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❥・澱 's Reviews > The Reappearance of Rachel Price
The Reappearance of Rachel Price
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❥・澱 's review
bookshelves: plotty-twisty, poor-writing-choices, wasted-potential, mystery, unpopular-opinion
Apr 14, 2024
bookshelves: plotty-twisty, poor-writing-choices, wasted-potential, mystery, unpopular-opinion
My favourite thing about this book was....the cover.
Corny humor and unrealistic conflict wrap-up aside, I also...did not like the romance. Actually, I really hated it. I don't know why, but every time something vaguely romantic happened, I wanted to face palm. It just felt forced, and also kind of stupid, considering Bel was being a real asshole and not a necessarily smart one. I'm completely fine with asshole main characters, as long as they're well-written. Bel was certainly something, alright.
There's a bunch of things I didn't like about this, but I'll separate them into short categories so it isn't all over the place.
The Mystery :
It was predictable! Not that I mind predictable mystery. And yet.
Okay, but on a real note, I do think it had a lot of potential. But it was kind of stupid. I'm all for stupid stories as long as it's fun and campy. I think this book could've been that, except I was having a really unpleasant time and I sort of hated everybody.
The Characters :
Rachel Price was actually semi-interesting during some pages, (yay!), but she was also being stupid. I think that's a reoccurring problem here. Everybody was stupid and insufferable and obnoxious. I think the requirement for this mystery to work, realistically, is if the global iq just dropped to room temperature, in Celsius. But I did appreciate the (view spoiler), and her (view spoiler), and if this was written well, then maybe I could've grown to really appreciate her presence in this story. I really do love the idea of a (view spoiler) and I think if done well, it would be really meaningful.
I do think the (view spoiler) plot twist had potential, except it was too ! obvious ! And I can be fine with obvious twists, I can forgive that, but ! �
The Writing
Oh my god, if I see another line talking about Bel's stomach knotting up or the fact that everybody leaves her and whatever I might actually start sobbing right here and right now. There is something so sorely annoying about the fact that this book could've been cut in half if we had a severely vicious editor working on this novel. I have deep respect for Miss Holly Jackson, and I have burned through a handful of her other books, but reading this book was like she was repeatedly hitting me with a stick and asking me if I was stupid.
The book relied on coincidences and chance a bit too much for my usual mouthful of YA mystery. But I can stomach that. But something I couldn't stomach was the painstaking humor. It was really dated. It was like twenty millennial aliens wearing the skin of a young person and trying to act hip with the kids.
Also, every narrative hint had the subtlety of the ox, as implied by my passionate review on the writing style circa previous paragraphs.
In Summary!
Yeah, idk about this one folks. But I'll try again with Holly Jackson another day!
2.5 stars
Corny humor and unrealistic conflict wrap-up aside, I also...did not like the romance. Actually, I really hated it. I don't know why, but every time something vaguely romantic happened, I wanted to face palm. It just felt forced, and also kind of stupid, considering Bel was being a real asshole and not a necessarily smart one. I'm completely fine with asshole main characters, as long as they're well-written. Bel was certainly something, alright.
There's a bunch of things I didn't like about this, but I'll separate them into short categories so it isn't all over the place.
The Mystery :
It was predictable! Not that I mind predictable mystery. And yet.
Okay, but on a real note, I do think it had a lot of potential. But it was kind of stupid. I'm all for stupid stories as long as it's fun and campy. I think this book could've been that, except I was having a really unpleasant time and I sort of hated everybody.
The Characters :
Rachel Price was actually semi-interesting during some pages, (yay!), but she was also being stupid. I think that's a reoccurring problem here. Everybody was stupid and insufferable and obnoxious. I think the requirement for this mystery to work, realistically, is if the global iq just dropped to room temperature, in Celsius. But I did appreciate the (view spoiler), and her (view spoiler), and if this was written well, then maybe I could've grown to really appreciate her presence in this story. I really do love the idea of a (view spoiler) and I think if done well, it would be really meaningful.
I do think the (view spoiler) plot twist had potential, except it was too ! obvious ! And I can be fine with obvious twists, I can forgive that, but ! �
The Writing
Oh my god, if I see another line talking about Bel's stomach knotting up or the fact that everybody leaves her and whatever I might actually start sobbing right here and right now. There is something so sorely annoying about the fact that this book could've been cut in half if we had a severely vicious editor working on this novel. I have deep respect for Miss Holly Jackson, and I have burned through a handful of her other books, but reading this book was like she was repeatedly hitting me with a stick and asking me if I was stupid.
The book relied on coincidences and chance a bit too much for my usual mouthful of YA mystery. But I can stomach that. But something I couldn't stomach was the painstaking humor. It was really dated. It was like twenty millennial aliens wearing the skin of a young person and trying to act hip with the kids.
Also, every narrative hint had the subtlety of the ox, as implied by my passionate review on the writing style circa previous paragraphs.
In Summary!
Yeah, idk about this one folks. But I'll try again with Holly Jackson another day!
2.5 stars
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Reading Progress
November 21, 2023
– Shelved
Started Reading
April 14, 2024
–
Finished Reading
