I don’t know what I thought I was signing up for, but this wasn’t it. It was an Amazon First Reads, so I’m not out a ton of money.

Spoilers ahead. FYI.

I guess you can shelve the book under “ridiculous plot,” "we can't call the police," “it’s not murder if you kill bad people,” or “highly annoying main characters (and supporting characters).” Depending on how you structure your library, “bland and unbelievable” would suffice.

Our MC, Remi, thinks her life is a tragedy—which is mainly because she makes her life a tragedy through a series of meandering self-victimizations and garbage decisions. She doesn’t get along with her sisters because [insert vague reasons]. She’s weird around her parents because [sisters and vague reasons]. She meets a cute guy and has instalove because [insert vague reasons]. She has anxiety, and we know she has anxiety because she tells us every five pages that she has anxiety. Her anxiety triggered my anxiety. It also triggered my daughter's anxiety, and my daughter hasn't even heard of the book and lives in a different part of town. Is that nonsense? Yes, but I have anxiety so it's not my fault I'm this way and it's your fault for not knowing/understanding/putting up with my anxiety attitude.

If that annoyed you, try a whole book of it.

Nary a good decision was to be found in this book, not by any character, in any way, at any time. I'm not talking bad decisions where made in the gritty realism way of dark character studies. I mean the characters had no growth and the decisions made by ALL of them were outlandishly bad over and over again. Considering the book covered everything from SA, murder, MH, generational violence, and messed up family dynamics, you’d think there would be some weight behind it, but there isn’t. It’s not light enough for what it accomplishes and not deep enough to carry the weight of what it is presenting. I know. It’s complicated in such a bad way.

I haven't even touched on the plot, and it kicks everything up to a whole different level. It was relatively predictable until it became completely unhinged (not in a good way), and I honestly think staying predicable would have been better than the plot twists.

Folks, if you can’t hobble out of a difficult-to-access mudslide on a dislocated ankle without being seen by the overhead police helicopter and then wait for you instalove who overheard you openly discussing murdering someone but immediately forgave you because they *really* like you, well, I’m sorry about your life. Do better.

I gave it two stars and I have no idea why. It was an easy enough read, but it certainly wasn’t engaging. Everything was flat and nonsensical.

Give it a pass and find either a contemporary fiction or a cozy mystery that knows what it wants to be and accomplishes it.

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Created Oct 30, 2024 at 9:05pm • Submit your own review...