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twiinklex 's review for:
Without Merit
by Colleen Hoover
I hated the first 50% of this book and was so sure it would be a 1-star read for me, so imagine my pleasant surprise that I ended up liking it overall!
I love family drama but this YA novel takes dysfunctional to new heights. I feel like the author took every heavy topic imaginable and threw them into one story, but most of it felt glossed over and wasn't well-handled (especially the sexual abuse). Not only did the content feel off-putting at first, the writing was also repetitive and mediocre. I was hate-reading the book at one point and only ploughed on for my book club discussion — but I'm glad I did.
Somehow halfway through, I just went with the flow and absolute chaos of this book. Merit started to grow on me and she became a character I really felt for. I also appreciate some themes covered here, such as mental illness and depression as well as how perspective matters. The character development was surprisingly good too and I loved getting to see the other side of everyone after terrible first impressions.
If you are looking for political correctness, this isn't the book for you. But give it a go if you love flawed characters, weird family dynamics and raw, unflinching honesty.
I usually hate rude protagonists and problematic books so I cannot explain why I ended up feeling positively about Without Merit, but snuck up on me it did.
Favourite quotes:
✨ "I think sometimes you luck out and get a family you connect with. But sometimes... Sometimes you get stuck with family members that do nothing but make mistakes they never have to apologize or pay for."
✨ "Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness."
✨ "So many people dream of living in a house with a white picket fence. Little do they know, there's no such thing as a perfect family, no matter how white the picket fence is."
✨ "I found out that depression doesn't necessarily mean a person is miserable or suicidal all the time. Indifference is also a sign of depression."
✨ "Maybe that's the root of a lot of family issues. It isn't actually the issues people are hung up about for so long. It's that no one has the courage to take the first step is talking about the issues.
✨ "We're all a degree of fucked-up."
✨ "You're all a bunch of heathens."
I love family drama but this YA novel takes dysfunctional to new heights. I feel like the author took every heavy topic imaginable and threw them into one story, but most of it felt glossed over and wasn't well-handled (especially the sexual abuse). Not only did the content feel off-putting at first, the writing was also repetitive and mediocre. I was hate-reading the book at one point and only ploughed on for my book club discussion — but I'm glad I did.
Somehow halfway through, I just went with the flow and absolute chaos of this book. Merit started to grow on me and she became a character I really felt for. I also appreciate some themes covered here, such as mental illness and depression as well as how perspective matters. The character development was surprisingly good too and I loved getting to see the other side of everyone after terrible first impressions.
If you are looking for political correctness, this isn't the book for you. But give it a go if you love flawed characters, weird family dynamics and raw, unflinching honesty.
I usually hate rude protagonists and problematic books so I cannot explain why I ended up feeling positively about Without Merit, but snuck up on me it did.
Favourite quotes:
✨ "I think sometimes you luck out and get a family you connect with. But sometimes... Sometimes you get stuck with family members that do nothing but make mistakes they never have to apologize or pay for."
✨ "Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness."
✨ "So many people dream of living in a house with a white picket fence. Little do they know, there's no such thing as a perfect family, no matter how white the picket fence is."
✨ "I found out that depression doesn't necessarily mean a person is miserable or suicidal all the time. Indifference is also a sign of depression."
✨ "Maybe that's the root of a lot of family issues. It isn't actually the issues people are hung up about for so long. It's that no one has the courage to take the first step is talking about the issues.
✨ "We're all a degree of fucked-up."
✨ "You're all a bunch of heathens."