, Alcohol, Mental illness, Racism, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Grief, and Body shaming
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