This author’s books have been all over the place for me. The first one, This Is Where It Ends was a 5 star emotional read that I recommended to everyone I taught with as well as my students. The next one, Before I Let Go, was not really my cup of tea at all. However all of this author’s books contain very important themes and much needed diverse characters. This third book fell right in the middle for me of the other two. I really did like the theme/plot of this book, a group of friends that played a role-playing game, one that one of the characters, Ever, had actually created.

This story followed 5 main characters, and definitely it was easy to tell who was talking for the most part, because each character was so different. There were two trans characters. And it seems two of the straight characters even attempted one date with a member of the same sex in one flashback/memory. There was a lot of different angles, but I had a feeling that the culprit was who it was in the end. There were two in the group I felt the author made you wonder if it was, as well as a few outsiders who weren’t there with the group as far as we knew. And I like when the author can keep you in suspense, doubting what you think is really the answer.

My only issues is probably similar to some of the issues I had with the second book she wrote. There were moments when there was just too much stuff to read that wasn’t actually specifically connected that moment in the story. I love emotional stuff and being made to empathize with a character, even cry at times, but there was just too much detail and descriptions when I was at a point where I needed to know what was going on and not just in the character’s head. And I felt a lot of the time the extraneous descriptions had already been covered over and over and we didn’t need the reminder at that point.

All in all it was a good book, and there may be those that like all the extra stuff that often bores me, and also, the characters are totally worth reading through those bits and getting to know them and how they feel and think as well. I will purchase for my school library, especially as we’ve had a few trans students that I know of and I like to think they’ll have books to read with characters they relate to where the story is more than just about that part of their lives.

Review first appeared on Lisa Loves Literature.