typedtruths's Reviews (1.8k)

I bought myself The Amateurs as a gift about this time last year. Everything about the synopsis screamed that this would be a me sort of book. I expected that sharing a cast of like-minded characters would make for a fast-paced, unputdownable read but it turns out, not so much. Look, amateur detectives solving crimes that baffle the police is always going to be a hit or miss. It depends on how believable you can make the crime-solving feel and the random luck of these characters did not feel realistic in the slightest. Helena’s murder was definitely intriguing, yet there were too many happy coincidences for my liking. Chatty witnesses. Five-year-old phones with service. Public social media accounts. Convenient cop love interests. It was too much.

There were also elements that just did not work for me. For example, the fact that characters were unsure of when Helena was murdered completely confused me. Her body was found. Surely there was some sort of coroner report that stated her estimated time of death. How could there not be? Is this one of those things that are basic facts of the matter in crime shows and not the case in real life? I don’t know but it bothered me. A lot.

I was also frustrated by the foreshadowing, which I found a tad too obvious for my tastes. In particular,

I called the Brett twist from the get-go. There were so many hints to it that I found myself rolling my eyes. Why I definitely guessed that Marissa Ingram was involved, I could not quite place my finger on a motive so waiting for that reveal did keep me on my toes.

What really ruined it all was the unlikable cast. All of the character - all of them - were underdeveloped. I didn’t care about any of them. They spent the majority of the story thinking about whether they should make out with X character or not. It was infuriating. Aerin and Seneca had potential but I felt like we barely got to know anything about them. Same with Maddison. She would randomly pop up at times but for the majority of the time, I forgot she was there. She felt like a last minute add-in. Maddy was by far the worst character, though. He had no redeeming qualities. I hated how Shepard made him believe that he was only worth knowing now that he had shed his ‘dorky kid’ image and grew into a good-looking jock Olympic wannabe without addressing it. Seneca knew him to be this funny nerdy guy but we never got to see that, not really, and it frustrated me to see him cling to this idea that his look defined his likeability, especially when it shaped his attitude toward women. Umm, he was all kinds of sexist? He literally thought that Seneca should be flattered by being in his presence because other girls would be envious of it. Umm, what.

While there was significantly less slut-shaming than I worried there would be - I cannot even recall a single scene, that God - all of the female characters, excluding Seneca, were variations of the rich girl/rich wife stereotype: vain, materialistic, giggly, boy-obsessed, 'feminine'. That was annoying. Also, there were some dodgy comments about race that made me pause. Brett makes this comment to Maddison:

Brett stared at the Japanese girl in the gallery windows, then nudged Madison. "You talk to her."
"Why me?" Madison thumbed her chest.
"Don't Asian chicks stick together? You could say something to her in Chinese, maybe. Do some kung fu. We'd be in for sure."
"Brett!" Seneca chided, half teasing, half horrified.
Madison looked confused. "I'm Korean."

Why.

The fact that this was meant to have internet friendship play an important role in the story was also lost on me with all the inconsistencies. Seneca and Maddy were best friends for a long time online before they meet but they only ever messaged each other, they never Skyped/FaceTimed/etc. I don’t know anyone with long-term online friendships who plan to meet each other and stay at one of their houses who has not spoken face-to-face before. I could have easily forgiven that though if it was not for the fact that Seneca did not know that Maddy was not a girl until they meet for the first time. How the heck do you communicate with someone for that long with asking for their pronouns or at the very least, accidentally dropping some sort of hint or presumptive pronoun or something that indicated otherwise!? If Seneca truly thought that Maddison was Maddy the whole time - and he never corrected her - that is some sort of accidental catfish thing right there and it made me so uncomfortable.

Overall? This book could have been so much more if I had liked any of the characters. I struggled with the coincidences in the mystery but I did find myself glued to my seat until I was finished. It was a page-turner. If there had been less of a focus on the unlikable characters and their make-out fantasies, I could have really gotten into this. Unfortunately, it tainted my enjoyment completely. I would still recommend this to PPL or [b:Private|381489|Private (Private, #1)|Kate Brian|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1331126301s/381489.jpg|2764] fans.

2.5 stars

• entertaining,, very hard to put down but still followed a pretty generic ya uf plotline
• loved the mythology; never read anything quite like this before (and i love shifter magic so)
• the romance was disastrous. i mean, a relationship between a 17 yo girl and a 200 yo boy - especially with their history - can't not be creepy.
• i really didn't like angie's father
• nothing to rave home about, really

rtc

I've had a mixed relationship with Young's book this year but I think this one is my favourite. She just has a great way with characters, and this one definitely hit me in the feels.

All This Could End was an interesting, quick but ultimately forgettable read.

The premise could have been so fascinating, especially for someone like myself who studies criminology and is fascinated by criminal psychology. I wanted Nina’s family dynamics, particularly what led to them turning to their life of crime, to play a central role in the story. While her family was definitely important, there was nothing unique or nuanced about the dynamics. In fact, Nina felt like a teenager who could have struggled with not agreeing with her family’s dedication to pretty much anything: being non-religious in a religious family, being nerdy/introverted in a sport/extroverted family, etc. It was a real let down.

I did love bumbly, awkward Spencer but... something was missing.

• i grew up reading spy book so i found this storyline super generic
• what the heck was with that romance?? zero chemistry.
• jake, the mc, was grossly sexist but tried to downplay it.
• ^he legitimately dismissed the idea that rachel could be a hacker because she was too conventionally pretty to 'waste' behind the keyboard (among other things)
• the female characterisation was just kind of shitty, full stop.
• this was meant to be an #AlexFromTarget retelling? try [b:#famous|25116429|#famous|Jilly Gagnon|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1467918384s/25116429.jpg|44811118] instead.
• so. many. plotholes.
• so many
• it was just boring and monotonous
• didn't gel with the writing style

• Wakefield’s writing style rubbed me the wrong way. I found it physically painful to read like someone was rubbing a grater over my eyeballs with every sentence. I have no patience for lyrical metaphors that try to subtly suggest what is happening. You can be poetic and clear at the same time.
• Grace was unlikable, completely and utterly unlikeable. I had no sympathy for her. She was an awful friend. She was not funny, and it is constantly said that she was meant to be. I literally did not even crack a smile once reading this book. Some humour or lighthearted moments would definitely have been appreciated. Grace was also judgemental and reckless and I wanted to shake her.
• I did not think the mystery element was engaging. It was rushed and messy. Elements of it were largely predictable, especially

Grace’s mother’s involvement in Hannah’s “death” and Mrs Holt’s abusive behaviour.

. I could just not get into it.
• The pranks made me nauseated. I know this is a personal thing, but I do not find pranks amusing. At all. Ever. Embarrassing someone publically? Vandalism? That shit is not funny to me and never will be. All of Grace’s antics were wasted on me.
• Gummer was the reason I kept reading this book. I adored him. He looked out for Grace, even when she was shitty with him. I am so sad that he was brushed over in the end.
• The lack of romance was refreshing. That is literally the only saving grace of this entire book.

Trigger warnings for substance addiction, grief, sexual assault and terminal illness.

• The entire narrative around Zoey's 'cheating' - which was actually sexual assault - made me deeply uncomfortable.
• I don't understand how I was meant to like Luc after the kiss scene. You do not kiss someone after they tell you to leave them alone, especially when they are crying and visibly upset and do not give you verbal consent. God.
• I didn't think Zoey's substance addiction was done justice. It was mentioned only in passing a few times and she was confronted by so many potential relapse triggers that were never really an issue.
• A lot of plot holes and stretched believability.
• I'm sick to death of that kind of plot twist.

rtc

Ida was a clever but downright confusing read with a choppy plotline. I went into this story with moderately high expectations - there were so many of things that could have gone right, I couldn’t see where it could go wrong - but the story’s less than stellar execution of its incredible-sounding premise left me unsatisfied.

The basic storyline follows Ida who possesses the ability to go back in time and change any decisions she has ever made. However, at the start of the novel, she realises that instead of time-travelling, she is actually switching between alternate timelines. Her constant use of this power means she has been creating millions of different timelines in a relevantly short period of time and it’s hit the point where the timelines are starting to blur together… Obviously, chaos is the result. I was in love with this idea. At least, I was at first. The consequence of having any form of superpowers is an aspect most stories avoid so I was eager to see how it played out. I also just love complex time travel stories. Yet, despite my enthusiasm for this concept, Ida did not quite go in the direction I thought it would. It went beyond merely being complicated - it was downright confusing. The plotline was choppy and all over the place. I found it incredibly difficult to follow what was happening, especially with the constant timeline jumping. I was too busy trying to piece everything together to pay attention to the smaller details so I often got lost or had to reread passages. The entire book felt about 100 pages longer than it needed to because of this. I disliked that the story made is a chore to keep up and the ending - which was rushed in my opinion - was icing on the cake.

The writing style did this story no favours. I don’t know how else to describe it other than vague. Everything about the story felt distant from us readers: the characterisation, the dialogue, the descriptions. All of it was described with the vaguest detail possible. There were far too many aspects of the character’s relationships that transpired through subtle body language or cryptic dialogue that the characters seemed to be able to decipher but left me a confused puddle of misery. I struggled to piece together events from these little vague statements and I hated that I felt left out of the story - like the characters knew way more than I did. I was often left wondering if I missed something. It was so frustrating.

However, despite my problems with this story’s execution, there was one element that exceeded all of my expectations: its representation. To my knowledge, this is an #ownvoices story and the author’s experience certainly shine through. There was never a moment where I was not impressed by the subtly of the author’s commentary - which raised a lot of relevant issues without making it an “issue” story - or the depth of the characters. Ida and Damaris both had such strong voices.

Ida - our main protagonist - is bisexual and biracial (Vietnamese-Australian). Her partner - Daisy - is a genderqueer POC who uses them/they pronouns. I have never read a character who was genderqueer before and I appreciated how organically Evans incorporated discussion about society’s approach to pronoun usage and non-binary gender identities.

While I did feel like many aspects of Ida and Daisy’s relationship, I did think that it could have done with more screen time - as a lot of it is told through flashbacks, due to the time-travelling/altered timeline aspect of the story - and having Ida simply telling us about their relationship was not enough for me to understand their relationship dynamics like I would have liked. I also felt that many aspects of Daisy’s home life were glossed over. We knew that their parents were having problems but it was only hinted at - maybe their father was abusive or alcoholic? I just don’t know. It was never addressed or explored like I would have preferred. This meant that I struggled to understand Daisy fully as a character and definitely retracted from my investment in their relationship with Ida.

On top of that, our other protagonist - Daramius - who was genderfluid and had a genderfluid love interest (!) did not get enough screentime. I really liked her spunk and her personality. She was the type of character that I could really see myself getting behind if I had had the chance to get to know her on a more intimate level. I also just did not feel her relationship with her LI - whose name is escaping me at the moment - was too reliant on past feelings that we did not know about. I did not particularly care whether or not they got together and I really wanted to.

I also want to quickly note that there was a prominent secondary character - Ida’s cousin, Frank - who is a transboy. The reason I mention it is that Frank talks about wearing a binder (and experimenting with different kinds). It was something that I had never seen mentioned in a YA story before and thought it was amazing that it was incorporated, even in passing.

Overall?

This story had a lot of potential as something fresh and different in the sci-fi genre. The premise was there and ready to wow us but its execution was too choppy to be entertaining. I struggled to follow what was happening and the vague writing style compounded this issue. I did really love the diversity - especially the genderqueer and genderfluid rep. - and felt that they were incredibly well-written. This is not something that I would recommend on a whim but I do think it is worth keeping an eye on this author.

Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review.