content warnings:

Spoiler

precanon parent death, past pedophilia & incest & rape, sexual trauma, past child abduction, slut-shaming, bullying, sexual harassment, mention of suicide by OD, sex as coping mechanism, suicide joke, transphobic joke, acephobia, ableist language (incl. “cr*zy”), romanticization of suicide (later retracted), non-graphic sexual content

rep:

Spoiler

gay Mormon best friend [Breckin], (very) minor M/M relationship

For real, I kept meaning to DNF this. Curse my need to be vindicated in predicting that the reveals were exactly as cliched as I thought they would be. (I was right.) And, apparently, my residual FOMO from being too young to get into 2010s lit that romanticizes things it really shouldn't.

Basically I liked exactly one (1) thing about the plot:

Spoiler

that the love interest befriends, rather than being threatened by, the gay best friend

. Meanwhile, I disliked pretty much everything else:

-

Spoiler

Childhood sexual trauma

leads to lack of sexual interest/attraction ... until she meets The Right Guy. (But there's also acephobic remarks about how she's "broken," because of course. Side note: I don't mean to be glib about the

Spoiler

childhood sexual trauma

, IRL it's a very serious issue that deserves sensitivity ... but unfortunately it's also become a literary cliche.)
- Lots of slut-shaming (even of the best friend), MC is Not Like Other Girls^TM, but look the relationship between the MC and LI is different and special! It's ~pure~ or whatever.
- All the awareness that obviously this guy is bad news, he has a troubled past and a temper is thrown out the window because

Spoiler

he's hot, misunderstood, and they have history together

. And all the good things in her life are tied to him somehow.
- All The Flashbacks.
- Everyone lies about everything, except the MC.

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CONVERSION: 3.2 / 15 = 1 star

Prose: 3 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 2 / 10
Emotional Impact: 1 / 10
Development / Flow: 3 / 10
Setting: 2 / 10

Diversity & Social Themes: N/A
Intellectual Engagement: N/A
Originality / Trope Execution: 1 / 5
Rereadability: 1 / 5
Memorability: 1 / 5