Okay this book was great and is a must read! I went into this barely knowing anything which I think was perfect. It was gripping and kept me on the edge of my seat and I could barely put it down.

You go into the book aware of the Springfield Prom Massacre, so in a way you kind of know how things end, but you don’t know the exact details. The book follows a podcast host and his co-host as they go through the evidence behind this case—pretty much a true crime podcast. But we also get POVs from the main characters leading up to and including the actual incident. It was really nice going back and forth between the different POVs and the podcast interviews and news articles.

The author opens the book with how this story focuses more on racism than her other books have. I had no idea segregated proms were a thing that still happen to this day. This book focuses on Maddy who is white passing and has lied to everyone that she’s actually white (at her father’s behest) until her secret is exposed. She’s already treated terribly by the other students for how she dresses and barely talks, but things take a turn for the worse as her fellow classmates show how racist they truly are, even if they try to deny their actions or take responsibility.

This book will make you angry, but in some ways it’s also relatable. Seeing Kendrick’s side of the story was really interesting as a Black kid who’s sort of left behind his identity in order to fit in. I grew up hearing and seeing other Muslim students trying to act more white in order to fit in, and even I have said and done things to make myself belong in a situation. Kendrick’s character growth was really well done throughout this book.

Wendy annoyed me so much oh my gosh. She’s very self obsessed and wants to be the martyr and have everyone think she’s selfless and good, when in reality she only does things to benefit herself first. While she does go through some character growth, I was meh about her character as a whole and honestly most of the other white characters. It was hard to look past their racist ideals even if they had one or two decent moments.

Jules can die, I hate her with a passion. But this story goes to show how white people love twisting the story to make themselves the victims at the end.

I did love how the co-host for the podcast highlights that the title of the podcast “Maddy Did It” points the blame on Maddy entirely instead of considering everything she experienced at school and by her racist white town. I’m not a fan of true crime myself and I think this book highlighted some of the ways people like to take a story and strip it down for the thrill and ignore the actual implications and lessons learned.

This book should have major trigger warnings for parental abuse, racism, and gore. It wasn’t scary or too disturbing for me personally, but the details of the actual massacre are quite vivid.

Overall, the ending was pretty well tied up and went in a direction I wasn’t expecting. 4/5 stars, highly recommend and can’t wait for the HCCFRENZY event.