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lilhumanoid13 's review for:
Green Dot
by Madeleine Gray
I... really can't believe I finished this. I did so hoping that eventually, maybe, something interesting would happen. Surely this wasn't all there was to the book. SURELY there would be a twist, or an interesting character development at least!
There was not.
I should've known there would be nothing to this book when it opened with a Taylor Swift lyric (and not even a poignant one; it was "I've got a blank space, baby, and I'll write your name"—what??). But then it actually started out strong—I love an unlikeable protag, especially when they're queer and messy and they know it. Hera's dry humor and jaded outlook made me chuckle a few times. Her weird little job in the newsroom was interesting, a cool perspective. I even overlooked the pretentious prose and forced pop-culture references because it effectively told me who Hera was and built her character.
But I felt like the author ran out of steam around a third of the way through. Hera leaves the interesting setting and becomes completely indefensible (not because of the cheating necessarily but because of her entitlement, dependence, and hypocrisy). Her actions are random, and she knows it—she tells us she's not thinking things through very well, and that's fine. I'm not asking for her every move to make sense or for her decisions to be good, but nothing she does advances the plot or holds my interest, either. I kept holding out hope that something would happen to justify the remaining pages, but holy hell, the ending was one of the most major letdowns I've experienced in a book.
I'm giving it two stars because there are some funny moments throughout and I appreciated the first third or so, but it wasn't worth reading the rest.
There was not.
I should've known there would be nothing to this book when it opened with a Taylor Swift lyric (and not even a poignant one; it was "I've got a blank space, baby, and I'll write your name"—what??). But then it actually started out strong—I love an unlikeable protag, especially when they're queer and messy and they know it. Hera's dry humor and jaded outlook made me chuckle a few times. Her weird little job in the newsroom was interesting, a cool perspective. I even overlooked the pretentious prose and forced pop-culture references because it effectively told me who Hera was and built her character.
But I felt like the author ran out of steam around a third of the way through. Hera leaves the interesting setting and becomes completely indefensible (not because of the cheating necessarily but because of her entitlement, dependence, and hypocrisy). Her actions are random, and she knows it—she tells us she's not thinking things through very well, and that's fine. I'm not asking for her every move to make sense or for her decisions to be good, but nothing she does advances the plot or holds my interest, either. I kept holding out hope that something would happen to justify the remaining pages, but holy hell, the ending was one of the most major letdowns I've experienced in a book.
I'm giving it two stars because there are some funny moments throughout and I appreciated the first third or so, but it wasn't worth reading the rest.