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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Cassandra Complex follows Cassie as she travels through time to try and mend her relationships, build romantic connections, and attempt to make more sense of the world around her. It is written in a feel-good, bubblegum style that is super digestible and designed to leave you with fleeting satisfaction. It is tied up with the bow of Cassie realising her friends, family are the true things that make her life worth living. I enjoyed the exploration of Cassie's neurodivergence and it added context to her choices regarding time-travel- a desire to be seen as normal and to fit in. Ultimately what I loved about this book was the cast of side characters. As Cassie changes her behaviour as she time-travels. you get to see how each character responds. These responses were well-considered and helped form the side characters into loveable, valuable additions to the novel. I particularly liked the portrayal of female friendships in the story as they did not feel like the typical quirky best friend with no depth.
Ultimately the ending of this book betrays the entire message and theme. In this cheesy style of writing, often the message of the book is much more 'show and tell' than subtly transformative. This book is no different, Cassandra has these epiphanies and explains them to the reader in great detail. We are told repeatedly through her lessons in time travel that Cassie shouldn't be ashamed of who she is, she should live life fully and as herself, and take time to see the best in her friendships. Then the ending completely abandons this for the purpose of ending the book with a bang! It simply does not suit this book and honestly makes the whole thing fall flat.
Also, it does this cheesy thing of breaking the forth wall by Cassandra acknowledging that this is a book? I don't why I hated that so much, but please leave that trope in middle-grade fiction.
Ultimately the ending of this book betrays the entire message and theme. In this cheesy style of writing, often the message of the book is much more 'show and tell' than subtly transformative. This book is no different, Cassandra has these epiphanies and explains them to the reader in great detail. We are told repeatedly through her lessons in time travel that Cassie shouldn't be ashamed of who she is, she should live life fully and as herself, and take time to see the best in her friendships. Then the ending completely abandons this for the purpose of ending the book with a bang! It simply does not suit this book and honestly makes the whole thing fall flat.
Also, it does this cheesy thing of breaking the forth wall by Cassandra acknowledging that this is a book? I don't why I hated that so much, but please leave that trope in middle-grade fiction.
lighthearted
fast-paced
adventurous
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved the first 3/4 of the book. It's very reminiscent of Oona Out of Order. It combines a lot of my favorite things--strong female character, time traveling, Greek mythology. What I didn't love was the big "reveal" toward the end. It was anticlimactic and unnecessary. I would have preferred if it just skipped to the very end.
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Overall the book was well-written and the character growth was rewarding to see, but lit-fic just isn't my preferred genre, so that's on me for going into it without checking genre.
I liked theautism rep (identified it early on, though it wasn't revealed until much later in the book) but overall this was just not really my cup of tea. I went into this book somewhat blind (it had been recommended to me at some point so I put it on hold at the library & forgot all about it) but for some reason I thought it was a romance. It's not. It's a lit-fic story of self-discovery, which happens to sort of revolve around a romantic relationship. The reason I would definitely NOT classify this as a romance is because there is no "happily ever after" with the romantic interest. Again, not a bad thing, just not what I was expecting.
Not a bad book, just not my favorite genre. It was slow-paced and very character driven, whereas I prefer more plot and a faster pace.
I liked the
Not a bad book, just not my favorite genre. It was slow-paced and very character driven, whereas I prefer more plot and a faster pace.
Fairly quick and mostly enjoyable read. I have a lot in common with the main character so it made it easy to connect to her for me but I could see that not being the case for everyone. The storyline just didn’t grab my interest as much as I would have liked.
For me, this book had a slow start and I was certain I knew where the time travel aspect of this was going but I was happily surprised by the ending!
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Main character is very into Greek Mythology. The only part I struggled with was this as I didn’t learn much about it in school so was hard to always get the references she was making. In general I did like the book. Would recommend.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
By about 50% I was like right okay I get it, but the last 30% of the book ties everything together and did leave me a little weepy
I loved this! Loved the time travel (oh, the possibilities if I had that magic!), loved the main character and loved all the references to Greek mythology, which I've always liked to read/learn more about. The ending was perfect, even though the book makes you think it will go one way, but then it doesn't, and you (and the main character) realizes the main purpose of the time travel was not what you thought it would be.