This is a strong 3-Star rating in my book. This is saying a lot considering the fact that I nearly DNF’d this book on page 35. I just wasn’t feeling the romance at all and there were some truly melodramatic moments between Ellie and Jim that felt very forced. However, I’m really glad I finished this book, if not simply for the fact that it is based on a real historical event.

What I liked:

1. Fictional story set during a real event. Ruta Sepetys does this really well in Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Grey. I don’t think it’s as effective here, but I still feel like I learned about an event of which I was previously unaware. It’s obvious not only in the text but in the notes from the author that she did a lot of research about the sinking of the Empress of Ireland, as well as a couple of other things I won’t mention because it reveals plot points/twists.
I liked the chapters that talked about Ellie’s life aboard the ship as a stewardess. And the passages describing the boat sinking are done pretty well.


What I didn’t like:

1. Characters. Other than Ellie I don’t think any other the characters is particularly developed. We do learn a bit about Jim through his journal entries, but most of that is seen through Ellie’s eyes and she misinterprets pretty much everything. Steele is a more interesting character to me, but even then, we still don’t know much about him. None of the other side characters had any depth either.

2. Subplots. I like subplots in books, but none of these were very well-developed. There isn’t much description or complexity. Weeks and months pass in the course of one sentence, and I never felt any real emotion while reading these really heavy things. It just seems very surface level.

3. Romance. The tag line on this book is, “Can love survive the greatest tragedy?” That would imply to me that this is an epic love story. However, Ellie and Jim spend hardly any time together on the page. They meet when she helps treat a burn he got. Then they meet a couple of times on the decks at night. Then it cuts to four months later, two days before the shipwreck. We don’t really get to see any of the foundation of their relationship. It just felt very lukewarm to me. Plus, this book suffers from the ‘miscommunication as a plot device’ trope. If one of them (really, him, but she’s got her secrets too) would just TALK to the other one, it would solve a whole lot of heartache. But that can’t happen, because then we wouldn’t have a story. I didn’t feel any chemistry between them whatsoever.

Funny enough, I really enjoyed her interactions with Steele. There was much more of a textual foundation for a relationship between the two of them. Plus, he helps her recover something she never thought she’d find again. I won’t say what because spoilers. I thought it was funny because the author felt the need for Ellie to denounce any hint of romance between them, and it felt like she was trying to convince herself and the reader that it really was Jim she loved.

4. Predictable.
Absolutely nothing about the book surprised me. There are several reveals that were obvious to anyone paying attention. I knew what Jim’s secret was from the beginning. Same with Ellie’s. As soon as I realized that her Aunt also had a secret I knew what that was too...the fact that I saw the entire book unfolding from a mile away just made it fall flat for me on several occasions.

5. Anachronistic language: There are phrases throughout this book that sound strange to hear in a book set in 1914. Below are two examples.

Pg. 167 “How dare you play me like that.” I don’t know the history of the term ‘play’ as it refers to deceit, but this sentence sounds very modern.

Pg. 176 “...I was drowning, still, in survivor’s guilt.” Survivor’s guilt is a relatively recent term. It was coined in the 1960’s, about 50 years after the time period of this novel. Again, it just felt out of place here.

Despite the fact that I have a lot of things under the ‘didn’t like’ category, I did enjoy some of the historical parts of this quite a bit, and am happy overall that I finished this book.

It’s too bad when a concept that has so much promise falls completely flat on its face. I’ve read a lot of Pride and Prejudice retellings. A. LOT. And one of the things I find that many retellings lack is a believable modernization of the storyline and settings.

When I heard about this book I was intrigued. Going through a young woman’s preparation for a debutante ball and debut into society actually seemed like a good translation to me. Unfortunately, the execution was seriously lacking.

What I liked:

1. The concept. See previous paragraphs.


What I didn’t like:

1. The writing. Everything here was so surface level. This book was one big example of telling, not showing. The dialogue isn’t as funny as it thinks it is. I was expecting something with a bit more wit. It lacked depth. Depth concerning the characters, the setting, everything. Weeks fly by in the course of a sentence. Everything just feels rushed. It’s like the authors were trying so hard to hit all the different story beats of the source material that they forgot to write a complex story around it.

2. Romance (or lack thereof). When I read a Pride and Prejudice retelling, I expect some angsty hate-to-love goodness that gives me all the feels. This book did have that aspect, but I felt nothing. Andrew and Megan have only a couple of moments when they actually speak to one another, and all of the sudden he’s in love with her? There is no basis for it. Furthermore, Andrew isn’t even officially introduced in the move until almost 1/3 of the way through the book.
Megan spends the entire book dating and sleeping with Hank, the Wickham-like character. And I’m sorry (not really), but the authors deciding to have Megan and Hank engage in a sexual relationship but never to actually give us any real intimate moments between them is just silly. I mean, the way we learn that they’ve had sex is that Megan says something like, “We’ve gotten closer in the last couple weeks...if you know what I mean.” Then there are two or three instances of them being naked in bed together and her talking about his bare ass. But never any actual romantic moments. I get that he ends up being a piece of shit, but she doesn’t know that at the time, so you’d think that she would have SOME sort of romantic thought about him.
Also, Julia and Zach (the Jane and Bingley of this mess) have almost no foundation because none of these characters nor their relationships are developed. He’s got about ten lines in this entire book.

3. Characters. As previously stated, there is zero depth to the writing of these characters. Also, their characterizations just don’t feel consistent. Megan is in college and there is a lot of talk about sex and other adult situations, but she seems far younger than that. Her inner monologue and the way she interacts with others seems very high school to me. I kept having to remind myself that we are talking about a 21 year old woman.

I didn’t care about any of the characters, mostly because they were developed at all. Even Megan, who is the protagonist, is pretty shallow. I know she likes soccer and loves her family and eats a lot. If it was mentioned what she was studying in college I don’t remember.

Other odds and ends.

1. This story had so many little subplots that just weren’t fleshed out or resolved. I guess Julia’s story with her ex was intriguing, but it just felt very rushed. I’d totally forgotten who Tyler was when they brought him back up. Also, what about Megan’s soccer career? We get no resolution on that. And the little subplot with her and her friend squabbling? Why should I care? I know ZERO about the friend at all and she’s only in like three scenes. Same thing goes for Sydney. At the end when she thanks Megan for ‘not telling’ it took me a second to remember what the heck she was talking about because it was mentioned at the beginning of the book then never again until the end.

2. So Megan’s debutante ball is a fundraiser for a charity that fights violence against women. Sounds great. She raises all sorts of money for this cause and it’s awesome...and then she hauls off and punches some guy in the face, breaking his nose, which kicks off a huge public brawl...at the party. But because it was violence against men it’s okay??? 🙄🙄🙄
(Yes, the guy was a piece of shit, but still. Not the right place.)

3. When she goes to see Andrew she remarks that he lives on the top floor in the penthouse. In the next paragraph she is stunned when the elevator opens into his foyer instead of a hallway, and says, “They didn’t live in some tacky apartment with a number—they lived on the entire top floor!”
Ummm...what part of ‘penthouse’ are you not understanding?!?!

4. Tired of the ‘female protagonist is clumsy’ trope.


This one is really disappointing. I wanted so much to like it but it let me down.

So, here's the thing. I don't mind sex scenes in books. Even relatively graphic sex scenes and even in YA books. I'm not a fan of erotica, because those books seem to have very little substance for the most part, in my opinion. But I don't normally get squeamish reading scenes of a sexual nature, as long as they are well-written. This book, in my opinion, is not.

I really wanted to like this book. I liked the premise and from that and the title I was expecting a fun and quirky romance with likable characters. Unfortunately that did not happen for me.

What I liked:

1. The premise when I first read the synopsis. Nerdy boy and popular girl fall in love? Okay. Sign me up!

2. Pen's narrator. I listened to this on audiobook, and I thought the lady voicing Pen's chapters did a nice job.

3. It was a quick read.


What I didn't like:

1. The *execution* of the premise of the book. I felt like this didn't work for a variety of reasons that will get their own shout-out, but needless to say I didn't feel like this book achieved its goal for me, unless it was to make readers roll their eyes and cringe.

2. Benedict's narrator. Ugh. This guy is just not good. He is the same actor who narrated all the Miss Peregrine books and I didn't like him then either. His voice is nasally and he has strange inflection when he speaks. Plus any time he tries to do any other accent or, heaven forbid, a female voice, it's just bad.

3. The normalization of abuse. Pen's mother and father have physically abusive arguments on several occasions. This is never called out as being fucked up. It is told very candidly, as if that's just what happens sometimes with a shoulder-shrugging 'Oh well!' kind of attitude. Even at the end, when you would hope there would be some growth...nope, not really. We're basically told that they (especially her mother) are just misunderstood and that they really love each other so much and blah, blah, blah. It's kind of sickening, actually, when throughout the entire book their relationship is painted as being abusive on both sides and then it flips and we're supposed to believe they are deeply in love. And the reveal we get about Pen's mom? It doesn't explain or make up for the terrible things she says or does. In fact, it makes them more inexplicable and indefensible in my opinion. It also felt very forced, like the author wanted to redeem this mother somehow and didn't know how to go about it.
Also, Paul (Pen's bf) is physically abusive and emotionally controlling over Pen. Her describing their sexual encounters is incredibly disturbing. It's been a couple of weeks since I read the book, so I don't recall what, if any, comeuppance he gets for his douchebaggery, but it wasn't enough.

4. Benedict's father. For someone who is supposed to be a renowned psychologist, Benedict's father is really out of touch. He's incredibly sexist, literally saying that women are not as good as men and telling Benedict that he doesn't have to listen to his mom on certain subjects. Then he calls Pen a whore. it just doesn't ring true to people I've known in that field. Also, he is another character who stays static throughout this novel. Which brings me to my next point of dislike...

5. All of the characters are caricatures. Not one of them has any real depth. Even Pen and Ben are pretty flat for me. I could go into detail, but many of the points could be spoilery. Plus, I didn't hate this book enough while I was listening to it to 'hate read' it to the point that I took copious notes, and since I listened to it on audio I didn't have a copy I could go through and mark with stickies or anything.

6. Benedict. Some of this could be linked to the voice actor, but I hated how robotic he sounded. At first, it felt like the writer was trying to go for a Sheldon Cooper type of character - honest to a fault, unaware of his own awkwardness, etc. But I felt like the problem was that Benedict just isn't likable. I don't know if I can actually pinpoint what it was, but he really rubbed me the wrong way, which is strange, because I usually like the nerdy guys.

7. The 'romance' and sexual content. Alright, here we go. I thought this was so poorly-executed. These characters have almost nothing in common and barely interact before the weekend they meet up at the ski lodge. They have about five minutes worth of conversation (okay, I'm exaggerating. It was one day. One. Day.) before they jump into having sex and telling each other they love each other. Maybe it's not technically insta-love because they'd known each other for awhile, but going from indifference to love in the course of a day? That's insta-love.
Also, the sex scenes were so incredibly cringeworthy. So, so bad. There was absolutely no subtlety in the writing and the fact that the characters were having these awkward conversations in the middle of sex was just...no. Not sexy, not quirky...just cringy. Also, I felt like for a YA book, this was too graphic. It should be noted that this book is probably not appropriate for readers under a certain maturity level. I don't want to put an age on it, because not all 15 year olds have the same level of maturity, but just be aware that there is some really graphic sexual content.
Just a note. I didn't have a problem with the idea of the scenes of Pen's masturbating and talking about it, but again, there was absolutely zero subtlety. And even then, it felt like the author was trying to construct a reason for Pen to be so secretive and hide her true character and opinions...it just didn't track for me. Just because you don't want everyone knowing you like to masturbate doesn't mean you have to lie about every feeling and opinion you have. It didn't make sense. And her acting like she's the only girl in history who has ever masturbated got really old. Just because girls aren't running around talking about it doesn't mean it's not happening.

8. The writing. The writing is simplistic in a bad way. There is no subtlety to any of the more intimate subject matter. And the one actual sex scene is long and drawn out, with some of the most cringeworthy dialogue I've ever heard/read.

I could go on and on, and if I'd actually read a physical copy of this book I probably would. I will not pick up anything else by this author.

DNF’d around 100 pages and then skimmed through the rest of the book. Normally I wouldn’t rate something I didn’t finish, but I feel very secure in saying that there is no way this book would’ve gotten more than 1 star from me. I bought this book because I saw the high average rating on Goodreads, but forgot to take into account that there are less than one hundred ratings at this time.

I do not understand the four and five star ratings for this book. It’s so bad. I mean, everyone has their own opinion and what works for one person may not work for another. I get that. But I couldn’t find one redeeming quality to this book. Not a single one.

What I liked:

...
...
...

What I didn’t like:

1. The writing is simplistic to the point of amateurish. This is especially true when considering the dialogue. It’s so cringy and inauthentic. Our main character and her boyfriend are so incredibly cheesy, I just can’t.

Example:

MC (main character) and BF (boyfriend) are on a Ferris wheel

MC: Good thing I’m not scared of falling from here.

BF: I’ve already fallen...for you. (Ellipses are the author’s, not mine)

MC: Oh my gosh.

BF: I’ve waited so long to kiss you. This makes everything perfect. I never want any of it to change.

MC: I agree.

BF: I love your long dark hair. I love the curve of your neck. I love the way you smell.

MC: (after friends urge them to kiss) I never want to kiss in front of them, or anyone. I want it to be something special that you and I share.

🤢🤮🤢🤮🤢🤮

That’s just a snippet of the awful dialogue. And the expositional parts of the book aren’t any better. It is just a series of actions with very little description and it’s just plain bad.

2. This whole story is supposed to take place in the course of a few days. Literally the day after she totals her car and kills one of her friends she is out hanging out with a new group of people while her boyfriend (who she said earlier in the book she never wanted to be apart from) and best friend are still recovering in the hospital. I’m just saying, if it were me, socializing would be the last thing on my mind. Even if I wasn’t being allowed to see my friends I still wouldn’t be able to go hang out with a bunch of people.

Also, for someone who was so in love with her boyfriend, it doesn’t take her long to get all twitterpated with a different guy. Seriously though, on August 28th they are madly in love. By September 1st, she’s saying that he couldn’t stick with her through the tough times and how Plug (hate that nickname. Hate it.) has always been there for her and blah, blah, blah. She’d literally been hanging out with him for less than a week. Give me a flippin’ break! She tries to blame it on all the shit going on around her, but in the end admits that she actually cared about him aside from all the freaky nonsense.

3. Potentially harmful conversations about mental illness. At one point the main character questions whether she could possibly be schizophrenic because of all the things that are happening to her. Her new love interest tells her, “It’s not. Western medicine wants you to think it is. So you’ll buy their pills and stay within the boundaries of their
system—“ I feel like it’s really irresponsible the way this author and this book treats mental illness like it doesn’t really exist. It does.

4. The ending and ‘twists’ weren’t interesting at all. Not gonna say anything because of spoilers, but the end was just as bad as the beginning and middle.

Don’t waste your time and don’t be tricked by all the four and five star reviews. This book is not worth it.

I don't often give books one star. I really disliked this collection of short stories. There are so many issues I have in the 20 stories contained within this book...I could probably write my own book about it.
To put it simply, this is the kind of book that could put me into a reading slump.


Things I liked:


Things I hated:

1. No context for story or characters or actions. Just thrown into a story as if we're in the middle of a book.

2. No transitions in stories. Characters jump in and out with no intro to who the hell they are.

3. Stories are abrupt in every way. Sometimes that works, but I don't like it here. It's impossible to connect to any of these characters because everything is so abrupt. Speaking of abrupt, the stories have little to no resolution. They usually end on a completely random note.

4. The author makes several references to people with dark skin in a way that is ignorant at best, and racist at worst.

"There was a dark, thuggish fellow. He probably had a taste for porn."

"Brilliant blackie in a coat of fake lizard."

"But there was a third language, Bella noticed, probably some sort of indigenous Indian dialect. The darker the person and the more menial his task, the more likely he was to use this tongue with coworkers."

"I'm a patient darky."

That is just a small sample of some of the thinly-veiled racist remarks in this book.

5. Cheating/inappropriate intimate relationships is an aspect of nearly every story in this book. And it's treated in a very casual way in every case.

6. One story has a man talking about his granddaughters. We are told that they are both on the curvy side. He calls them sweet girls, and then: "He liked a little flesh on a female, yes sir!" Um...WTF?! That's your granddaughter, PERVERT! That same story has a large passage talking about a character's smelly bowel movement. Just...no. Stop.

I could really go on and on. This was disgusting, and I won't pick up anything from this author in the future.

I've had this book on my shelf for well over a year now. It feels really silly now, thinking back on all the crappy books that I picked up instead of this one. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised by this book.

It was reminiscent to me of The Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, both in atmosphere as well as initial premise. If you are a fan of the DOSAB trilogy, Girl at Midnight may be right up your alley. And if you haven't read DOSAB, please close this review and rectify that immediately.

What I liked:

1. Premise/plot. There are two different groups at war. The Avicen are an ancient race of people with feathers for hair. The Drakharin have scales and are compared to dragons. Echo was taken in years ago by an Avicen referred to as 'the Ala', and lived among them, even though there are some who would prefer she didn't. When they discover that a supposedly mythical creature, the Firebird, might actually be real, Echo goes in search of it, hoping that it will lead to an end of the war with the Drakharin. I don't know why, but I was just totally sucked in from the very beginning. It was fun and it kept my attention.

2. The characters. Echo was a good, not spectacular, main character. I liked Caius and actually wish we'd had a little more from his perspective, but what we did get I enjoyed. We also read from the perspectives of Jasper, an Avicen whose number one concern is his own well-being; Ivy, an Avicen healer; and Darius, a Drakharin guard to the Prince. I do wish that the author had gone a bit deeper with these characters, because even though I enjoyed them, I felt they were a little surface-level. That being said, it was interesting to see their group dynamic as they came from opposite sides of the war to work together for the sake of all their people.

3. Pacing. I never felt like this book lulled. It kept a steady pace from beginning to end, and I was fully engaged in what was going on.

4. I like that Echo is a book nerd and as a fellow book nerd I appreciated all the literary quotes she dropped throughout the book. Some books' characters reference pop culture, she references classic literature. It makes me happy.

What I didn't like:

1. Predictability. Even though the pacing was fine, the end felt a little anti-climactic. I think that is because I had figured out the main twist long before it was ever revealed, so when it was I was just like, "Okay...anything else?" If you don't figure out the reveal early in the book, this book probably won't have the same impact (or lack thereof) as it did on me.

2. I like that this book takes place in our world, but I wish that there was more description of where the Avicen and Drakharin live. We got a little, but I still found myself somewhat confused, especially about the Drakharin. They seem to be very isolated from most of society, and I'd like to know more about them.

3. I have a feeling that the romances are going to get messy in the next book(s) and am not looking forward to it. I'm not sure I feel super strongly about either romance at this point, so creating love triangles will probably not impress me.

4. The audiobook. Now, this is specifically about the voice actor for this series. She is the same voice actor who did the Conspiracy of Us trilogy audiobooks. I don't like how she narrates male voices at all. They all sound pretty much identical, unless they have an accent. If they have an accent they just sound kind of silly. In this book, Caius is described as having a slight Scottish-accent. In her narration, you occasionally hear a word said with an accent that may be described as Scottish, but it's not consistent. I just don't think I like her as an audiobook actor. I didn't dock this story any stars because of that, but I was planning on listening to them all on audio, and now I'm changing the plan because of her narration, so I thought I'd mention it.

I have the next book sitting right next to me, and can't wait to dig in and hope that the sequel is as pleasantly surprising as this first installment was.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, The Girl at Midnight. I was so hopeful going into this book. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like it really delivered. The first 3/4 of this book was a 2 Star read. The last 50 or so pages bumped it up, but I still think 3 is a bit generous.

Let’s start with something I did like, and that is something carried over and expanded on in this book. That is the cooperation between people who would normally be enemies in order to stop a bigger threat. That was probably my favorite aspect of this book.

I also really like Ivy as a character. I’m glad we got to see her grow and I wish she’d been given more to do.

Tanith’s story arc is really interesting in this book as well. I actually wish I knew more about her and her motivations. I like the complexity of Caius’s love for his sister and their relationship. He wants to trust her, and gives her second and third and twentieth chances, hoping that one day she won’t let him down, and she can’t see past her own ambition.

My main issue is that, despite the potential of this book to be full of action and a well-developed world and plot, the author instead chose to focus an absurd amount of time on the romances in this book. Not only that, but there are two love triangles in this book. That’s right. Because one love triangle just isn’t enough.

Now, if either of the love triangles were at all compelling, that would be one thing. But they’re not. Rowan is incredibly possessive toward Echo, and Echo is very immature in the situation, emotionally leading both Rowan and Caius along.

In the other triangle, I just didn’t feel chemistry with either of the pairings, and it’s hinted at that one of the characters is emotionally abusive.

The only couple I actually enjoyed was Ivy with her love interest, which was very minor and happened near the end of the book. That being said, the fact that she’s given a love interest at all is another one of my least favorite tropes, which is the everyone-couples-up trope...and it also goes to further illustrate my point that the romance was overdone in this book. There is some seriously scary stuff happening and these characters can’t stop thinking about their respective crushes...FOCUS, PEOPLE!!

My other big problem with this book is that there are some major plot contrivances that make no sense, except that they move the plot along. The main example of this is the existence of Quinn.

Quinn is a warlock introduced at the beginning of this book to come and heal Jasper from a wound suffered at the end of Book one. It’s discovered then that they have a past and that Jasper doesn’t really want anything to do with him. So Quinn heals Jasper and then goes back to his harem as soon as the work is done, right? Actually, no. Instead, he inexplicably decides to hang around, even though no one wants him there. Then he runs with them when they need to escape, even though there’s no discernible reason for him to still be there. But then, a situation comes up where he just so have a plan to help them in their mission; a plan where he is integral to its success. It just didn’t make sense. It was contrived. I didn’t like it.

Other odds and ends:

1. So when Caius was the Dragon Prince, no one was allowed to know his name, because there’s supposedly power in names...but everyone knows his sister Tanith’s name, despite the fact that she is the direct successor to the throne...but everyone’s okay to know her name?

2. Almost nothing happens for like the first 120 pages. This book takes too long to get going.

3. At one point when Echo is comparing London to New York, she says, “It wasn’t humid the way New York was, but then few places were.” Ummmm...there are literally hundreds of places in the USA more humid than New York City...pretty much every city in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Hawaii, California...that’s not even mentioning places outside the US. What a weird statement. And yes, it’s nitpicky, but it stood out to me as I read.

4. When Echo meets the professor, she tells him her name is Rose, because she “decided using a fake name was the safest option.” Then, 3 pages later, she tells him she’s the firebird and demonstrates her powers...what?!

I’m really hoping the finale settles down on all the romance (and this is coming from someone who is a total sucker for a good romance) and focuses more on what is at stake, which is ending this war, defeating the big bad, and bringing peace to the two races. Also, I think at least one of the main characters needs to die in the next book. When you have like 7 main characters in a war book, and they all make it through unscathed, it just doesn’t feel like the stakes were high enough.

I purchased this book several months ago on book outlet. After it arrived, I promptly shelved and forgot about it in favor of all the exciting new releases that were coming out. Yesterday, I was looking for a book to start near the end of the night. I picked this up because it was short and the title was intriguing. I had absolutely no recollection of what the book what actually about. This led to one of the bigger surprises I’ve had in quite awhile.

Before We Go Extinct will not be for everyone. I totally understand it’s relatively low average rating. For one, it tackles very heavy topics like suicide and grief, which may be triggering to some people. For another thing, the writing style will most likely turn some people off. But for me, I found it really beautiful and sad and evocative.

What I liked:
1. The writing style. Again, this will not be for everyone. Prose and dialogue are written in a frenetic manner. It almost reads as stream of consciousness at times. At first it was a little jarring. There are paragraphs of short, choppy sentences followed by entire paragraphs consisting of one long, run-on sentence. Then there are passages that only contain partial sentences with no punctuation. It’s strange and unique and very deliberate. I really thought it conveyed J.C.’s emotions very well. Once I got used to the structure, I had no problems at all in following what was going on.
Aside from the structure, the author also used metaphor quite a bit in this book. There are some books that do this better than others. For example, I felt like it was overdone in books like I’ll Give You the Sun and Wild Beauty (I know, I know. Those books are beloved and I’m evil for saying anything negative about them), but there’s just enough of it in here that it was interesting without being overly flowery.
Also, when the author writes about the boys’ parkour stunts, I honestly felt anxious. Even thinking about it now is making me a little nauseated. She does a great job in painting the picture.

2. The setting. The majority of this book is set in the Pacific Northwest of Canada. As someone who was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest (Washington and Alaska) it was obvious that the author knows this area very well. I was not surprised at all to learn that she grew up in Victoria, B.C. I love his reaction to seeing this place for the first time. One line in particular that struck me was: “It’s almost ridiculous how pretty it is. It’s pretend. It can’t be real. But I know that it is because the air smells green and alive and salty and like forever would smell if it had a scent.” Now, I am not usually someone who likes when intangible things are described as colors (example: Caraval) but for some reason, this totally made sense to me. And maybe that’s only because I grew up on an island in Southeast Alaska with trees everywhere and the salty sea air, but so be it.

3. The depiction of grief. Now, I know that not everyone experiences grief the same way. And J.C.’s expression of his grief may seem over the top to some. After his friend’s passing he completely stops speaking, only texts his only other friend in French, and continues to send texts and pictures to his friend who has passed away. But it all felt authentic to me, especially when you consider the fact that he saw his friend die in front of him in a very gruesome way. I can’t imagine how that would affect a person.

What I didn’t like:

1.Using sexuality as a plot device/twist. This is difficult because I do think that there are seeds planted throughout the text that suggest that The King is gay or possibly bisexual (he confirms that he is gay in his letter to J.C.), but the revelation that he was gay and was in love with J.C. felt too much like using his sexuality as this big GOTCHA! moment and I could see people being very upset by that. Sexuality should not be a twist. However, if him being gay had something to do with the reason he died by suicide, then I guess it makes sense that it wasn’t known beforehand.
I can see both sides of the issue, and while it didn’t hinder my appreciation of the book I can see why some may not like it.

2. Kelby. Maybe it’s because we were only seeing her from J.C.’s perspective, but I didn’t feel like Kelby was a well-developed character. I liked her little brother, but I don’t feel like I know that much about her, even though all she did was talk.

3. I wish the end wasn’t quite so up in the air. I would’ve liked to see J.C. back in his life. Because at the end of the day, I’m worried about him. I don’t trust that he’s anywhere close to finding his way out of his grief, especially after reading the letter. But the last chapter is written as a hypothetical in second person and I don’t quite feel satisfied. And I’m sure that was completely intentional on the author’s part. But it doesn’t stop me from wanting him to have a HEA with his own well-being.


This book is by turns candid and heartbreaking. Iya strange to say that I enjoyed reading it, especially when it dealt with such heavy topics, but I did enjoy it. I enjoyed it, and I appreciate it.