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A review by paragraphsandpages
Rated by Melissa Grey
2.0
This was another one of those books that I read with my friend broken up over a week. We generally go for unique contemporaries or thrillers, and this seemed to fit the bill! However, the book itself didn't actually spend too much time focusing on the uniqueness of the rating system, nor on the mystery style plot it seemed to contain, but rather on the characters themselves and their (many) individual issues. Additionally, most of these issues were ones that teens in our own society would have, with only slight variations because of this new rating system. Honestly, if you removed the rating system entirely, the book would kinda just be the same.
What this book had: diverse characters with cute relationships (as a group and in pairs)
What this book lacked: plot, pacing, focus, and depth
From the beginning, I knew this book was trying to tackle Too Much. There were 6 characters, all with very intense set of problems (abusive parents (physical and emotional), eating disorders, dead parents, distant parents, sick siblings, secretly adopted, etc, etc), and only a mere 330 pages to solve all of those issues and the plot itself, which was tied to a brand new rating system that needed explanation, a large mystery needing solving, and a society needing fixing. All in all, that's a lot to accomplish in a single book, especially if you want me to connect with and feel for the large cast by the end of it, as each only got about 5 chapters in their point of view.
This book was able to successfully accomplish one thing, and that was making me like the characters. This is due to the focus of the book for the first 60%, which was basically to individually spend a lot of time with the characters without bringing up the plot much, as well as start pairing off some of the members of the group. They didn't even truly team up (or feel bothered to try and solve the mystery) until 70% into the book, which is extremely late. The pacing of this book was just so incredibly off, with characters finally having very obvious revelations way too late or not at all, and it was just in general too odd. The ending suffered heavily due to this, as the novel spent most of the time describing how terrible the lives of these teens were or how dramatic their problems were only for them to be solved in the final chapter suddenly, with only a slightly longer explanation of these solutions in the epilogue. Additionally, a large part of the plot and a lot of clues weren't even addressed until the epilogue, which was also just a weird choice.
Additionally, the Too Muchness of this book meant that there wasn't really any depth to anything that was able to be discussed for more than two pages, and the focus was extremely all over the place, and entirely dependent on the POV you were currently reading from. It just didn't feel cohesive, and my friend even commented about halfway that the novel read more like an anthology in that 3 different stories were being told, they just happened to be taking place in the same world/setting/time.
The plot was also just odd? It felt both big (like, change the world level) and small (change your life level), and never actually decided what it wanted to do. It also just never intrigued me? Like I never necessarily cheered for them to take down the rating system or figure out who was sending weird messages and drawing graffiti on everything. We were just given so little crumbs as readers, especially for the first 60%, that by the time the plot actually became important, we were already checked out or no longer cared about that aspect of the book. Plus the end reveal was too obvious and I didn't care for it either. (And there's this hanging thread that they just, never take about again? )
Honestly, this book would've been a lot better if the rating system was just removed and it was about the teens finding each other and finding themselves/the strength to stand up for themselves. That part was done really well, it was just bad at everything else.
What this book had: diverse characters with cute relationships (as a group and in pairs)
What this book lacked: plot, pacing, focus, and depth
From the beginning, I knew this book was trying to tackle Too Much. There were 6 characters, all with very intense set of problems (abusive parents (physical and emotional), eating disorders, dead parents, distant parents, sick siblings, secretly adopted, etc, etc), and only a mere 330 pages to solve all of those issues and the plot itself, which was tied to a brand new rating system that needed explanation, a large mystery needing solving, and a society needing fixing. All in all, that's a lot to accomplish in a single book, especially if you want me to connect with and feel for the large cast by the end of it, as each only got about 5 chapters in their point of view.
This book was able to successfully accomplish one thing, and that was making me like the characters. This is due to the focus of the book for the first 60%, which was basically to individually spend a lot of time with the characters without bringing up the plot much, as well as start pairing off some of the members of the group. They didn't even truly team up (or feel bothered to try and solve the mystery) until 70% into the book, which is extremely late. The pacing of this book was just so incredibly off, with characters finally having very obvious revelations way too late or not at all, and it was just in general too odd. The ending suffered heavily due to this, as the novel spent most of the time describing how terrible the lives of these teens were or how dramatic their problems were only for them to be solved in the final chapter suddenly, with only a slightly longer explanation of these solutions in the epilogue. Additionally, a large part of the plot and a lot of clues weren't even addressed until the epilogue, which was also just a weird choice.
Additionally, the Too Muchness of this book meant that there wasn't really any depth to anything that was able to be discussed for more than two pages, and the focus was extremely all over the place, and entirely dependent on the POV you were currently reading from. It just didn't feel cohesive, and my friend even commented about halfway that the novel read more like an anthology in that 3 different stories were being told, they just happened to be taking place in the same world/setting/time.
The plot was also just odd? It felt both big (like, change the world level) and small (change your life level), and never actually decided what it wanted to do. It also just never intrigued me? Like I never necessarily cheered for them to take down the rating system or figure out who was sending weird messages and drawing graffiti on everything. We were just given so little crumbs as readers, especially for the first 60%, that by the time the plot actually became important, we were already checked out or no longer cared about that aspect of the book. Plus the end reveal was too obvious and I didn't care for it either. (And there's this hanging thread that they just, never take about again?
Spoiler
what happened to london girl??? is she dead???? will i ever know???Honestly, this book would've been a lot better if the rating system was just removed and it was about the teens finding each other and finding themselves/the strength to stand up for themselves. That part was done really well, it was just bad at everything else.