Reviews

The promise of this book is great. Queer monster Thelma and Louise as a YA novel. YES. YES. YES. With a dog. YES. I love all these things. The writing is tight, fast-paced, and it pushed me through the novel beautifully.

Riley's mom is at work. Her classmates at her new school are at homecoming, and Riley is home with her dog. Suddenly, the town catches fire and Riley hops in the car with her dog and evacuates. On the way she picks up a mysterious hot class mate. As they drive across the US, they are chased by mysterious figures, and not is all what it seems. It's a classic road trip, coming of age story that focuses on who the real monsters are.

There was a bit of pacing issues right at the end. It short changed the relationship between the dad and daughter. My biggest issue was mid-book there was just some blatant fat phobia and diet culture that I wish had been handled differently.

If you like YA fantasy, monsters, road trips, forced proximity, bad parents, and the good guys being chased, check this out. You might like it.

If towns going up in flames and killing thousands of people is too much right now, I would suggest skipping this.

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kuurankero's review

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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beastbark's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

motaki's review

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

I loved the portrayal of grief, it felt painfully real.
I'm so sad I couldn't connect enough with Riley, she's a kid and she's going through a lot but that doesn't make it up for her endless string of bad choices.
I would have loved a second POV, following Aspen around would have been so much better for us readers, such an interesting character, I wanted to know more.
The ending felt too rushed,

both MC's dads are awful, why would anyone choose to go back to live with a manipulative POS of a father? Ri, I don't get you at all

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