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sophhcl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicide and Sexual content
Minor: Homophobia
the_paperbackprincess's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Alcoholism, and Suicide
Moderate: Ableism
Minor: Sexual content
Cheating, Forced outing, Partner abuserisemini's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
-liked the multiple povs
dislikes: -most of the characters have no personality
Graphic: Death, Suicide, Drug abuse, Homophobia, and Sexual content
creepypiespice's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Murder, Outing, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Violence
Moderate: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Addiction, Alcohol, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Cancer, Car accident, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Racism, and Pregnancy
beth_s98's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Self harm, and Bullying
Moderate: Drug use and Sexual content
Minor: Cancer
sunandrain's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Outing, Sexual content, Stalking, and Suicide
Minor: Cursing and Homophobia
c__s_dy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Homophobia and Sexual content
gabyhat's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Suicide, Murder, and Homophobia
Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, Sexual content, Self harm, and Mass/school shootings
Minor: Cancer and Drug use
ellav's review against another edition
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use
nickoliver's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Let's talk about the good stuff first. The protagonists went through a lot of character development throughout the book. I wasn't really that big of a fan of the teenagers themselves, they could be fairly infuriating sometimes, but the way they improved over the course of the book spun my opinion around in the end. Especially Addy's transformation from a meek girl who let her boyfriend control every aspect of her life to a badass who knew what she wanted was a highlight for me.
Additionally, because the story was told from all four perspectives - Brownyn, Cooper, Addy, and Nate -, all of them were fleshed-out and a definite important part of the story. Admittedly, having all of their POVs did diminish the suspense a little bit, because it was made fairly obvious that none of them were the actual killer. But nevertheless, the mystery was still very intriguing for the most part and kept me on my toes.
Next up: the bad stuff.
While, like I said, I did end up enjoying the characters for the most part, I absolutely disliked the romantic story line between Bronwyn and Nate. Which isn't to say that it was the worst thing I've ever read! But from the very moment they each mentioned the other one, it was just so obvious that they were going to be a couple. It seemed very forced to me. Plus, the focus was way too much on the romance for a mystery book. Even the epilogue concentrated on Nate and Bronwyn, as if their relationship drama was the most important aspect I should be taking away from the story. Every time these characters talked or kissed or did anything couple-y, I wanted to roll my eyes and hit my head on the table. It didn't help that those scenes were written with a bit too much cheese. I had to suppress the impulse to skip all of the scenes where they were alone with each other.
Additionally, the character hardly ventured outside their prescribed stereotypes. Of course, they weren't one-dimensional, but apart from Addy, they were all still painfully identifiable as the brain, the jock, and the criminal. I didn't particularly like that.
Then we have the most important criticism of the book: McManus's reckless use of mental illness and sexuality as a means to shock her audience.
Personally, I found the mental illness one worse than the sexuality one; there was a character who ended up being revealed as gay, and I thought that there had been hints beforehand that that was their secret, so it didn't seem to me like being shocking had been McManus's intention in that regard. However, the character was outed against their will to the entire school by cops. Scenarios like that always make my anxiety shoot through the roof, seeing as I'm a closeted lesbian myself. I'm also just generally tired of the "a gay character is ashamed of their sexuality because of a homophobic environment but ends up getting outed to everyone before they're ready, anyway" angle.
Though I did appreciate that McManus criticised and challenged the forced coming out. That's usually missing from books that include this angle.
What was so despicable about the way the author used mental illness was the fact that she pretty much villainised it.
Overall, while the mystery was intriguing for the most part and I liked getting to know the characters, I found the way McManus revealed the climax disgusting, to be quite honest with you. Plus, most of the characters weren't much more than their stereotypes; they were fleshed-out, but they also were always extremely easily identifiable as their respective stereotype.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicide, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Mass/school shootings, Racism, and Sexual content
Also CW for a gay character being forcibly outed to the public; may be triggering to some (I'm gay and I got very anxious reading those scenes). There's also slut-shaming.