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megelizabeth's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
This is a book that sort of crept up on me. I didn't fully realise until towards the end, or possibly even after I finished reading, just how much it was making me feel. It went to so many places that I was not expecting, covering several difficult and important things but never feeling as if it was doing too much. It's largely a coming-of-age story, but one that's more layered and haunting and ultimately devastating than most. I loved the depictions of friendships and high-school life, of difficult family relationships, of queerness and first love, of sacrifice in many forms. I also thought the mystery element of the story was really strong. The ambiguity of the ending absolutely killed me, but at least I can choose to believe that certain things did or did not happen.
The one criticism I will make is that both the writing and many of the characters are pretty pretentious, and that made our main character Danny in particular super frustrating a lot of the time, and it wasn't quite clear whether these things were intentional. Mostly I could look past this, particularly as it's YA and set largely in a prestigious area, though it did still bug me quite a bit. I still thoroughly, thoroughly loved this book overall though!
The one criticism I will make is that both the writing and many of the characters are pretty pretentious, and that made our main character Danny in particular super frustrating a lot of the time, and it wasn't quite clear whether these things were intentional. Mostly I could look past this, particularly as it's YA and set largely in a prestigious area, though it did still bug me quite a bit. I still thoroughly, thoroughly loved this book overall though!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Death
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Misogyny
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