A review by abbyl819
Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer

3.0

Usually I am a fan of enemies to lovers, but the animosity between Prudence and Quint just felt so unnecessary. Prudence was such a judgmental person towards him, and her reason for hating him seemed more petty and self-righteous than anything else, and his reason for hating her seemed completely justified to me because I found her hard to like, too. Prudence is not a likable character at all; she is obnoxious, self-centered, and is way too much of an embodiment of the perfectionist/overachiever trope to be entertaining or believable. She is more annoying than anything. Her reasoning for her academic drive isn't explained at all until 100 pages in, making her seem dumb and over-confident rather than smart. Her desire to study business in college is only mentioned twice, both times briefly, so this whole aspect of the plot seemed unfocused and like it lacks an anchor. It may have made more sense if it was brought in earlier. Her doing a business report for a science assignment and receiving a bad grade is the catalyst for the whole story, and yet her outrage at her grade, is completely unjustified because her teacher was totally right and she deserved what she got. She definitely has a high and mighty mindset and is oblivious to the way the world works. The whole karma gift is completely ignored for a large chunk from the middle to end of the book, and it added nothing. This being the title, I thought it would be more important, but I think the book would've been better without it. The best parts of the book had nothing to do with the karma powers or her overachieving smug behaviors, such as when she discovers the truth about Quint and the animal rescue center and what a great guy he actually is.