I, unfortunately, was not on the wave of kids who read this in middle school/high school when it came out. However; I am glad that I've decided to read it now.
A lot of my perception of this series has been based on the movies because I did watch those. But, despite that, this book was awesome. I totally get the hype and cannot wait to read the rest of the series.

It may have been the story or the narrator themselves, but I was just really bored with this story.

The story was really interesting and had the ability to keep me intrigued throughout everything that happened.

The book is amazing and I will 100% recommend this to anyone because it covers important topics.

However, I think that the character Farida is a little much. She always preaches about inclusivity to her friends because she is Muslim and her parents are Iraqi refugees. I know the character means well in just teaching her friends to think differently about things, but it sometimes gets to the point where she’s being selfish. Like when Stella wants to quit the Class President election because of what is going on at home with her brother, Farida says ‘Are you kidding me? Quit? You drag my family into this mess and now you’re going to quit?’ First off, Stella was hesitant about running, to begin with, and only did so because she was pressured by Farida to ‘make a difference.’ I just think that if Farida was a true friend like she’s constantly saying she is, then she would think about Stella’s feelings about everything before thinking of her own life. There’s a huge difference between teaching about tolerance and being tolerant.

The only other thing that I would complain about is that the book seems to be on a merry-go-round about the same issue multiple times, I feel like it could have cut at least 2-3 chapters if it didn’t keep going back to the same thing; other than that, a great story.

Ashley Flowers’ background as a True Crime podcaster really screams in the writing here. While reading all I could see was a million and one comparisons and similarities to the murder of JonBenét Ramsey. I’m not sure if that was the intention of the author, but I do think that it gives a little bit of closure to those who have continued to follow the case, as this at least gives an answer to what happened to January Jacobs.

Unfortunately, I felt like the ending was just pushed a little further than it needed to go. The dad being the killer just didn’t make as much sense as Elliot who had all the evidence in his storage unit.

While this is a classic, and could be construed as where the horror genre began; this is definitely not a favorite of mine. It was a good read and was very well written; however, it just did not give me the edge of my seat feeling that I look for in horror novels

 Not going to lie, I was really okay with hating on Nesta for the first 4 books of this series. Now? She is absolutely my favorite character. Her redemption arc is just absolute bliss and knowing that she’s a “Smut Slut” makes her even more of beloved character. The sisterhood she has with Emerie and Gwyneth is just so empowering. 

 I’ve always been a big fan of disaster movies, end-of-times type plots; and this series is definitely going to be right along with that. Seeing how an apocalypse type event would be handled in different parts of the country, and by two completely different types of people is one of the greatest thing about this book. 

 Extremely slow-paced, and was very difficult to get into the physical copy. Once I transferred to the audio version I was able to finish and really grasp the horror that these girls lived through.