hermusings's Reviews (303)

In the most positive way possible, I deserve an award for finishing this book.

It took a bit to get used to this third person/no quotation marks style & plot-wise it had its slow and infuriating bits.
HOWEVER, one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. Gorgeous prose and depictions of mundane and sad aspects of life. 

It was honestly so long and emotionally painful that I cannot see myself reading this in its entirety again. 🙃

Heavy on the pathological people pleaser & argumentative antithetical dream girl vibes !!!

I love McFarlane’s voice & plots about women finding their way out of toxic relationships. This was enjoyably funny, witty & thought provoking. However, this one felt a bit flat at some points.

Miss Hope you will be famous forever!! 
A bit slow at first but a fun time once you get about 40% through. 

Loved getting more time with characters I loved from the og series. The back and forth between Jameson & Grayson’s POV did take me out of the story at times but love the way JLB always ties it all in and leaves you wanting more. 

Justice for Joan always always always

Will come back to this…. I’ve been saying since January 

I’m honestly finding it so hard to express my thoughts and feelings towards this book in a concise way.

First off, makkai’s choice to make main character, Bodie, address the person she thinks is guilty, Mr. bloch, the entire book was refreshing and interesting. It allowed us to be even more within Bodie’s head as she gets personal and open in a way you only can with someone you knew and believed you could trust.

I adored the little scenarios for each person that could have done it. Something new would always resurface during these — whether about the murderer or the surroundings (both physical and social) in which it happened.

Granby, the boarding school & setting for the majority of the book, is this looming character the entire book. Personally, one of the most relatable parts of the book is Bodie’s changing perspective of the school itself and her time there. Part of it is obviously because of the murder but some of it is because she’s in her 40s and has hindsight. Multiple times we are faced with the question of whether things may not have been as she remembered or perceived at the time.

This book felt rich as makkai dived into multiple side characters. By the end it felt like I was in on most references these characters, specially Bodie, would bring up — fireflies.

Most importantly, this book touches on a lot of important social topics — racism, relationship dynamics, unresolved trauma, sexism/misogyny and how our formative teenage years can affect us down the line.

Truly at times it felt a bit ambitious how many of these topics Makkai discussed.

However, I think she encapsulated the overwhelming weight of when things go wrong because of more than one social issue.

Finally, I’ve seen a lot of reviews talk about the ending. Besides it feeling a bit rushed, I personally felt it was true to the story for it to end in that matter.

This was fun at the beginning. However, it lost me along the way — can’t really pinpoint when or where.

Audio production was incredible however the story was barely sustaining me