I feel like one of maybe four people in the world who just... really did not enjoy this book? I've been putting off this review for weeks because I just don't know where to start. I have so many friends who raved about this book to me, so I was so disappointed by it.

These are only my opinions, and I would never dream of disrespecting anyone who disagrees with my review, so please show the same courtesy and don't hate me for what I'm about to say. ❤

→ what i liked ←

This is a very quick read; if I had enjoyed it, I'm sure I would've knocked it out in one sitting. As it was, it still felt like it moved pretty quickly.

The main romance is fairly cute. Incredibly trope-y "goody-two-shoes smart girl falls for the brooding bad boy!" stuff, but, I mean, their interactions are fine, and I was rooting for them by the end of the book, which is a big plus. I would say I was more attached to the budding relationship between them than I was to any of the individual characters in this story.

Nate, 'the criminal', is a very likable character. He's got a really dark and twisty back story that explains away a lot of his motives, and I definitely enjoyed his perspectives of the story the most. He just feels like a really authentic teen who's trying to muddle through a hard, screwed-up life, and I loved that about him. Whenever it was any other character's POV, I definitely found myself rushing to get back to his sections.

→ what i didn't like ←

This book is so problematic and most of it is NEVER challenged. First of all, can we talk about the immense amounts of slut-shaming? I could handle it if it was coming just from the characters and/or was actually being challenged consistently, but 1) it isn't challenged every time in the dialogue, and 2) the author contributes to the slut-shaming narrative regarding women cheating.

We have two characters in the story who are cheaters; one is a female character, who does it one time, while drunk; the other is a male character, who carries on an emotional and physical affair for MONTHS. We spend a tremendous portion of the book focusing on the girl's one-night-stand, while the text literally does not ONCE actually name the boy for what he is: a cheater. There's no remorse shown, and there are no consequences whatsoever for him. It also seems kinda gross to me that the girl who's guilty of cheating is a "pretty, vapid, popular girl" type - can we please stop with these cliches?

Also, can we please NOT make the only queer character in the cast a horrible character who cheats and hurts people? AND can we not make the character's coming-out scene a bigger twist than the actual murderer reveal? This book also does some serious vilifying of mental illness, but I won't get started on that rant.

Beyond all of that... honestly, the writing is just not that good, and the "twist" is so predictable it hurts.

→ final thoughts ←

All in all... I almost hated this book. If it hadn't been for the quick pace and how much I enjoyed Nate, as well as his relationship with Bronwyn, I absolutely would have DNFed this. As it stands, I cannot in good conscience recommend this book, and I will probably not be picking up any future releases from this author.

———
twitter | booktok | bookstagram | blog