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marlee_franquelli's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
This book is poorly written and poorly researched. I initially thought that the premise of the book sounded interesting but as I read the book I became greatly frustrated with the main characters, Maya and Lucas, and the choices they made. Every choice was arguably the "wrong" choice and it resulted in <spoiler> Maya resulting to felonies and crimes to find Lucas's father. When they do find him, the ending of the story is so underwhelming and nothing is wrapped up satisfyingly. The author discusses mental health within the book, which, when beginning the book, I thought would be done well and in such a way as to bring awareness to the issues. But, instead, uses the characters with mental illness as a filler and skirts around the mental illnesses of the main character in a way that is not professional. It needed to be researched and outlined before the author started writing because there are many instances of the author writing herself into a corner where the story falls flat and then the characters magically have a solution to the problem that is not realistic. The book requires a large amount of suspension of belief, especially when it comes to the relationship between the main characters and the search for Josiah. There are also instances of a sentence being written and then, without necessity, the story becomes overly sexual or mature and I feel that it was purely the author's editor telling her to up the maturity rating of her story, which often felt unnecessary and out of place.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Violence
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