Scan barcode
A review by chroniclesofabookreader
Before We Were Sorry by Kit Frick
3.0
See All the Stars is a YA contemporary with mystery elements centered around a girl who loses her small group of friends and is forced to survive her final year of high school alone after the events unfolded. The sequence and layout of the story worked really well to add to the suspense of what happened by leading the reader on the journey of seeing the before and after, and slowly revealing the event that tore everyone apart. I loved the exploration into the toxic, dependent dynamic the four girls had and how it rang true to the types of relationships girls can form with one another, and watching it unfold was as enjoyable as it was difficult to watch.
While I enjoyed the story's layout and how it helped to spice up the mystery, I struggled with connecting to the characters and maintaining interest in finding out what happened. The plot's pacing sagged quite often and didn't hold my interest, making it all too easy to put it aside after only a chapter or two. Even though I really wanted to know what happened between them and why Ellory was experiencing what she was, I couldn't be convinced to read continuously or voraciously. The writing, for a debut, was strong and I enjoyed the complexity to the connections these girls fostered—both good and bad—but something was missing to make me feel as if I couldn't put it down. Maybe there were too many unnecessary scenes that didn't anything add to the overall story, or enough substance or hidden clues in these scenes to add to the story itself, but as the story went along it slowly became more difficult to read through them to get to the parts that did add depth and background.
I am but one person and you could very much enjoy this story as I wish I could've so I recommend giving it a try. See All the Stars had such potential, and I think Kit Frick will be an author to watch out for. I look forward to seeing how her writing develops and grows in her next book and the one after that.
**Received an early copy; this had no bearing on my opinions**
While I enjoyed the story's layout and how it helped to spice up the mystery, I struggled with connecting to the characters and maintaining interest in finding out what happened. The plot's pacing sagged quite often and didn't hold my interest, making it all too easy to put it aside after only a chapter or two. Even though I really wanted to know what happened between them and why Ellory was experiencing what she was, I couldn't be convinced to read continuously or voraciously. The writing, for a debut, was strong and I enjoyed the complexity to the connections these girls fostered—both good and bad—but something was missing to make me feel as if I couldn't put it down. Maybe there were too many unnecessary scenes that didn't anything add to the overall story, or enough substance or hidden clues in these scenes to add to the story itself, but as the story went along it slowly became more difficult to read through them to get to the parts that did add depth and background.
I am but one person and you could very much enjoy this story as I wish I could've so I recommend giving it a try. See All the Stars had such potential, and I think Kit Frick will be an author to watch out for. I look forward to seeing how her writing develops and grows in her next book and the one after that.
**Received an early copy; this had no bearing on my opinions**