Reviews

"The memory that I had apologized to my own rapist, and he had laughed at me."
-I will never get this quote out of my head

I read this book after watching the movie starring Mila Kunis on Netflix ❤️
I have never encountered a more verbatim and perfect movie rendition from a book...ever!

Please note that this book has so many trigger warnings and difficult topics...rape, school shooting, murder, suicide, age gap etc but it is such a well written story that it is done so beautifully by Jessica Knoll.

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carooks2006's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

4.0

dontstopreadin's review against another edition

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4.0

When this book first came out, it got a lot of praise and love. Then shortly after, it got a lot of hate, likely due to the hype vacuum it had found itself in. I found this book to be really entertaining and enjoyable and it keep me interested to the very end. These are huge traits I look for in thrillers. This book follows Tiff, who is annoying and stuck-up and you kind of hate her, but that's the point. Tiff has a weird, tragic past that is slowly unveiled through the course of flashbacks, and you start to understand how she became this person we are annoyed by, and why she would want to be this person. Yeah, she's unlikable. Yeah, that's the point. I love that.

Trigger warnings: rape, assault, gun use, gun violence, violence in general

lauraborkpower's review against another edition

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3.0

This story starts out strong but I felt that ultimately Knoll told a story that was a bit too complicated for the length of this book.

If you're going to tell the story of a school shooting that is as complicated as the Columbine massacre (and Knoll thanks Dave Cullen in her acknowledgements), then it deserves a bigger piece of your story. But Knoll includes it among other plot points and it doesn't get the time and space that a conflict of that magnitude really deserves.

And there were too many smaller pieces of Ani's story that were left untouched. I wanted this to be more focused to get a stronger sense of her change from beginning to end. It just wasn't strong enough for me.

Knoll is a strong writer, though, and this is definitely a page turner. I compared her to Megan Abbott and Liane Moriarty as I read, and those are authors I really like, so that's a good thing.

emilypendleton's review against another edition

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3.0

…moving on doesn’t mean never talking about it, never crying about it.

I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a main character so deeply insecure that all of their inner dialogue focuses on weight and viciously tearing other women down. The second half of the book was much better than the first, but the first half was so bent on writing a cold-hearted protagonist that it was difficult to move past it during the moments that talked about such heavy topics.

breese's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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