A seamless, Escher's staircase, of a story! <3 I was swooning over the writing in this one, from start to finish. Each character has depth and complexities, both sympathetic and repugnant, all very relatable. Each chapter transition or PoV shift feeds the story, propels it further, but shifts your perspective and understanding. It's just a brilliant demonstration of how multifaceted people can be, how you can't get their full truth from one angle, and how easy it is to misinterpret someone if you're stuck on one perspective. There's a theme throughout of various kinds of obsession - crushes, following trends or gossip, internet sleuthing, voyeurism, a bully or other predator singling out their victim - and how they stem from a flawed, narrow perspective, trying to label a person, make them conform to a preconceived notion... The book debates the age-old question: Is what's observable /about/ someone really enough to /know/ a person? How do we sift through the lies others tell, the lies we tell ourselves, the lies by omission, to finally reach across and /know/ someone? And the book ties together the instinct to prise for truth with a loss of innocence; you only know to dig deeper when you're old enough to know that everyone keeps secrets/shames below the surface. Coming of age isn't a moment when you're mature and in command of your life; rather it's the darker, scarier moment at which you're prepared to question everything in your life, and that can happen at any number age.
Listen to me getting all Literary Theory over here XD. Gosh, I wish Thrillers had been a college elective, it would have been so fun to dissect this book... which is all about dissecting others XD. A fantastic book, with lots to digest. Highly recommend!!! <3