4.5 stars

I wish I could bottle up my feelings about this book so I could convince you to give it a shot. Unfortunately, these meagre words are going to have to do. This book perfectly achieved its purpose: it creeped me out. This is honestly the first book to ever do that to me. Ever. I am trying to seem more macho than I am, but it honestly takes a lot to actually scare me in books. Even if a book is well-written and engaging, there is always a distance between me and the story that stops me from getting creeped out. It is not real - so it doesn’t scare me. Plum managed to completely erase that barrier though. I do not know how she did it but she managed to capture that surreal feeling of dreaming, of having a nightmare, and make it come alive on the page. The whole book felt like one of those dreams where you know you are dreaming and that the events of the dream are unrealistic nonsense… but there’s nothing you can do about it. You have no control. It’s terrifying. It’s got that awful nauseous quality to it and Plum got that feeling on the page perfectly. I was engaged the whole time. The plot had me salivating for the next page. I wanted more. I need more; more answers, more of the characters. I wanted to know what was happening and why. It was absolutely brilliant in that sense. I could not put it down.

I also adored the characters. All of them. They were all rich and complex. I loved that they were realistically flawed. Some of them were rude or had a quick temper but it was done it a way that did not make them unlikable, just more human. Their interactions were fascinated and I liked that none of them developed a romance. It would have been so unrealistic. The diversity was so rich and incredibly written. All of the main characters suffered from some sort of neurodiverse condition/s like (PTSD, OCD, depression, narcolepsy) which caused chronic insomnia. I have never read a book with about a character with a sleep disorder before, let alone an entire cast, and I thought that added another layer to the story so effortlessly. There was also a lot of racial diversity so yay for that. My favourite part of all of this was definitely how George called out the other characters when they said judgemental comments. I highlighted so much of her dialogue! I also have to say that the multiple perspectives were incredibly well written. I had no problems distinguishing the different voices and enjoyed all of them equally.

Overall?

I adored this book and would happily recommend it with all my heart. It was so, so engaging and thrilling. I was sucked into this world and could not stop flipping the pages to see what would happen next. It was so addictive! The cast was also amazing. There was not a single POV I did not enjoy and I felt that all of the characters were fleshed out and realistically flawed, complex characters. The cliffhanger has left me dying for the sequel, which I was eagerly be anticipating for the rest of the year. *sobs*

Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review.