heatherinjapan 's review for:

The Lives of Desperate Girls by MacKenzie Common

3.0

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A somewhat mediocre book that is set up like a mystery or thriller but eventually turns into the main character coming of age sort of. Jenny is going through the pain of her best friend going missing and another girl is murdered a few weeks after, compelling her to look into the investigation. This novel made a lot of commentary on the treatment of the Natives or Indigenous people of Canada in Canada. I didn't know how bad it is in Canada for them so this was definitely an eye opener. The novel also deals with the controversy of rape amongst young adults and how there is a double standard. While it is loaded with this information that really did make me think, the characters themselves were kind of boring. I really thought someone close to the main character was gonna be revealed as a big scary serial killer and some moments really felt like that but it never happened. I wouldn't necessarily suggest people go out of their way to read it before other books but it's not the worst book in the world.