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anakuroma 's review for:
The Counselors
by Jessica Goodman
TW: ableism, death, underage drinking and drug use, car accident, drowning
If you go into Goodman's books knowing they're more teen drama than thriller you enjoy them better. But this one? It was lackluster and the reveal was easily predicable. No tension or thrill at all. Now onto my more angry ranting:
Goldie's relationship with her boyfriend was toxic, he was a grade A jerk who let her life become hell due to his folly. This is never called out and in the end its revealed he actually 'loved her'. No he didn't.
This 'small town' of nearly 8000 people were ready to sacrifice this girl to the wolves for the drunk car accident she (supposedly) caused. Quite frankly I found this aspect very unbelievable. I came from a small town of 2000 conservative religious folks,and if this happened I gaurentee people would blame her, yes, but also pity and be sickeningly over-concerned for her. Not tell her she should have 'been the one to die' (and the townsfolk in the book say this to her even when the victom of the car accident wasn't even killed).
And this leads to the absolute casual ableism that was, frankly, unforgivable. A star hockey player was hit by Jerkface's car and now he's in a wheelchair. For this, he is only mentioned as the 'poor victim' his 'life ruined' and career destroyed. The town pities him, and he's only mentioned to advance the plot. Him loosing his ability to walk is a dark cloud over the town, his disability only a tragidy. Also, he never speaks a single line in this book. Not. Even A. Word.
Also I must warn the number of times I endured hearing about friendship bracelets. Were they part of the plot and the three friends wore them? No. Was one a murder clue? No. Where they discribed a lot because there was a scene of kids making them? Nope. Rather just continuous repeats of "kids loved camp and making friendship bracelets" scattered about 40,000 times through the text.
I thought this book was a mediocre disappointment but after writing my review I got so salty it dropped to a one. I loved your first book, Jessica Goodman. I believe you can do better next time.
If you go into Goodman's books knowing they're more teen drama than thriller you enjoy them better. But this one? It was lackluster and the reveal was easily predicable. No tension or thrill at all. Now onto my more angry ranting:
Goldie's relationship with her boyfriend was toxic, he was a grade A jerk who let her life become hell due to his folly. This is never called out and in the end its revealed he actually 'loved her'. No he didn't.
This 'small town' of nearly 8000 people were ready to sacrifice this girl to the wolves for the drunk car accident she (supposedly) caused. Quite frankly I found this aspect very unbelievable. I came from a small town of 2000 conservative religious folks,and if this happened I gaurentee people would blame her, yes, but also pity and be sickeningly over-concerned for her. Not tell her she should have 'been the one to die' (and the townsfolk in the book say this to her even when the victom of the car accident wasn't even killed).
And this leads to the absolute casual ableism that was, frankly, unforgivable. A star hockey player was hit by Jerkface's car and now he's in a wheelchair. For this, he is only mentioned as the 'poor victim' his 'life ruined' and career destroyed. The town pities him, and he's only mentioned to advance the plot. Him loosing his ability to walk is a dark cloud over the town, his disability only a tragidy. Also, he never speaks a single line in this book. Not. Even A. Word.
Also I must warn the number of times I endured hearing about friendship bracelets. Were they part of the plot and the three friends wore them? No. Was one a murder clue? No. Where they discribed a lot because there was a scene of kids making them? Nope. Rather just continuous repeats of "kids loved camp and making friendship bracelets" scattered about 40,000 times through the text.
I thought this book was a mediocre disappointment but after writing my review I got so salty it dropped to a one. I loved your first book, Jessica Goodman. I believe you can do better next time.