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misha_ali 's review for:
It's Always Been You
by Elin Annalise
Educational, yes. Entertaining, no.
To rant a bit, the characters in this book were severely flawed, and not in a "this person is so complex and interesting" way, but a "this character is not well-written" sort of way.
Courtney is an extremely shady person. The first time Sophie calls the helpline she volunteers at, she realises that it's her old school friend slash rival and does not immediately indicate the conflict to someone and get off the case. She also chooses a moment of upset vulnerability where Sophie is looking for support and possibly a place to stay to make her move romantically and it's just so cringy that I nearly stopped reading there.
Sophie, on the other hand, is a reasonably well known model, is nearly thirty, and has no real relationship with her stepmother, and yet lets her stepmother get away with absolute murder, including dragging her to a doctors appointment. She's an incredibly passive character and that always irritates me.
Further things that are completely unresolved in this book (spoilers):
- Courtney choosing to prank Sophie, then finding out that Sophie is hiding from an abusive partner and everytime she does "spooky pranks", Sophie probably thought it was her partner. No apologies, no disclosure, nothing. Absolutely horrendous behavior.
- Zoe or Zara (there is so little difference between the twins that I legitimately forget which one has the health issues and which one was just some spoilt filmmaker wannabe) want to film two nearly thirty year olds pranking each other in increasingly sanitary and safe ways and somehow this is interesting to someone to watch? Absolutely astounding. And more so that Sophie, a former model and aspiring actress, just randomly decides to go with it?
- The main bully storyline is incredibly stupid. All it would take is one very brief conversation where Sophie explains that her dad is forcing her to be nice to Janey, who is a spoiled little shit, for the sake of his business. Conflict resolved.
- What happens with the stepmum and the little brother? The epilogue doesn't really hint at much in terms of a resolution for that.
- Why does Sophie react to the idea of a restraining order as if she's never heard the words before and why doesn't she already have one?
Too many extremely weird and badly resolved things for me to enjoy this one, I'm afraid.
To rant a bit, the characters in this book were severely flawed, and not in a "this person is so complex and interesting" way, but a "this character is not well-written" sort of way.
Courtney is an extremely shady person. The first time Sophie calls the helpline she volunteers at, she realises that it's her old school friend slash rival and does not immediately indicate the conflict to someone and get off the case. She also chooses a moment of upset vulnerability where Sophie is looking for support and possibly a place to stay to make her move romantically and it's just so cringy that I nearly stopped reading there.
Sophie, on the other hand, is a reasonably well known model, is nearly thirty, and has no real relationship with her stepmother, and yet lets her stepmother get away with absolute murder, including dragging her to a doctors appointment. She's an incredibly passive character and that always irritates me.
Further things that are completely unresolved in this book (spoilers):
Spoiler
- The twins' conflict. One has a severe disorder and is therefore not a hypochondriac and nothing comes of it?- Courtney choosing to prank Sophie, then finding out that Sophie is hiding from an abusive partner and everytime she does "spooky pranks", Sophie probably thought it was her partner. No apologies, no disclosure, nothing. Absolutely horrendous behavior.
- Zoe or Zara (there is so little difference between the twins that I legitimately forget which one has the health issues and which one was just some spoilt filmmaker wannabe) want to film two nearly thirty year olds pranking each other in increasingly sanitary and safe ways and somehow this is interesting to someone to watch? Absolutely astounding. And more so that Sophie, a former model and aspiring actress, just randomly decides to go with it?
- The main bully storyline is incredibly stupid. All it would take is one very brief conversation where Sophie explains that her dad is forcing her to be nice to Janey, who is a spoiled little shit, for the sake of his business. Conflict resolved.
- What happens with the stepmum and the little brother? The epilogue doesn't really hint at much in terms of a resolution for that.
- Why does Sophie react to the idea of a restraining order as if she's never heard the words before and why doesn't she already have one?
Too many extremely weird and badly resolved things for me to enjoy this one, I'm afraid.