“The past doesn't exist. It's just a story we tell ourselves. And stories change each time you tell them.”

Stars (Out of 10): 8.5/10 Stars

Favorite Character: The one and only Jane Sinner

Spoiler Free: Ughhhhhhhh I loved this book so much! It’s honestly everything I wish for from a contemporary!

How To Make A Good Contemporary
1. Have a strong, and sometimes hilarious, narrative voice
2. A good blend of struggle, humor, and love
3. Add a cat

And then this book had to go and add a competition into the mix. It’s like this book is after my heart!

Now, to get a little more serious, I did seriously enjoy and love this book, and the main reason for this definitely had to be Jane. Her voice and her struggles felt so real and brutal and honest all while remaining absolutely hilarious. From her facade of having no care in the world to how hidden she keeps her true emotions reminded me of myself at points, but then Jane always came in with some funny quip to keep me from dwelling too much. Additionally, the way the emotions were written along made me feel them almost as strongly as I image Jane did, which also added to overall “realness” that the book held.

The plot itself was also pretty amazing. I didn’t guess any of the “twists,” as I was too wrapped up in Jane’s competitive strategy to really consider what the others were up to, and I preferred it that way. Additionally, the competitions were just really fun to read through, and getting to hear about everything after it happened (since this book was written in the form of a diary) allowed for Jane to add her afterthoughts to them. The pacing itself was also pretty great, spreading the action and emotions throughout the book in a fairly balanced way.

Unfortunately, the only reason I dropped this book a star was due to its ending. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the ending of the book itself, but I didn’t like how short it was compared to the rest of the book. For reasons I’ll explain a bit better in the spoiler section, it felt a bit rushed and unfinished, and I didn’t feel fully satisfied by the end of it, almost as if it needed a bit more words/pages to provide proper closure for the book. But I still absolutely loved what the ending contained, and what it meant for Jane and her future.

Overall, this book made me laugh a lot, cry a bit, and taught me something about myself along the way, and that’s all I can really ask from a book.

Careful! Spoilers beyond this point!

Spoilers:

Spoiler

In terms of the ending, my main upset was the lack of more reconciliation between Robbie and Jane, since there was definitely a huge divide there. Specifically, the lack of verbal reconciliation between the two. The kiss is the main thing Jane provides for repairing the relationship, rather than using any of her own words. Robbie is the only one who we see speak (notice my distinction, Jane could technically be keeping things from the diary, and therefore from us.) With Jane’s silence/lack of being able to word her inner feelings to the people around her being such a huge part of the novel, this final romantic moment we see feels a bit hollow without Jane making the effort to verbally communicate her feelings to Robbie. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I loved the kiss and had spent most of the novel anticipating it, but I don’t like the odd feeling it gave the relationship, and that it didn’t feel fully resolved moving into the end of the novel.