shanae0599 's review for:

How We Fall Apart by Katie Zhao

2.5

dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I don’t have a particular rating I feel like I should give this? I don’t often care for dark academia prep/boarding school murder mysteries such as this anyway, but I did and did not care for this. I hate when people compare something new to something big and popular and say it’s just a rip off solely because it’s in the same genre, but sooo much of this book truly felt like I was just rewatching pretty little liars. So many of the secrets and obstacles were extremely similar, if not the same, to situations the girls in PLL have. For about 80% of the book, it was pretty much just PLL to me, although I did appreciate how the ending differed from expectations. Everything but the ending was also pretty predictable, and I feel like the only reason the ending wasn’t as predictable is because the build up to it wasn’t handled in a way we could even try to make predictions. 

On the other hand, It was a a quick and easy read. This feels more like an easy beginner or intro to this genre. I feel like as long as no one is looking for the perfect and twisty thriller that requires a lot of thought, other people will enjoy it easily. If you enjoyed Pretty Little Liars and wanted a more diverse story that’s similar, this is the book for you. There were aspects I enjoyed, but overall, this was not the book for me.