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3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
This wasn't my favourite by Shen. I maybe felt the disappointment a bit more because I read Sparrow last week and absolutely loved it. But I just struggled with the characters.
We all know that Shen writes asshole Heroes that we shouldn't like but do but Penn and Daria were both so unlikeble, not even with redemption in my mind. They weren't enemies they were genuinely horrific to one another. They didn't banter, they went in for the kill. I kind of felt the pull between them throughout but found it hard to get over the pure hate.
Similarly, Mel and Jaime were from another book that I've read and I found it hard to assimilate the heroes of their book as these shitheap parents. I mean, really bad parenting. I actively disliked them and yet shouldn't I have liked them? There was a Jaime chapter chucked in at one point to put him back in the good books but again his actions felt inexcusable.
The first 50% just went by so slowly and I almost gave up. More happened after this point but I'm not sure that I found I enjoyable as such. I think the hate part had lessened by this point so it was a bit more palatable, although it did just transfer to another character.
The plot was so heavy with storylines that it bordered on ridiculous. Baby drama, parental difficulties, rape, hatred, school girl competition, teacher/student relationships/betting etc
I also found it hard to keep up with the gazillion and one support characters in this book. Especially as they all had this love/hate thing going on.
Certainly not my favourite but I still finished it!
We all know that Shen writes asshole Heroes that we shouldn't like but do but Penn and Daria were both so unlikeble, not even with redemption in my mind. They weren't enemies they were genuinely horrific to one another. They didn't banter, they went in for the kill. I kind of felt the pull between them throughout but found it hard to get over the pure hate.
Similarly, Mel and Jaime were from another book that I've read and I found it hard to assimilate the heroes of their book as these shitheap parents. I mean, really bad parenting. I actively disliked them and yet shouldn't I have liked them? There was a Jaime chapter chucked in at one point to put him back in the good books but again his actions felt inexcusable.
The first 50% just went by so slowly and I almost gave up. More happened after this point but I'm not sure that I found I enjoyable as such. I think the hate part had lessened by this point so it was a bit more palatable, although it did just transfer to another character.
The plot was so heavy with storylines that it bordered on ridiculous. Baby drama, parental difficulties, rape, hatred, school girl competition, teacher/student relationships/betting etc
I also found it hard to keep up with the gazillion and one support characters in this book. Especially as they all had this love/hate thing going on.
Certainly not my favourite but I still finished it!
a whirlwind but i fucking love love love penn and daria xxx
“I tell myself that I don’t care, but inside, my guts rip to shreds and bleed all over my stomach.”
honestly, it’s on me that i thought this was YA. but even then, i don’t mind some amount of sex scenes. reading this though? i felt like a nun man. i guess im just not a fan of too much explicitness, it really felt over the top in this book. although i guess its kinda normal for the kind of school they’re at, but still, not a fan of the way it was done here.
i sobbed so much sometimes while reading this book. the angst, the complicated emotions and relationship bonds-and-not-so-bonds felt so very real. i believe there really has been put in a lot of effort to make this story as good as possible. the main character felt strangely relatable with all her jealousy and everything. i like what happened there, and i like the forgiving and fixing shit. i like all the symbolisms and all the memorable moments, like “skull eyes” and the apple.
i really hardly looked at the time. i was kind of invested in this book cause it really was interesting.
i didn’t like how when there were different POVs, it always felt like the characters didn’t even think that differently from one another… even the parents thought in a very similar way to the kids. im a bit disappointed about that, honestly.
i think at some point it also became too much teenager drama for me, despite it being for the NA age group. the whole football thing and then the scene where they all fess up their secrets… cliché much. it reminded me of archie from riverdale talking about the highs and lows of high school football.
this book isn’t bad, i think it’s just not really my cup of tea.
honestly, it’s on me that i thought this was YA. but even then, i don’t mind some amount of sex scenes. reading this though? i felt like a nun man. i guess im just not a fan of too much explicitness, it really felt over the top in this book. although i guess its kinda normal for the kind of school they’re at, but still, not a fan of the way it was done here.
i sobbed so much sometimes while reading this book. the angst, the complicated emotions and relationship bonds-and-not-so-bonds felt so very real. i believe there really has been put in a lot of effort to make this story as good as possible. the main character felt strangely relatable with all her jealousy and everything. i like what happened there, and i like the forgiving and fixing shit. i like all the symbolisms and all the memorable moments, like “skull eyes” and the apple.
i really hardly looked at the time. i was kind of invested in this book cause it really was interesting.
i didn’t like how when there were different POVs, it always felt like the characters didn’t even think that differently from one another… even the parents thought in a very similar way to the kids. im a bit disappointed about that, honestly.
i think at some point it also became too much teenager drama for me, despite it being for the NA age group. the whole football thing and then the scene where they all fess up their secrets… cliché much. it reminded me of archie from riverdale talking about the highs and lows of high school football.
this book isn’t bad, i think it’s just not really my cup of tea.
this gave me a headache, a heartache, a full i-want-to-bang-my-head-against-the-wall-until-i-pass-out meltdown and 3 existential crises in the span of the less than 24 hours it took me to finish it. so i guess it’s a banger.
exceeded each and every expectation, mainly because i decided to read it thinking it was only gonna be a sloppy and stupid teenage romance to get me out of my reading slump. and it was not. it hit home so hard that i physically feel a hole in my heart. through the first part of the book i was only thinking “wow… this book is a total mess” and i continued to read it because i was totally rooting for Penn and Daria like i never did before. and then it all turned upside down completely and i felt like someone was reading my mind and trying to put a mirror in my face with each page. and then i realized that “wow… this book is a total blast”. and i can’t even properly explain how glad i am to have read this book at this point in my life and i think that this absolutely perfect timing was actually what made me love the story so much. it just left me with… something.
Daria is now my favorite character of all times because i’ve never related to someone more and it scared me to death.
and bless that Melody’s POV chapter because the damage it inflicted into my soul is something i rarely experienced.
i want to tattoo the last 50 pages or so into my brain now. top notch shit.
exceeded each and every expectation, mainly because i decided to read it thinking it was only gonna be a sloppy and stupid teenage romance to get me out of my reading slump. and it was not. it hit home so hard that i physically feel a hole in my heart. through the first part of the book i was only thinking “wow… this book is a total mess” and i continued to read it because i was totally rooting for Penn and Daria like i never did before. and then it all turned upside down completely and i felt like someone was reading my mind and trying to put a mirror in my face with each page. and then i realized that “wow… this book is a total blast”. and i can’t even properly explain how glad i am to have read this book at this point in my life and i think that this absolutely perfect timing was actually what made me love the story so much. it just left me with… something.
Daria is now my favorite character of all times because i’ve never related to someone more and it scared me to death.
and bless that Melody’s POV chapter because the damage it inflicted into my soul is something i rarely experienced.
i want to tattoo the last 50 pages or so into my brain now. top notch shit.
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
While it didn't blow me away, I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series and also the previous series with the parents. This was an enemies to lovers high school romance with a dash of forbidden romance thrown in. It had a little too much of a Mean Girls vibe for me, but it did fit well with the story.
I was not a huge fan of Daria, the female main character. I thought she was a spoiled brat and too eager. However, I did feel for her when it came to her relationship with her mother and how strained it was. It also would have been nice if she would have shown even a modicum of restraint towards Penn and didn't throw herself at him at every opportunity. The one exception to that was the shower scene, which I really enjoyed.
Penn carried this book in my opinion. I enjoyed his personality and he had some great lines/speeches throughout the book. I also really liked Knight and Vaughn and am excited to read their books.
I feel like the most suspenseful part of the book for me was wondering what the hell was going on with Principal Prichard. It was a bigger focal point for me than I believe it should have been.
While the book can be read as a standalone, it has many references to things that happened in the previous series (Sinners of Saint) and the characters from that series do play a decent sized role in the book so I wish I would have read that series before starting this one.
I was not a huge fan of Daria, the female main character. I thought she was a spoiled brat and too eager. However, I did feel for her when it came to her relationship with her mother and how strained it was. It also would have been nice if she would have shown even a modicum of restraint towards Penn and didn't throw herself at him at every opportunity. The one exception to that was the shower scene, which I really enjoyed.
Penn carried this book in my opinion. I enjoyed his personality and he had some great lines/speeches throughout the book. I also really liked Knight and Vaughn and am excited to read their books.
I feel like the most suspenseful part of the book for me was wondering what the hell was going on with Principal Prichard. It was a bigger focal point for me than I believe it should have been.
While the book can be read as a standalone, it has many references to things that happened in the previous series (Sinners of Saint) and the characters from that series do play a decent sized role in the book so I wish I would have read that series before starting this one.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
informative
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
I saw this phrase in a post in social media and I think it’s perfect for this book: HOLY HOTNESS!!
This book grabbed me from the first page, hypnotized me with its complex and fascinating characters and submerged me into their world of hormonal teenage angst. It was a mixture of love and hate, friendship and enmity, parents who failed their children and now their children are living a maelstrom of rejection, bullying, jealousy and despair. And it all gets impossibly worse before it gets better.
My heart hurt for Daria. She felt rejected by her mother, who showed favoritism to another girl in their ballet class. It seems the mother lost her way and forgot who should have been more important in her world. As Daria felt more and more ignored and unloved by her mother, she acted up more and more and turned into a bitchy ice princess at school, the one who leads a brigade of the popular girls who are cruel and vindictive to anyone outside their circle. And yet, inside she was just a girl who missed being loved by her momma.
I also hurt for Penn, who was dirt poor, had a druggy mother, an abusive stepfather, and a selfish, vindictive twin sister. He fell for Daria when he was fifteen and from that moment on, Daria and his twin sister Via got embroiled in such a huge enmity that he got crushed in-between, and their relation turned impossible.
I was specially moved by his gesture of opening a hole in all his shirts, exposing his heart. It has a great significance that is only revealed towards the end of the story. It does keep the reader intrigued throughout all the book.
The best part of this book, apart from the fantastic angsty and twisted story of love and revenge and redemption, is that these kids are called the totholes. They are the children of the previous All Saints High School series, featuring their fathers, very aptly named the a-holes. It was great to see the All Saints a-holes, now evolved into responsible parents raising kids who are as rebellious as them.
This story is fascinating, riveting, passionate, a page-turner and a tear-jerker. Even though Daria behaved so bad, I had such pity and compassion for her. And the ending was hella satisfactory!
This book grabbed me from the first page, hypnotized me with its complex and fascinating characters and submerged me into their world of hormonal teenage angst. It was a mixture of love and hate, friendship and enmity, parents who failed their children and now their children are living a maelstrom of rejection, bullying, jealousy and despair. And it all gets impossibly worse before it gets better.
My heart hurt for Daria. She felt rejected by her mother, who showed favoritism to another girl in their ballet class. It seems the mother lost her way and forgot who should have been more important in her world. As Daria felt more and more ignored and unloved by her mother, she acted up more and more and turned into a bitchy ice princess at school, the one who leads a brigade of the popular girls who are cruel and vindictive to anyone outside their circle. And yet, inside she was just a girl who missed being loved by her momma.
I also hurt for Penn, who was dirt poor, had a druggy mother, an abusive stepfather, and a selfish, vindictive twin sister. He fell for Daria when he was fifteen and from that moment on, Daria and his twin sister Via got embroiled in such a huge enmity that he got crushed in-between, and their relation turned impossible.
I was specially moved by his gesture of opening a hole in all his shirts, exposing his heart. It has a great significance that is only revealed towards the end of the story. It does keep the reader intrigued throughout all the book.
The best part of this book, apart from the fantastic angsty and twisted story of love and revenge and redemption, is that these kids are called the totholes. They are the children of the previous All Saints High School series, featuring their fathers, very aptly named the a-holes. It was great to see the All Saints a-holes, now evolved into responsible parents raising kids who are as rebellious as them.
This story is fascinating, riveting, passionate, a page-turner and a tear-jerker. Even though Daria behaved so bad, I had such pity and compassion for her. And the ending was hella satisfactory!