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A review by bookishlifewk
Slash or Pass by Tylor Paige
2.0
*this review contains spoilers*
At first, I rated this book 3 stars but as time passed, I was able to gather my thoughts and demote it to more of a 2.5. These are just some main thoughts I had after reading.
I received an arc copy and knew there were bound to be some typos and a few inconsistencies but story-wise a few things didn't add up. Eisley, Constantine, and Kansas grew up in a cult disguised as a church. It was known that only Eisley and Kansas were able to escape and continue on with their lives leaving Constantine behind and presumably dead. It's quite obvious that he isn't but the other two in the trio (or should I say one) still believed that he was until he appears out of nowhere to involve himself in the documentary being made about the situation.
Eisley is made to be innocent and still healing from her trauma which I completely understand but also had a hobby of hosting suggestive livestreams doing "mundane things". Also fine. It is just when people comment on her content or she is involved in halfway sexual situations, she's a saint and has never heard of sex before. Granted, Kansas and Constantine are complete creeps and use her for their own sexual needs in the guise of "love" in various dark ways. I guess a lot of people have their own hidden desires but once things start rolling in the smut department, Eisley is able to keep up with the two and becomes a vixen overnight. I'm not sure if this is a dark romance trope or not but I have seen this countless times already. It is incredibly unbelievable and gives me whiplash.
As she is the center of the story, we become focused on her one-sided relationship with the town's legacy kids. She is shown time and time again that they absolutely hate her guts and would rather sh*t and clap than care about her feelings but she decides to continue to hang out with them. As they are slowly killed off one by one, she is constantly being accused as the culprit and what does she do? Continues to place herself in their circle despite even Kansas' warnings. The friend group themselves were written in a very high school "mean girls" way that was kind of cringe to read at parts. Especially with the very modern slang that was used at times, as someone who is a Gen Z it was very hard to read. If you're going to use certain modern phrases, pleaseeeeeee make sure they make sense in a sentence. Those few times made a seem like a boomer was trying to fit in with the younger generation.
Aside from that, I became very confused with their background in the cult. The three were abused, starved, neglected, and forced into child marriage. With all of this, Constantine decides to somewhat replicate the doings of the cult (to an extent) and goes on a killing spree of not the people who helped but their children. It seems like Kansas follows him with no questions asked and eventually, they recruit Eisley who just all of a sudden is turned into a killer (again overnight). Towards the end, they all ride off into the sunset after the damage is done.
I found that as a reader there were just way too many WTF moments and holes that could have been fixed to make the story seem more like the really good slasher story it was promoted to be. In all, I felt like there were just spoiled rich kids, fingers pointed at the "outcast" girl because she has a past and basically an only fans, two guys that needed therapy and a REAL baptism, and some random documentary crew that tried to start a massacre out of nowhere. There was too much that Paige tried to include that just didn't flow or make sense.
I really wanted to like this book but it became a cluster of I don't even know what by the time I finished it. I am still interested in reading the second book to see how things go. Hopefully, there will be some growth in writing.
At first, I rated this book 3 stars but as time passed, I was able to gather my thoughts and demote it to more of a 2.5. These are just some main thoughts I had after reading.
I received an arc copy and knew there were bound to be some typos and a few inconsistencies but story-wise a few things didn't add up. Eisley, Constantine, and Kansas grew up in a cult disguised as a church. It was known that only Eisley and Kansas were able to escape and continue on with their lives leaving Constantine behind and presumably dead. It's quite obvious that he isn't but the other two in the trio (or should I say one) still believed that he was until he appears out of nowhere to involve himself in the documentary being made about the situation.
Eisley is made to be innocent and still healing from her trauma which I completely understand but also had a hobby of hosting suggestive livestreams doing "mundane things". Also fine. It is just when people comment on her content or she is involved in halfway sexual situations, she's a saint and has never heard of sex before. Granted, Kansas and Constantine are complete creeps and use her for their own sexual needs in the guise of "love" in various dark ways. I guess a lot of people have their own hidden desires but once things start rolling in the smut department, Eisley is able to keep up with the two and becomes a vixen overnight. I'm not sure if this is a dark romance trope or not but I have seen this countless times already. It is incredibly unbelievable and gives me whiplash.
As she is the center of the story, we become focused on her one-sided relationship with the town's legacy kids. She is shown time and time again that they absolutely hate her guts and would rather sh*t and clap than care about her feelings but she decides to continue to hang out with them. As they are slowly killed off one by one, she is constantly being accused as the culprit and what does she do? Continues to place herself in their circle despite even Kansas' warnings. The friend group themselves were written in a very high school "mean girls" way that was kind of cringe to read at parts. Especially with the very modern slang that was used at times, as someone who is a Gen Z it was very hard to read. If you're going to use certain modern phrases, pleaseeeeeee make sure they make sense in a sentence. Those few times made a seem like a boomer was trying to fit in with the younger generation.
Aside from that, I became very confused with their background in the cult. The three were abused, starved, neglected, and forced into child marriage. With all of this, Constantine decides to somewhat replicate the doings of the cult (to an extent) and goes on a killing spree of not the people who helped but their children. It seems like Kansas follows him with no questions asked and eventually, they recruit Eisley who just all of a sudden is turned into a killer (again overnight). Towards the end, they all ride off into the sunset after the damage is done.
I found that as a reader there were just way too many WTF moments and holes that could have been fixed to make the story seem more like the really good slasher story it was promoted to be. In all, I felt like there were just spoiled rich kids, fingers pointed at the "outcast" girl because she has a past and basically an only fans, two guys that needed therapy and a REAL baptism, and some random documentary crew that tried to start a massacre out of nowhere. There was too much that Paige tried to include that just didn't flow or make sense.
I really wanted to like this book but it became a cluster of I don't even know what by the time I finished it. I am still interested in reading the second book to see how things go. Hopefully, there will be some growth in writing.