“For anyone who has been taught that good equals small and silent, here is my heart with all its ugly tangles and splendid fury.”

Stars (Out of 10): 6.5/10 Stars

Favorite Character: Honestly, this was the kinda book where every character wasn’t necessarily made to be likable, but rather to be interesting.

Spoiler Free: I was so hooked on this book! With so many twists and turns to navigate, and the unique way of the story being told backwards, I could not put this book down! I enjoyed almost every chapter of this novel.

However, with such a positive intro, you may be wondering why this book only has 6.5/10 stars. This is all due to how the book ended, and while I won’t go into too much detail here to avoid spoilers, it honestly was kind of disappointing. There was all this build up and exciting twists and turns that ended up feeling like they went nowhere, and the potential was wasted.

Additionally, another thing to know going into this book is that the writing style is fairly clear cut and simple, and thus the connection you get to the characters, and sometimes the plot, is also that. There are no beautiful words and luxurious phrases to make you think the MC, Jule, is the best person out there. There is simply what happened, occasionally what Jule thinks of it, and that’s about it. This detachment is also enhanced somewhat by the use of third person, since we never seem to be directly controlled by Jule’s thoughts. However, all of this ends up adding to the story, and allows for the reader to create their own opinions and theories about what the hell went down in this novel without the biases of the narrator overshadowing it completely.

Careful! Spoilers beyond this point!

Spoilers: They say the universe will end not with a bang but with a whimper, and I feel that’s the exact idea this book copied.

I was fully planning on giving this book 8 or 9 out of 10 stars until the letdown that was ending. This entire book felt like the continued increase of speed and beat within a song, but then inevitably failed to deliver a proper culmination of all that tension. The book made the events all seem so planned and calculated on Jule’s part, and continued to strengthen this assumption up until chapter 2 or 1. Then, it turns out the entire event was based around a bunch of accidents, from accidentally getting the catering job to accidentally running into Imogen’s mother to even not meaning to kill Imogen. It all felt like a let down after seeing the calculating and often cut throat mind of Jule.

Now I get there is some meaning to be found in this sort of ending, where it is entirely different from what you expected and you end up learning the villain/anti-hero isn’t quite so evil as expected, but I just can’t get over that feeling of disappointment.

However, the reveal of Jule being the girl Imogen used to be forced to hang out with was definitely a nice touch, seeing as she turned into Imogen’s chosen best friend in the end.