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boneloose's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Filing under "books that I will refer to when I want to feel better about my own ability to write because if something like this can get published, then anything can."
Apparently LGBT rep is so normalized now that a book centering LGBT characters doesn't even have to be remotely good for it to get published. Picture the cringeworthy writing and character dynamics of stereotypical terrible YA, but swapped for something sapphic and witchy. The writing sucked, the characters were so flat, and the pacing was all over the place.
The author was trying to write both a story about high school characters living their lives and an action-packed witch-hunting story and did not blend them well in the slightest. We were launched into a tense scene right off the bat with characters we didn't know or care about, and then spent 75 pages of the characters going to the movies and having sleepovers. Then major shit happens to the main character. Then we're going through normal high school classes. Then back to the major shit. It doesn't flow at all. There's no even ramping up of pace, it's just weirdly fast and intense, then extremely slow, then back and forth on repeat to the end of the book. Things that could have been merely touched on were overexplained (the movie the characters saw was described scene for scene for 3 full pages. Yeah, it had relevance throughout the book, but could have easily been summarized in 1-2 paragraphs.), and moments that needed developing were brushed over. Like when she's followed by a creepy "book devil" and is warned by the shopkeeper about the danger of spirits like it, she decides to just. not tell anyone, even her friends that this thing is following her around? We also never get a solid explanation as to why the shopkeeper hates them so much when it seems to be helping them out.
The writing was so stilted. You know that standard writing advice about varying sentence structure? This author apparently has never heard of it, because for long stretches of paragraphs, each sentence was just about the same length and structured incredibly similarly. The metaphors would make me cringe, as did the dialogue, and the author even pulled out the whole stereotypical terrible YA "the character smelled like 3 random ass specific things" more than once.
The characters become very close over the span of what? 2 weeks? I think? And while we're told they're close, and shown a little, it does not make sense that our main character, who is understandably incredibly distrustful of people, and has had no friends for years on purpose, suddenly becomes super close with these people and is able to let her guard down around them enough to sleep over at their houses all the time in a matter of days. Sideways is developed to a certain degree because we're in her head constantly, but the 3 girls who become her insta best friends are so flat. I could only really tell you even after 400 pages that we have Jing, the bland and kind of bitchy popular girl, Daisy, the violently mean cheerleader, and Yates, the soft and sweet and easily anxious one. If they had any traits beyond that, they certainly were not developed enough for me to have remembered them, and I finished this book minutes before writing this review, and took notes about things I wanted to mention as I read.
SUCH a disappointing read. I had such high hopes based off the premise. Definitely will not be picking up the second one, even though this one ends on a semi-cliffhanger.
Apparently LGBT rep is so normalized now that a book centering LGBT characters doesn't even have to be remotely good for it to get published. Picture the cringeworthy writing and character dynamics of stereotypical terrible YA, but swapped for something sapphic and witchy. The writing sucked, the characters were so flat, and the pacing was all over the place.
The author was trying to write both a story about high school characters living their lives and an action-packed witch-hunting story and did not blend them well in the slightest. We were launched into a tense scene right off the bat with characters we didn't know or care about, and then spent 75 pages of the characters going to the movies and having sleepovers. Then major shit happens to the main character. Then we're going through normal high school classes. Then back to the major shit. It doesn't flow at all. There's no even ramping up of pace, it's just weirdly fast and intense, then extremely slow, then back and forth on repeat to the end of the book. Things that could have been merely touched on were overexplained (the movie the characters saw was described scene for scene for 3 full pages. Yeah, it had relevance throughout the book, but could have easily been summarized in 1-2 paragraphs.), and moments that needed developing were brushed over.
The writing was so stilted. You know that standard writing advice about varying sentence structure? This author apparently has never heard of it, because for long stretches of paragraphs, each sentence was just about the same length and structured incredibly similarly. The metaphors would make me cringe, as did the dialogue, and the author even pulled out the whole stereotypical terrible YA "the character smelled like 3 random ass specific things" more than once.
The characters become very close over the span of what? 2 weeks? I think? And while we're told they're close, and shown a little, it does not make sense that our main character, who is understandably incredibly distrustful of people, and has had no friends for years on purpose, suddenly becomes super close with these people and is able to let her guard down around them enough to sleep over at their houses all the time in a matter of days. Sideways is developed to a certain degree because we're in her head constantly, but the 3 girls who become her insta best friends are so flat. I could only really tell you even after 400 pages that we have Jing, the bland and kind of bitchy popular girl, Daisy, the violently mean cheerleader, and Yates, the soft and sweet and easily anxious one. If they had any traits beyond that, they certainly were not developed enough for me to have remembered them, and I finished this book minutes before writing this review, and took notes about things I wanted to mention as I read.
SUCH a disappointing read. I had such high hopes based off the premise. Definitely will not be picking up the second one, even though this one ends on a semi-cliffhanger.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping
Minor: Eating disorder
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