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A review by jelkebooks
The It Girl by Ruth Ware
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
I've been dreading writing this review as writing a one star review is just never fun. Especially in this case as I just don't have that much to say about it. This book just really did not work for me.
To start things of with I just thought this was a massive bore. This book just moved so incredibly slowly. It took its sweet time to move things along, and for such a long part of this book almost nothing happens at all. You're just threading along, not even sure if there is a mystery at all. The flashback chapters also seemed kind of useless. I mean, I did like them fine enough, but ultimately they just didn't really serve a purpose to the full story, in my opinion. There just wasn't anything in there that actually helped the reader figure out the mystery, in my opinion. I feel like much of this book would be the same if those flashbacks weren't included.
I also just really didn't like our cast of characters. Now April was 100% supposed to be unlikeable, but I feel like she had DEEP issues that were just never touched upon. It just was glossed over because she was pretty, rich girl. I feel like we didn't get enough of Ryan, Hugh, Emily, and Will in the past to even properly know who they are, and form an opinion on them. In the present Will seemed a bit of an asshole, but also definitely understandable as well. However, our main character Hannah was just pathetic. I don't know. I don't like describing characters that way, especially female characters. However, there's just not another word for it. She truly just was pathetic. Her obsession with a man who barely even looked at her was just pathetic. Her obsession with this "friend" who absolutely didn't treat her right was pathetic. Her lack of self preservation was just pathetic. The ease at which she was completely manipulated into doubting what she knows is true was just pathetic. I have no other word for it. I just couldn't stand her.
Despite all of that I kept reading. I was hopeful that the reveals would just pull this book together for me for some reason. I don't know why I thought that as Ruth Ware books have a tendency to let me down in that department. So yeah, this wasn't an exception. I thought the reveal was horribly done. It was the character with like 0 motivation. That motivation was just poorly scrambled together in the end, with info we never even properly got. It's not even that the main character was so clever to figure it out herself, she just fell perfectly into our muderer's trap. How everything went down also just felt like massive womp womp. At first a one star seemed harsh, but when it comes down to it I just didn't like as single aspect of this book so I guess it's a fair rating after all.
To start things of with I just thought this was a massive bore. This book just moved so incredibly slowly. It took its sweet time to move things along, and for such a long part of this book almost nothing happens at all. You're just threading along, not even sure if there is a mystery at all. The flashback chapters also seemed kind of useless. I mean, I did like them fine enough, but ultimately they just didn't really serve a purpose to the full story, in my opinion. There just wasn't anything in there that actually helped the reader figure out the mystery, in my opinion. I feel like much of this book would be the same if those flashbacks weren't included.
I also just really didn't like our cast of characters. Now April was 100% supposed to be unlikeable, but I feel like she had DEEP issues that were just never touched upon. It just was glossed over because she was pretty, rich girl. I feel like we didn't get enough of Ryan, Hugh, Emily, and Will in the past to even properly know who they are, and form an opinion on them. In the present Will seemed a bit of an asshole, but also definitely understandable as well. However, our main character Hannah was just pathetic. I don't know. I don't like describing characters that way, especially female characters. However, there's just not another word for it. She truly just was pathetic. Her obsession with a man who barely even looked at her was just pathetic. Her obsession with this "friend" who absolutely didn't treat her right was pathetic. Her lack of self preservation was just pathetic. The ease at which she was completely manipulated into doubting what she knows is true was just pathetic. I have no other word for it. I just couldn't stand her.
Despite all of that I kept reading. I was hopeful that the reveals would just pull this book together for me for some reason. I don't know why I thought that as Ruth Ware books have a tendency to let me down in that department. So yeah, this wasn't an exception. I thought the reveal was horribly done. It was the character with like 0 motivation. That motivation was just poorly scrambled together in the end, with info we never even properly got. It's not even that the main character was so clever to figure it out herself, she just fell perfectly into our muderer's trap. How everything went down also just felt like massive womp womp. At first a one star seemed harsh, but when it comes down to it I just didn't like as single aspect of this book so I guess it's a fair rating after all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Drug use and Misogyny