Scan barcode
katiea714's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Racism
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Mental illness, Infidelity, Chronic illness, Dementia, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Abandonment, Colonisation, Death of parent, Alcohol, Gaslighting, and Infertility
maddyrosem's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Grief
Moderate: Child death, Death, Medical trauma, and Murder
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Drug use, and Infidelity
emmasbookshelf27's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Racism
lucimolri's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
1.5
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Mental illness, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Dementia
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Infidelity
mariareviews's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Once upon a time, there was a girl with three words after reading this book. What. The. Fuck.
and I mean this in the best way possible.
Oh God. Words can’t describe how I feel about this book. I must say, I didn’t cry, but my eyes did water quite a bit. The Sinclair’s story is definitely an interesting one and I throughly enjoyed the craft behind this book. The letters at the end, the ones written by Gat, were a beautiful addition to this story.
I’ll admit that the mixed reviews definitely stopped me —for quite a while— from reading this book, but it’s literally one of the best things I’ve read this year. At first, it was a tad bit boring, but as soon as started to understand what was happening it was as if everything suddenly clicked together.Personally, I did suspect the ending; not necessarily the burning part, but I could tell that Gat, Mirren, and Johnny were dead.
I’m definitely tempted to read all books by E. Lockhart after this.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism
Moderate: Dementia
Minor: Infidelity
rinnykitty's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Other than that, I actually found myself relating to the main character. I'm poor as fuck, never committed a crime, and dont have migraines - but I do have memory loss due to neurological issues that wiped most of my teenage memories completely and made my mother constantly worried about me. I understood when she said she didn't want to be pitied, and then Gat said well why the fuck you saying all this shit about your migraines then. Like, dude, just because she doesn't want to be pitied doesn't mean her migraines poof! become less of her life.
And same with the romance. Sadly I still remember some of my pathetic flings, how as a youngster you think the first love is real and forever and the best thing since Betty White. The romance was a damn mess but didn't we all make bad, cringey, makes us look back and think "oh no girl what are you doing" type relationship choices as teens.
And.. the twist. Goddamnit I picked it up right away.. when Cady realized no one was responding to her emails. Yeah the first thought should be "they're too rich to care about their email account", but with how absent they were my mind went straight to "they're dead aren't they. Oh no you better not". And they were. Even worse, why not throw them in as ghosts and badly explain the whole entire last part of the book. And the whole reveal be a fire. All died in a fire. And became ghosts. What a twist. Yaaaawn. When it comes to rich people drama, The Cousins by Karen McManus came out on top. That's the type of twist I was looking for, not something on the same level as "it was all just a dream!" (But instead, replace dream with ghosts).
Graphic: Chronic illness, Animal death, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Cursing, and Death
Moderate: Grief, Dementia, and Blood
Minor: Death of parent and Infidelity