i liked this book at the start, but unfortunately in the end it WHOLLY missed the mark for me and feels more like it fell victim to the very system its trying to criticize. it tries so hard to be some sort sort of feminist empowering story trying to tell the story of female victims in a male-dominated world, but it just...doesnt? it barely scratches the surface of any real problems that women face, more so just laying flat the fact that men will often do bad things to women for the sole reason that they can and often will get away with it without trying to look into the characters beyond a surface level.

this story tried to be victim forward, but it simply could NEVER be that: the victims are a footnote to the man who murders them, two of which each only get a PARAGRAPH each in the last chapter of the book, whereas the story goes to lengths to describe the man who kills them, ansel, to us. we get his backstory, from his sad beginning to his end, which gives him absolution. like...what?

not only that, but the characters are so woefully flat. jenny and hazel are stereotypically written twins, two ofthe victims are hardly mentioned, lila is sparsely written about, lavender is a horrible mother, rachel is a character solely in name, and blue is just...there.

this book felt like it boiled down to 'all men are bad and all women are good' without trying to look into the reasons WHY ansel felt like he could do the things he did. im also sick and tired of stories like this having the main character be a psychopath. its such a horrible stereotype.

i did enjoy the authors writing style, but this story was simply horribly executed.