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firstly, I need to preface this by saying that mallory is undoubtedly, one of the most annoying mcs I’ve ever had to read about. it was pretty bad, I even thought, at one point, that this would affect my rating, but, it didn’t 🤗 (except it totally did 😅 had to change my rating after realising that i mostly enjoyed nolan’s character and the chess element)

despite being pretty irritating, like the penetrable sound of grinding your nails on a chalkboard aggravating, I really appreciated her character, as she was remarkably realistic in her actions, especially when u consider what she had to go through for the past four years prior. her selflessness in giving up her entire life to provide for her sisters and her mother, as well as, her self sabotaging tendencies stemmed from immense guilt of a past incident, causing her to have all this weight of responsibilities casted by herself on her was written and presented so adroitly by AH, to say I was impressed would truly be an understatement. due to this, she was also afraid to be attached to anyone romantically and distanced herself from people when she came to the conclusion that they "didn’t need her anymore". and I enjoyed the much needed bonding moment between her and her family, it was incredibly sweet.

finding her way back to chess and learning to relocate her old adoration for it, instead of constantly associating it with the traumatising events that occurred when she was younger, was something she needed and finally knowing that she came to the decision of pursuing it as a career was so gratifying. not to mention, it was amazing to see all the bonds she built along the way with several different people, along with, the struggles with being a woman in a male dominated area.

as for her relationship w nolan…I have to say that I low-key felt as if she didn’t deserve him. I mean, I’m glad he was able to love her despite all of her flaws and accept her as she was (bye he was literally downright obsessed w her and I couldn’t get enough of it), but she constantly insulted him for no reason and I didn’t feel like her apology towards the ending was enough 🤷‍♀�� nevertheless, they are a very cute couple and the article ending the book? top tier.