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2.95 AVERAGE
2.95 AVERAGE
Not great.
Hawthorne is annoying in nearly every way it is possible for a teenage protagonist to be annoying (the rest of the characters more than make up for any annoying characteristics she's missing).
I kept reading to find out what happened to Lizzie, and it wasn't really worth it, but since I did keep reading, I'll give this an extra star.
There are plenty of better YA books out there.
Hawthorne is annoying in nearly every way it is possible for a teenage protagonist to be annoying (the rest of the characters more than make up for any annoying characteristics she's missing).
I kept reading to find out what happened to Lizzie, and it wasn't really worth it, but since I did keep reading, I'll give this an extra star.
There are plenty of better YA books out there.
Listened to some and read some of it. It was cute - and the Ohio, Pittsburgh connection was fun, but the main character was annoying and definitely not 17! She came across as a whiny tween rather than a young lady on the brink of self discovery. Also, the other characters: Michelle, Connor, Rush, Enzo, etc were empty composites of stereotypical secondary characters. The book did hit close to home though because of a suicide by hanging that occurred in my school recently of a seemingly “happy” young girl. I’m sure many kids question “why” at that point, like Hawthorne. I only wish her own story wasn’t so dry and empty.
At first I really didn’t like the main character (Hawthorn) or the decisions she was making. I thought by the ending she had a pretty good arc as a character and actually grew in the story. Although the ending was pretty good, I still found it a bit underwhelming.
I thought this book was going to be completely different. I had a few issues with the story. 1. Why was no one more concerned about a 17 year old girl spending all her free time with a 25 year old man?!?! And that 17 year old girl behaved more like a 12 year old. And then he moves on to another high school girl. In what world is that ok?!?! I didn't like the MC, I didn't like Enzo but I did like Rush, Connor and Sundog.
This is not what I expected it to be.
Though I felt like I couldn't trust the narrator with a grain of salt, I did relatively enjoy the novel. Although I was right about what happened to Lizzie, and I couldn't stand Enzo, this story of friendship and figuring out life (even when there's like, 20 hippies in your backyard) was really....good.
Though I felt like I couldn't trust the narrator with a grain of salt, I did relatively enjoy the novel. Although I was right about what happened to Lizzie, and I couldn't stand Enzo, this story of friendship and figuring out life (even when there's like, 20 hippies in your backyard) was really....good.
i don't usually enjoy reading characters that i dislike but this was a really fun read. hawthorne is fucking INSANE but it did seem like she had grown up a bit by the end of the book which was nice to see. the only way you can enjoy reading this is to accept that hawthorne is a self centred maybe, probably shitty person and watch her be ridiculous about everything that happens to her.
connor was my favourite character but he deserves someone not crazy, unless hawthorne has really grown up by the end of the book.
enzo was majorly flawed but not in any of the ways hawthorne thought of him -- everything he did wrong in her eyes actually made a lot of sense someone to do but then having a 25 year old have sex with a 17 year old, all the while being 'omg you're just a kid' like does he justify that to himself?? like acknowledging the age difference makes it ok?
where tf are all the 'lies' of lizzie lovett? we don't even learn anything about her. idgi
I FORGOT TO SAY -- really annoyed me how annoying hawthorne was about veganism. having a parent be vegan sounds awesome to me and would be so easy having them do all the hard work for you, you can't even tell that vegan food is vegan. further evidence of how selfish hawthorne is bc she doesn't care about animals dying for her benefit even though her mum would've tried to educate her about it
connor was my favourite character but he deserves someone not crazy, unless hawthorne has really grown up by the end of the book.
enzo was majorly flawed but not in any of the ways hawthorne thought of him -- everything he did wrong in her eyes actually made a lot of sense someone to do but then having a 25 year old have sex with a 17 year old, all the while being 'omg you're just a kid' like does he justify that to himself?? like acknowledging the age difference makes it ok?
where tf are all the 'lies' of lizzie lovett? we don't even learn anything about her. idgi
I FORGOT TO SAY -- really annoyed me how annoying hawthorne was about veganism. having a parent be vegan sounds awesome to me and would be so easy having them do all the hard work for you, you can't even tell that vegan food is vegan. further evidence of how selfish hawthorne is bc she doesn't care about animals dying for her benefit even though her mum would've tried to educate her about it
I almost stopped reading it about a third of the way through because the main character was truly insufferable. I mean... impossible to like. But I am glad I stuck it out because by the end she'd learned some stuff, but not in an outrageous way like she became a new person in a couple of months. It still wasn't my favorite, but man, Hawthorn is a struggle to like. At all. I know I was a painful teenager to love but good lord, she was lucky anyone stuck with her at all.
(I received an e-arc from the publisher in exchange for an honest review)
This book follows Hawthorn Creely, a teenager who becomes obsessed with solving the mystery surrounding a girl from her town who went missing.
I have some mixed feelings about this book, which I will discuss below:
- characters: On the one hand I found the main character to be relatable for me, she doesn't have a very good experience with high school and I related to her not knowing what to do with her future. I really appreciated the parts of the story that discussed these topics. On the other hand, I often disagreed with the choices the main character makes since I found some of them plain stupid. Sometimes I kind of wanted to yell at her, but you know since it's a fictional character I can't do that, so I really appreciated the scenes where other characters would stand up to her and put her in her place. Speaking about that, I really liked the characters of her best friend Emily and her brother Rush (and her brother's friend whose name I've forgotten) and luckily they managed to burst her self centered bubble from time to time.
-plot: From reading the synopsis I thought the book would mostly be about solving the mystery around Lizzie Lovett. I expected the main character to delve into this case and to try and solve the mystery. Instead, the story followed the main character coming up with impossible and crazy theories, and her feeling insulted when people didn't want to believe her (which is very understandable, since her theories were quite ridiculous). The story was a bit slow at times and I really wasn't a fan of the romance the main character was involved in. Even though I was a bit disappointed when I figured out the story would not be as I expected, I still wanted to continue reading and I was still curious to see what would happen next.
-writing: Overall I feel pretty neutral about the writing, I didn't particularly love it, but I didn't hate it either. It took some time for me to get used to the narrator but when I got more into the story I didn't have much trouble with the writing style. The writing style is pretty simplistic which makes it quite easy to understand what's going on, but there were some nice phrases in there and I found a quote that really spoke to me (which is a good sign ofcourse)
To round this off, these were my main thoughts about the book. I would rate this book 3 stars out of 5. I found it compelling enough to finish it and I found myself enjoying the book. I do have some things that I'm not too crazy about, like I explained above, which is why I gave it this rating.
This book follows Hawthorn Creely, a teenager who becomes obsessed with solving the mystery surrounding a girl from her town who went missing.
I have some mixed feelings about this book, which I will discuss below:
- characters: On the one hand I found the main character to be relatable for me, she doesn't have a very good experience with high school and I related to her not knowing what to do with her future. I really appreciated the parts of the story that discussed these topics. On the other hand, I often disagreed with the choices the main character makes since I found some of them plain stupid. Sometimes I kind of wanted to yell at her, but you know since it's a fictional character I can't do that, so I really appreciated the scenes where other characters would stand up to her and put her in her place. Speaking about that, I really liked the characters of her best friend Emily and her brother Rush (and her brother's friend whose name I've forgotten) and luckily they managed to burst her self centered bubble from time to time.
-plot: From reading the synopsis I thought the book would mostly be about solving the mystery around Lizzie Lovett. I expected the main character to delve into this case and to try and solve the mystery. Instead, the story followed the main character coming up with impossible and crazy theories, and her feeling insulted when people didn't want to believe her (which is very understandable, since her theories were quite ridiculous). The story was a bit slow at times and I really wasn't a fan of the romance the main character was involved in. Even though I was a bit disappointed when I figured out the story would not be as I expected, I still wanted to continue reading and I was still curious to see what would happen next.
-writing: Overall I feel pretty neutral about the writing, I didn't particularly love it, but I didn't hate it either. It took some time for me to get used to the narrator but when I got more into the story I didn't have much trouble with the writing style. The writing style is pretty simplistic which makes it quite easy to understand what's going on, but there were some nice phrases in there and I found a quote that really spoke to me (which is a good sign ofcourse)
To round this off, these were my main thoughts about the book. I would rate this book 3 stars out of 5. I found it compelling enough to finish it and I found myself enjoying the book. I do have some things that I'm not too crazy about, like I explained above, which is why I gave it this rating.
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Talk about an unexpected delightful book! I loved this story, even after finding out what Hawthorn’s theory was about Lizzie’s disappearance. It was a definite “jump the shark” moment, but Hawthorn was so freaking likable, the premise worked. There were some moments of heartbreaking realism that had me choking up, especially toward the end. If you love quirky YA novels, then you must pick up this book! Hands down this was a five star read for me!
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Thanks to the publisher for a copy for review purposes!
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Thanks to the publisher for a copy for review purposes!