content warnings: animal abuse, rape, murder, alcoholism, slut-shaming, death, violence
representation: side lesbian character

This book had so much potential and never delivered on any of it. In fact, I don't think there's a single thing about this book that I genuinely enjoyed. Everything was just average at best.

This book switches between three POVs - Alex, the girl whose sister was raped and murdered, and knows how to murder herself; Jack, the boy who's infatuated with Alex; and Peekay, the preacher's daughter who becomes friends with Alex. All three POVs use first-person narration, and there is no effort to distinguish between them. There were several times that I would forget to read the header that said which character's chapter it was and it would take me a few pages to realise I was reading from a different characters perspective than I thought. Also, the chapters are super short - the longest one would clock in at around ten pages - and this only made the indistinguishable narration even worse.

This book takes place over the course of a year or so, and I kid you not when one of the characters referenced how long it's been I said aloud "what the fuck" because I legitimately thought it had only been a couple months, at most. This book doesn't suffer from bad pacing, but it does suffer from never letting you know how much time has passed.

The characters were never bad, necessarily, but they were all really bland. Jack especially was incredibly boring, but even Alex and Peekay could seem very ordinary. Honestly, even though her characterisation is all over the fucking place, my favourite character was probably Branley, to the point where at the end I was rooting for her and hoping she would ruin the lives of the other characters. Also, all the main romance was boring and I didn't give a shit.

This book's entire purpose is to discuss social issues but I honestly don't think it was done that well. There are long chunks of the book where it focuses on character's romances and there's no mentions of the books main themes (i.e. rape culture and murder), and then it's like the author felt like she had to make up for it later by having five conversations in quick succession all discuss rape culture in the exact same way.

Here's my final thought and what I hope you take away from this review: watch the MTV show Sweet/Vicious instead. It's one season, ten episodes, and it's about a sorority girl, Jules, who was raped and decides to become a vigilante who attacks rapists, and then a stoner, Ophelia, catches her and they team up. Great female friendships, so many rapists get murdered, and I'm still salty they cancelled it. It's also infinitely better than this book.