Take a photo of a barcode or cover
nerdyprettythings's Reviews (515)
This book is not good. As a murder mystery it's really obvious early on (if you've ever had an obvious crush on someone who knew that about you and used it to their advantage, you will absolutely catch on in the first 10% of the book) , and I found myself surprised not to be successfully pointed toward any other characters as the possible killer.
As a story about a secret society with dangerous initiation rituals, the rituals (hyped up the entire book as being horrifically worse for the girls) were pretty tame? The kind of thing you hear about fraternities getting a slap on the wrist for. I hated that throughout the book the horrors we were made to expect were some sort of ritualized sexual violence. I felt the author was using that as a way of keeping me on the hook for the end to find out what had happened to the MC. In the end, "what were the 'pops' they had to endure" was the real mystery of the book.
On top of all that, it's written like bad fan fiction, over-describing every sensation. Real quotes from the book: "The day after Thanksgiving. I remember because I had apple pie for breakfast and I could still taste the thick, sweet filling on my lips when Adam texted." "I knew she was waiting out front thanks to the deafening notes of Whitney Houston’s 'How Will I Know.'"
There's a lot about how loud everything is. I mean: “He rips [the condom wrapper] open and the sound pierces my ears.”
There's also the time when in one sentence her boyfriend ignores the MC in the hallway and in the next paragraph she says he's always giving her puppy dog eyes in the halls.
Alllll that said, I mainly picked this up because of the show starring Halsey that they're adapting it for. I can see this being a fun guilty-pleasure style TV show along the lines of Riverdale or Pretty Little Liars, and I'll probably give it a watch when it comes out.
As a story about a secret society with dangerous initiation rituals, the rituals (hyped up the entire book as being horrifically worse for the girls) were pretty tame? The kind of thing you hear about fraternities getting a slap on the wrist for. I hated that throughout the book the horrors we were made to expect were some sort of ritualized sexual violence. I felt the author was using that as a way of keeping me on the hook for the end to find out what had happened to the MC. In the end, "what were the 'pops' they had to endure" was the real mystery of the book.
On top of all that, it's written like bad fan fiction, over-describing every sensation. Real quotes from the book: "The day after Thanksgiving. I remember because I had apple pie for breakfast and I could still taste the thick, sweet filling on my lips when Adam texted." "I knew she was waiting out front thanks to the deafening notes of Whitney Houston’s 'How Will I Know.'"
There's a lot about how loud everything is. I mean: “He rips [the condom wrapper] open and the sound pierces my ears.”
There's also the time when in one sentence her boyfriend ignores the MC in the hallway and in the next paragraph she says he's always giving her puppy dog eyes in the halls.
Alllll that said, I mainly picked this up because of the show starring Halsey that they're adapting it for. I can see this being a fun guilty-pleasure style TV show along the lines of Riverdale or Pretty Little Liars, and I'll probably give it a watch when it comes out.
I waffle on how to feel about this! The writing is so good - it's clear that every word was there for a reason. And I love when an author is willing to write short sentences and characters who get to the point. But at times I felt like that was a detriment. In a lot of scenes things felt really clipped, like a movie flashing to something happening but never letting the camera linger. Especially the relationship between Edie and Rebecca. I would not complain about another 50 or so pages of this book, especially if it meant expanding on their fraught but friendly but kind of erotic but kind of enemies relationship.
One thing I noticed now is that people have said this book is dark comedy, and I have never been good at catching onto that, so I may have been missing a lot of that as I read (listened to) this one.
I still liked the book, but enjoyed isn't the right word, kind of like one of my favorite books of last year, Tender is the Flesh. Edie is an interesting character, and having the whole book come from her point of view made for interesting reading - I think she misunderstood situations a lot of the time, but we only have her perspective, so there's a bit of an unreliable narrator thing happening, too.
One thing I noticed now is that people have said this book is dark comedy, and I have never been good at catching onto that, so I may have been missing a lot of that as I read (listened to) this one.
I still liked the book, but enjoyed isn't the right word, kind of like one of my favorite books of last year, Tender is the Flesh. Edie is an interesting character, and having the whole book come from her point of view made for interesting reading - I think she misunderstood situations a lot of the time, but we only have her perspective, so there's a bit of an unreliable narrator thing happening, too.
I love books that mess around with structure and with readers' expectations. I didn't know anything going into it, and I enjoyed it so much. This book has a point of view that it really artfully imparts to the reader. If you've seen the movie Synecdoche, New York, this book has a similar vibe - life's a stage - but with a much more approachable thesis. Highly recommend for just about any kind of reader - especially if you're into experimental storytelling, looking for stories about families or about race in America.
