Just ugh...
 
This had a promising start, but it totally lost me around the halfway point. With 10% left I was so bored I was aching to DNF, but I persevered as I was so close to the end. 
 
Boredom was really the main theme while reading this book for me. It talks about heavy topics (domestic abuse, paedophilia, heavy violence etc.), but manages to make them feel very bland and uninteresting. I know this is YA, so maybe Sharpe was trying to 'protect' younger readers to an certain extent, but it just created a bland, boring read. 
 
The narrative also got pretty confusing at times, and not in a good way. Sharpe tried to incorporate sneaky subverts/misdirects and reveals in the plot, but a lot of the time the 'reveals' just confused things and made me lose track of the real story. For example, it’s implied for chapters that someone was beaten with a belt, but then there's a 'sudden, shocking reveal' that they were actually beaten with a poker instead. 1. Unnecessary 2. Confusing 3. Just why?
 
Also, Nora's supposed 'best friends' were SO horribly judgemental about her life when she told them the truth. They were written as if they were amazing friends, but if they actually had ANY respect or trust in Nora, they would know it wasn't personal that she didn't tell them everything before she was ready. Her LIFE was on the line, and they were just so selfish and made it all about themselves, never once thinking about how difficult it must have been for her. They act as if Nora is completely in the wrong, without even thinking that she'd been abused and didn't have any control over her childhood or how she needed to stay safe after it. Bad BAD, horrible HORRIBLE friends. Iris clearly handles it better than Wes, but would she have done so in a normal situation?? 
 
A lot of plot points were really predictable e.g. a lighter is mentioned so you know there's going to be fire involved at some point, wow what a shocker. But on the other hand, Sharpe dances around some elements of the story that she seems to think we as the reader already know about, but we don't. OR there are elements where she doesn't mention whatever the thing is, presumably because it’s ‘so awful’, but there is nothing it could conceivably be. E.g. talking about Lee's past and at one point it’s said that it isn’t 'criminal' - well then what that fuck could it be to be so awful?? There's some suggestion of it being something to do with prostitution, but we never actually get told so are just left in bafflement about what on EARTH she could possibly mean.
 
The conversations between Lee and the authorities are written out as transcripts. In theory I have no issue with this. However, most of the conversations being 'transcribed' are just between two characters who are standing/sitting next to each other. There would be ZERO reason for an official transcript to be written up of that, and also no way to transcribe those conversations because I'm sure they wouldn't have been recorded in any way. So unrealistic. On the reverse, towards the end it’s suggested that there are no cameras in a bank vault?? Insane, of course there are. 
 
In conclusion a surprisingly boring, confusing and unrealistic book. It’s a no from me.