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Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy
The twist was unexpected, and the two separate POVs gave some variety. Each character was almost experiencing a different genre of story, which was fun in some ways!
But I found the characters incredibly flat, and the book leaned too heavily on stereotypes to flesh their personalities out (suburban mom loves candy crush, teenage daughter loves Justin Beiber and is bratty, etc.).
The book is often repetitive with the information it delivers.
There are police interviews intersperced throughout the book. More often than not the information provided has previously been revealed to us, or will be provided to us again later, leaving the police interview segments feeling redundant.
It often attempts to build tension in a similarly repetitive way, with Erica, the mother character, often ending her chapters with some sort of statement like, "If only they knew... my perfect baby was capable of horrible things...."
The audiobook narrator, Suzie Althens, puts in good effort, but was unfortunately poorly cast. The novel takes place in New York, with multiple characters noted to have notable New York regional accents (Brooklyn, Long Island), which are not represented in audio. But most egregiously, the policewoman conducting the interviews is given a bizarre unplaceable European accent? Later it's noted she's Latina, which really made me feel the narrator may have zero knowledge of New York at all.
In the POV chapters for teenaged Olivia, Suzie does her best to put on a youthful affect, but sadly the pitched up faux valley girl take on the character only helped to highlight how flat and unrealistic a portrayal of teen girlhood Olivia is.
All in all a valliant effort, none the less.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Kidnapping, Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Bullying
And I actually like how the ending was a bit more positive than some of her other books! :D
As always, the writing is not that good, the plot is predictable and all the characters are so annoying. But these books are one of my guilty pleasures and I will continue reading everything she will publish no matter how bad it is! :D
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual violence
Minor: Ableism
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Kidnapping
Moderate: Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Bullying
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Drug use, Sexism, Torture, Kidnapping
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Murder
Moderate: Bullying, Violence
Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Kidnapping
Moderate: Bullying, Torture, Violence, Blood
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail