No wonder this book is a debut - it reads like one. Character motivations are flimsy and there's a lot of "tell, not show". What promised to be a horrifying (and in its horror, relatable) depiction of girlhood turned out to be a repetitive, bleak look at the life of an extremely unpleasant main character and her one-dimensional "friends". 

Ren's character kept me from engaging with the plot: I really hoped for more from this book, but she read so stereotypically "insane" (you know, the way Jinx from Arcane is "insane", the way Harley Quinn is "insane") that I had trouble buying into the themes the story was pushing. Strong beginnings there, sure, the exploration of what puberty and high school and being in competitive sports could do to a girl, but her narrative voice felt weak and underdeveloped.

It's a weird book.