This book almost defeated me. Truly. Marissa Meyer has long been one of my favorite authors, and I was eager to read her new stand alone novel as soon as it released, but I struggled to get through this story. Over the past two years, I have started and abandoned this book over and over again. And while I can finally proudly proclaim that I finished this book, I am ultimately unsure whether the effort was worth it.

The main character is an absolute pain. Prudence is selfish, narcissistic, and bordering on abusive. This book is supposed to be a story of her character development, how she was taught a lesson by the world around her, recognized her flaws, and became a better person. However, it is a slow, agonizing, and torturous journey for the reader. It isn’t until more than halfway through the book that Prudence becomes somewhat tolerable, and by that point, I was absolutely exhausted by her.

Additionally, I found the ‘instant karma’ aspect of the story to be underwhelming. I don’t feel that it was utilized enough throughout the book to be necessary. This story could have been told just as decently without that element. It wasn’t essential to the plot, and it felt that the moments in which it did appear were written as an afterthought.

More than anything, I am disappointed.