Marissa Meyer is one of my auto-buy authors, but after the triumphs of The Lunar Chronicles and The Renegades series, this stand-alone fell short for me. 

 

The characters – I strongly disliked Pru, the main character, for a large majority of the novel (but admittedly, many of us are this self-centred, narrow-minded and self-righteous around our teens to some degree and there were a few cringe moments where I saw myself in her…). I realise this made her character arc and development that much more important but she didn’t seem a whole lot better by the end. 

 

The plot – Pru’s acquired ability to cast instant karma on people actually seemed entirely unnecessary to the plot. There was even a point where I completely forgot that it was a plot-point because there is so much story around Pru and Quint working together at the aquatic wildlife sanctuary. 

 

Despite this, I do remain a Marissa Meyer fan, but this contemporary just didn’t do it for me.