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A review by thebookberrie
Pretending by Holly Bourne
TW: rape, sexual assault
Okay here's the thing: this started off SO FUCKING GOOD but then it just, yeah no it decided it didn't want to be so good anymore.
Pretending is about a woman named April who is relatively normal, but she can't seem to get past date 5 with a guy. Every time she thinks she's found someone to trust, he reveals himself to be awful. If only April could be like Gretel- the perfect girl that every guy wants. The only thing is that Gretel isn't real and April is pretending to be her. As soon as April starts being Gretel, dating is much easier and she lands a guy named Josh. As she gets closer to Josh, April doesn't know how long she'll be able to keep pretending.
This had such potential but it just throws it all away just to be a shitty romance with a catfish. And for what? At the beginning of this book, it was literally the "cool girl" speech from Gone Girl. She makes Gretel out to be the girl every guy would want. Personally for me, I would have made this more murderous instead of a just a traumatized woman lying and taking a catfish game too far.
It was just weird honestly. April goes way too far in the relationship with the guy like?? Why are we doing all of this lol just start killing dudes or something idk. April joints a boxing class for sexual assault survivors which was nice but either the book should have been all about them or just not had them as a subplot because it was so random??
This book talks a lot about sexual assault and feminism and I did like what it was saying there. I really wish I could have stanned this book but it just wasn't it for me.
Okay here's the thing: this started off SO FUCKING GOOD but then it just, yeah no it decided it didn't want to be so good anymore.
Pretending is about a woman named April who is relatively normal, but she can't seem to get past date 5 with a guy. Every time she thinks she's found someone to trust, he reveals himself to be awful. If only April could be like Gretel- the perfect girl that every guy wants. The only thing is that Gretel isn't real and April is pretending to be her. As soon as April starts being Gretel, dating is much easier and she lands a guy named Josh. As she gets closer to Josh, April doesn't know how long she'll be able to keep pretending.
This had such potential but it just throws it all away just to be a shitty romance with a catfish. And for what? At the beginning of this book, it was literally the "cool girl" speech from Gone Girl. She makes Gretel out to be the girl every guy would want. Personally for me, I would have made this more murderous instead of a just a traumatized woman lying and taking a catfish game too far.
It was just weird honestly. April goes way too far in the relationship with the guy like?? Why are we doing all of this lol just start killing dudes or something idk. April joints a boxing class for sexual assault survivors which was nice but either the book should have been all about them or just not had them as a subplot because it was so random??
This book talks a lot about sexual assault and feminism and I did like what it was saying there. I really wish I could have stanned this book but it just wasn't it for me.