ŷ������

2 stars. (writing this through sobs)

i don’t even know where to start. very little about this book was good.

the writing was nothing like her usual work, i don’t think, but it’s been about a year since i last read a holly jackson book so idk take this with a grain of salt. most of the sentences were fragments; they couldn’t stand on their own. now, let me say that i am the biggest enthusiast of breaking grammar rules. as a writer, i often do so myself. and as a reader, i find that the prose i adore most usually involves some kind of rule bending or breaking. but this writing was odd and clunky in such a way that i couldn’t be fully immersed in the story. every few lines there would be some broken off piece of a sentence that i could kind of understand with context but at the same time, it was just so jarring to read?? like what happened between agggtm and this book?? the shift in writing styles was completely unnecessary. not to mention the million times she brought up the knot in bel’s stomach? girl idgaf about some stupid knot in her stomach. move on. cut that shit out and save us 50 pages please!!!

the characters were all insufferable, except ash, the somewhat saving grace of this book. what a sweetheart. he deserved more page time. bel pissed me off. i get that she was suspicious of rachel, i would be too. but at least give her the benefit of the doubt? and maybe don’t treat her like shit? there’s a way to be tactful and wary �� no need to run around acting like she had the plague. ALSO bel’s character made no sense. she was so inconsistent it was giving me whiplash. wdym she suspected rachel then did a complete 180 when there was nothing that even justified that? like how did we get here?? what is going on?? it felt like holly jackson just didn’t take the time to fully flesh out bel as a character. she was so one dimensional, so uninteresting, and somehow also so infuriating at times. and everyone else i either flat out despised or was completely indifferent toward.

onto the plot! the one decent thing about this book, aside from ash. the twist got me. i was sort of expecting some of it but i was also (thankfully) surprised during the reveal. it was good enough to leave me satisfied, BUT the ending was so odd? like�� genuinely, what the fuck? i can’t say much without spoiling it, but i really don’t know how to feel about that. uneasy? confused? in disbelief? relief that it’s over? all of the above, apparently.