okay I finally got around to this!!! and I don't have particularly strong negative or positive feelings about and I'm lowkey upset at that. I didn't think this was amazing but I also didn't think that it deserved all the mass hatred that is towards this book. like lowkey guys I understand the people who love it more than I understand the people who vehemently hate it ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ like I thought it was a good story and did a great job at portraying the mindset of a victim and did so with compassion. In her authors note, colleen said that her main attempt was to get people to empathize with abuse victims and get people to understand that people who stay in situations like this are not stupid or weak and I think she did that really well. I was upset but the ending like many, however, she did this on purpose! you're not supposed to like how she semi-forgives him!! but that's life!!! tbh I wasn't really that interested in atlas, I thought it worked as a way to know her back story but I don't think he really added much to the story. the friend was also super annoying, I hate it in books when they meet some random side characters and become besties after like nothing, you don't earn it. and of course... the fucking ellen letters😭😭 oh my god they were much worse than I could have anticipated. oh my god took you so much out of the story every time she would be like "and then he beat her up, Ellen it was so scary" what do you mean😭😭😭😭 everyone clowns on the writing and it's not fabulous or that sophisticated but I don't think it's trying to be. lack of flowery prose does not equal bad (I'm not saying it's good though!!!) I think colleen gets a lot more shit for her writing when it's just appealing to a wider audience and a lot of the time to people who don't usually read and I don't have a problem with it. so, I didn't love this, didn't hate this, don't particularly recommend it but if you want to read it I think it is interesting. anyway, interested to see what people comment! would love to talk about more! and even 2.75 stars