CW: rape (prior to story), slut-shaming, racism, emotional abuse, substance abuse

I feel kind of bad giving this two stars, but I can’t think of anything that warrants even an extra half star. This wasn’t a terrible book, but in my opinion, there wasn’t anything good about it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The protagonist Penny is Korean, which is good, and incredibly judgmental, which is not good. She had a very holier-than-thou attitude and criticized everything. There’s nothing wrong with being judgmental sometimes — I know I am — but Penny took it to the extreme.

As for Sam, I wasn’t sure what to think of him. Sometimes he was a stereotypical bad boy, others he was a gentle, friendly guy. He would do something good, then regress back to his more questionable habits.

One thing that concerned me was the unchallenged mental illness comment. I believe it was Mallory that said that “depression suits Sam.” Sorry, what? What does that mean? How is that acceptable?

I liked Penny and Sam’s relationship even though I had issues with them themselves. It developed almost entirely through text messages, which as an introvert is something I appreciate, and it was kind of slow, very friends to lovers. They respected boundaries and were overall very chill in all stages of their relationship.

The last thing I want to mention is the writing style. It felt to me that Mary was trying too hard to use “teen speak,” something I, as a teen, hardly understand. It was not a good attempt, and sometimes the dialogue was cheesy or plain cringeworthy.

After seeing the considerable hype leading up to and following this novel’s release, I must say that I’m disappointed.