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A review by lilibetbombshell
You Should Have Seen This Coming by Shani Michelle
2.0
In contemporary fiction of any sort, do me a favor and don’t name your seer any sort of variation on the name Cassandra, please? Talk about a little bit too on the nose and a little bit too cringe, am I right?
I don’t know what it was about this book, but it was all a little bit too cringe, and it was all a little bit of a mess. To me it came across not only as a YA book that didn’t sound like it was written by an author who understood how to write YA (remember when Kevin Williamson was writing “Dawson’s Creek” back in the day and everyone’s largest complaint was that teenagers don’t talk like that?), but also as a book that didn’t solidly know what genre it belonged in. It didn’t know what it wanted to be, and so the pacing was off and so were the characterizations. There was just too much going on, all the time.
I did enjoy the juxtaposition of a seer who looks into the future and a clairvoyant who looks into the past as our two main characters (incidentally, the etymology of the name “Hayden” ends up going back to the root word for “heathen”, which is interesting), but I really, really wish the whole plot hadn’t been set into motion by something so feeble. This book could have been so much better than it was.
Thanks to NetGalley, MacMillan Children’s Books, and Swoon Reads for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. Per personal policy, this review will not appear on social media or bookseller websites due to its rating of 3 stars or lower.
I don’t know what it was about this book, but it was all a little bit too cringe, and it was all a little bit of a mess. To me it came across not only as a YA book that didn’t sound like it was written by an author who understood how to write YA (remember when Kevin Williamson was writing “Dawson’s Creek” back in the day and everyone’s largest complaint was that teenagers don’t talk like that?), but also as a book that didn’t solidly know what genre it belonged in. It didn’t know what it wanted to be, and so the pacing was off and so were the characterizations. There was just too much going on, all the time.
I did enjoy the juxtaposition of a seer who looks into the future and a clairvoyant who looks into the past as our two main characters (incidentally, the etymology of the name “Hayden” ends up going back to the root word for “heathen”, which is interesting), but I really, really wish the whole plot hadn’t been set into motion by something so feeble. This book could have been so much better than it was.
Thanks to NetGalley, MacMillan Children’s Books, and Swoon Reads for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review. Per personal policy, this review will not appear on social media or bookseller websites due to its rating of 3 stars or lower.