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greatexpectations77's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I was afraid at the beginning of this book that the whole story-out-of-order thing was going to be gimmicky, but I was totally hooked. The writing isn't overly flowery, but it absolutely kept me on my toes. The main character totally needs to get herself together, which felt really real and human. Would def read this one again because I imagine it's a different experience in book form. It would also be interesting to read it in the correct order.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Infidelity, and Abandonment
Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Car accident, Dementia, Murder, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Sexual content, Blood, Self harm, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Miscarriage, and Terminal illness
gabrielab's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
"The darkness lives in everyone. She knew this better than anyone. Everyone had two faces, and she looked deep into us until she found it."
I have so many mixed feelings about this book.
Right at the beginning, I was tempted to just stop reading it after the first few pages because of the writing style alone. The first chapter had so many short, weird sentences, a bunch of them starting with I; it really reminded me of the stories that kids usually write, the ones with "I went outside. I played in the garden. After, I called my mom.". It ruined the flow for me completely. Fortunately, the writing changed from part two on, otherwise I would've definitely given up on the book.
I was also not the biggest fan of how the book is structured and how the timeline is reversed. I can appreciate how challenging it must have been to write the story starting with day 15 and to try to balance the suspense, how much information the readers are given while maintaining a proper sequence of the events and a logical timeline. But I did find myself coming back again and again and rereading some of the previous chapters to make sense of the new information given and to try to understand how it's related to the parts we already know. Even now after I've finished the book, I feel the urge to just read it again in reverse and see if everything makes sense all together.
With regards to the characters, there's maybe just one I wanted to root for, the rest are pretty much all very unlikeable and flawed and so are the relationships between them. Looking through the notes I added while reading this, I've probably marked a dozen paragraphs detailing the interactions between the characters as 'Toxic!'. If there's any character development in this story, I didn't see it.
And maybe because of the fact that everyone was unlikeable and wrong, I finished this book without feeling anything in particular. I didn't feel happy, hopeful, sad, angry, though I felt like I should have felt all of those things. I didn't feel the relief of having everything tied together and explained, as per usual when a mystery is solved.
Now, with all the things I disliked out of the way, I must admit this book was a page turner and while I didn't feel any suspense or anxiety, it made me curious to see the story unfold. I thought the plot twists were good, I saw a few of them coming, but most were unexpected and I liked that. This is where my rating is mainly coming from; despite disliking the structure and the characters and being indifferent towards the conclusion, I managed to enjoy myself while reading the book.
I have so many mixed feelings about this book.
Right at the beginning, I was tempted to just stop reading it after the first few pages because of the writing style alone. The first chapter had so many short, weird sentences, a bunch of them starting with I; it really reminded me of the stories that kids usually write, the ones with "I went outside. I played in the garden. After, I called my mom.". It ruined the flow for me completely. Fortunately, the writing changed from part two on, otherwise I would've definitely given up on the book.
I was also not the biggest fan of how the book is structured and how the timeline is reversed. I can appreciate how challenging it must have been to write the story starting with day 15 and to try to balance the suspense, how much information the readers are given while maintaining a proper sequence of the events and a logical timeline. But I did find myself coming back again and again and rereading some of the previous chapters to make sense of the new information given and to try to understand how it's related to the parts we already know. Even now after I've finished the book, I feel the urge to just read it again in reverse and see if everything makes sense all together.
With regards to the characters, there's maybe just one I wanted to root for, the rest are pretty much all very unlikeable and flawed and so are the relationships between them. Looking through the notes I added while reading this, I've probably marked a dozen paragraphs detailing the interactions between the characters as 'Toxic!'. If there's any character development in this story, I didn't see it.
And maybe because of the fact that everyone was unlikeable and wrong, I finished this book without feeling anything in particular. I didn't feel happy, hopeful, sad, angry, though I felt like I should have felt all of those things. I didn't feel the relief of having everything tied together and explained, as per usual when a mystery is solved.
Now, with all the things I disliked out of the way, I must admit this book was a page turner and while I didn't feel any suspense or anxiety, it made me curious to see the story unfold. I thought the plot twists were good, I saw a few of them coming, but most were unexpected and I liked that. This is where my rating is mainly coming from; despite disliking the structure and the characters and being indifferent towards the conclusion, I managed to enjoy myself while reading the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual content, Dementia, Miscarriage, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Alcoholism
erinjulia's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The way the story is told backwards can be slightly confusing, but it did have a good ending
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Miscarriage
Moderate: Violence, Suicide, and Gun violence
Minor: Alcoholism, Sexual content, and Chronic illness
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