A review by margenotbutter
Bitter End by Jennifer Brown

3.0

I thought this was well written and I could see where Jennifer Brown was meant to be going with the plot, but what I couldn't get over was how it was handled. Alex would get beaten by Cole, then there would be a couple of pages telling us why it was bad and she was aware that it was bad, and some psychoanalysis about the situation (all from Alex's point of view). Then Cole would apologise and we would get some more psychoanalysis about why she shouldn't go back to him, and then she would say that everything was okay and they were in love. I understand that is how abusive relationships work, but Alex was just too self-aware and clued in to the fine details for it to work properly.

Have to say that I thought all the characters were excellent - I might be a little in love with Zach! - but I found their relationship disappointing because of how they were hurt that Alex didn't confide in them and it destroyed their friendship a bit. It didn't make sense to me, because such a big deal was made of about how great friends they all were and then suddenly her best friends were sulking because she was being beaten up and not telling them?!