I wanted to read this for The Literally Dead Book Club but I just wasn’t feeling it and I want to move on to other books. I might try again eventually but I think I’m just not in the mood for this type of book right now. 

This was required reading for school and even though I was really enjoying it, let’s be honest who has time for required reading lmao😂🤷🏼‍♀️ I’m sure I’ll get back it eventually though. 

I feel so bad dnfing this book and I’m definitely in the minority in terms of my thoughts about it. I just think this type of book isn’t for me. I wasn’t into the writing style and the plot itself was uninteresting to me. I found myself not caring what happened even during parts that were supposed to get a reaction from me. I did enjoy the discussions of what it’s like to be transgender and the struggle of deciding who you truly are despite the expectations of those around you but that’s about all I enjoyed. I wanted to push myself to finish the last hundred pages but it’s just been sitting on my shelf so I’m officially giving up. I’m still open to trying more of their books in the future though!

I was not a fan of this book. I normally NEVER dnf books but I decided that this was just not worth spending my time reading. The synopsis sounded so promising but the story moved so slow and I honestly didn’t care about the characters or what happened to them at all. On top of that I think I’m just not a fan of high school based contemporaries. You’d think I’d be able to relate to them but meh. They’re just not for me. This was disappointing to say the least.

The first line of the synopsis for the book compares it to Gone Girl and Girl on the Train, two of my all-time favorite books... This was nothing like them. At. All. I really don't understand how they thought Baby Doll was anything close to them.

It was suuuuper slow-paced first of all. I read almost half of the book and only 2-3 days had passed. For a book that is supposed to be suspenseful, that's ridiculously slow in my opinion. It also read entirely like a Wattpad book. Now, I personally have nothing against Wattpad writers. I used to be obsessed with that website and I think some stories on there are incredible. But for a book that's compared to two of the most popular suspense/crime novels, that's just not the kind of writing that I was expecting.

Like I said, I read almost half of the book and it felt like absolutely nothing had happened. I could probably sum up almost 150 pages in five words.

Overall just wasn't what I was expecting and didn't live up to my expectations at all.

After being dead set against reading any Stephen King novels for years I decided to give Carrie a try because the premise intrigued me, but I should have just stuck to my instincts not to read anything by him. There wasn't anything inherently terrible about Carrie, I just never found myself wanting to pick it up to read more of it. I got about halfway through (which took me way too long for a 200-page book) and then took a month-long break to read some other things and now that some time has passed my interest in finishing it has dwindled to nothing. I looked up a summary of the ending and that was all I really needed. 

There were also some writing choices that I didn't vibe with like some of the language that was used and these interjections that would be placed in the middle of sentences that I think were supposed to be a character's inner thoughts or inner monologue but they would throw me off because they would completely interrupt the sentence I was reading. It just felt very jarring and I would have preferred it if they weren't in there at all or at least came after a sentence was over instead of being placed directly in the middle of one.

Will I pick up any more of King's books? Probably not but you never know. 

I just wasn't feeling this one right now and there are other things that I want to read instead. I haven't found myself wanting to pick this up and with the deeply mediocre reading year I've had, I don't have time for a book I feel meh about.

This was a reread for me, the first time being in middle school so I was curious to find out what my thoughts would be this time. I decided to dnf at about 100 pages from the end because I had no interest in the story and no connection to the characters or what happened to them. 

Also, I had a couple issues with the writing. First was the use of the f slur multiple times which was very unnecessary and was also never challenged or discussed. Second was a couple of things that Finch talked about in regards to jumping off a building that did not sit right with me. He once referred to himself as badass for standing on a ledge and not being afraid to jump off. In another instance, he pictured him and Violet jumping off together and said that they would be legends for it and that people would write songs about them. I just don't know that this is a great way to talk about the subject especially in a book directed toward teens.

Oh also, as someone who lives in Indiana I thought it was so funny how many times the author mentioned that the characters live there. Like she really does not want you to forget it. It was kind of cool to hear places mentioned that I'm familiar with though.

Honestly, if you want to consume this story I would recommend the movie because I liked it way more and I think it's one of those rare instances where the movie actually improves upon the book. For me, I'm just going to leave this as a book I liked in middle school and leave it at that.