Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Without Merit

Pretty good book overall! Was a bit slow at times but the plot was interesting and all of the secrets and drama kept me wanting to know more. The end got a little.bit "after school special" cheezy, but it was still an overall good read with interesting characters and good development.

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bookshelvish's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I did not like this book. I am very stingy with star ratings to begin with, but this one was rough. The whole book felt incredibly disjointed. There were random characters with random things happening, pretty much not a single character was likable. Even my favorite, Sagan, seemed willing to just . . . make out with his friend without getting any clarity on the situation whatsoever? Merit’s uncle almost sleeps with her, KNOWING THAT HE IS HER UNCLE, and then backs out because she looks like his nephew. But, don’t worry, it might also have been because he’s gay. Then there’s this realization that a member of the family molested merit as a child, or at the very least, attempted to. Then there was all of the sudden a suicide attempt, and everyone kind of brushed it aside except Sagan, who decides giving Merit a home-made tattoo is a great coping mechanism? I don’t know man, this book was wild. I’d give it one star except that I did actually finish reading it and I couldn’t find any issues with the writing style itself, just the content. In a word: yikes.

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emilybruce's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful sad 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

4.75

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sweetlikesadia's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The story discusses important topics like suicide, depression, toxic household. I was able to sense characters emotions and resonate with the female lead, in terms of mental health.

Sometimes the book became slow paced, where I did not know what was happening : lost interest couple of times. I wished there was more build up to the big secret. Also I don't understand why the male lead's background information was showcased near the end...it would have been better at the beginning or the middle.

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niyaslilworld's review against another edition

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dark hopeful sad medium-paced

2.0

I'm going to be honest, I really did not like this book. There was no actual plot and that would've been fine if the book had some sense of order, or made up for it in some other aspect. Unfortunately it didn't. Besides the lack of a storyline, it also felt unrealistic and weird, with very questionable situations at points. I found the main character especially to be unlikable, along with a lot of the others. The very minor "relationship", if you can call it that, between Sagan and Merit and the mental health awareness are both some of the very few reasons I'm willing to give this two stars.

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