Well, I stayed up late to hate finish a book. That hasn't happened in a long time. I stayed up even later to read other one star reviews before drafting my own just for reassurance that I wasn't missing something.

Nope.

(Very mild and vague spoilers below)

So I picked up this book because I loved loved loved the Sinner so "woman kills someone for seemingly no reason and then won't talk about it" felt like a familiar and exciting premise full of promise. Between comparing it to a book I love and knowing this book had won a Goodreads prize last year, my expectations were high.

First mistake.

About 40 pages in, I reached my first disappointment: the writing was... Pretty bad. It was easy and quick to read, easy to follow, but the dialogue was painfully unrealistic and incongruence of details were frustrating at best and ridiculous at worst.

But ok, this wasn't a literary book. I decided to enjoy the fun pulpy ride and buckle in for the Big Twist. My enjoyment of the book kept decreasing with every ridiculous thing that happened (for starters: literally every scene with Paul, Jean Felix, Elif, and Max) and with the amount of times we were beaten over the head with Greek references. Show, don't tell!! Please!!

And then the twist happened. And I was so goddamn disappointed that I hate finished the novel. There's clever ways to fool your audience, where you leave them feeling smart, satisfied, delighted, horrified... An excellent cocktail of emotions for a thriller. The twist here left me feeling frustrated and incredulous that this book had such high praise

Sprinkle in a bit of:
- terrible "men writing women" tropes (the betraying sexy ones and the evil ugly ones woo)
- godawful relationship dialogue where everyone actually hates their SO
- great outdated mental illness tropes (referring to people as "borderlines" and also changing meds on a whim without tapering?? Seriously?)
- literally therapist-client boundary violation with literally every single mental health care professional in this book
- a coma for good measure

I love over-the-top books - I think VC Andrews is a world of fun. I love twisty thrillers. I can overlook stiff writing. I can even overlook shitty portrayals of women cause hey, I've built a tolerance over the years. I don't need books to be perfect for me to enjoy reading them. But good lord am I pissed off I wasted my time reading this.

Tl;dr: I'm giving this book one star because my life was better before I read it.