3.5*
I have some quite polarized thoughts about this book. Quite a bit of it I loved. Because it's Lauren Oliver and she's fabulous and I generally love all the things she writes. But then there were a few things that irked me. Like, a lot. Obviously, the only way to handle such a situation is a good stuff versus bad stuff, right? Right.
The Stuff I Liked:
- •Oh goodness, the writing. As always, Lauren Oliver knocks it out of the damn park. It's so quotable, so lovely, really. And so very easy to devour. I read almost the whole thing in one day, and it is not a short book by any means.
- •I loved how real the characters seemed. Even when they were being awful. Perhaps especially when they were being awful. These girls were pretty judgmental in general, but the way they were written made them also seem incredibly realistic. Because honestly, who among us hasn't passed judgment on another person? It was almost like showing that not-so-nice side of people, but it's an inner dialogue we've all had at one point or another- even if it's uncomfortable to admit.
- •The mystery was definitely consuming! The girls had such a rough time of things after the death of Summer- they were vilified by pretty much everyone (because obviously the world will eat up a story in which the best friends are suspects) and haven't had much success moving on. I liked that their friendship, especially their relationship moving forward, was explored so in depth. But also, I wanted to know who the real murderer was, because of course!
- •There's just a lot of commentary on messed up societal crap. Like how Brynn has to legitimately fake drug use just to get mental health help paid for. How disgustingly invested strangers are in the lives of teenage girls. And it goes on- those are early things that aren't spoilers, but trust that the book makes a lot of awesome points in that regard.
- •It was just plain old entertaining and engaging. This is hard to put into words of course, but the book was just enjoyable.
The Stuff I Didn't:
- The fat shaming. •I'll tell you upfront, there are a lot of unpleasant things that happen in this book. I mean, it's about a young girl's murder, so. But the fat shaming was really unnecessary and didn't make sense in the story. The "fat" character was a friend of one of the main characters, and she was apparently "obese" at 180 pounds. And it is stated that she is normal height, too. But she has "thyroid problems and prediabetes". What now!? This isn't the only time her weight is mentioned in an unflattering light, it just happens to be the one I have saved. Anyway, it made me stabby- especially because I can imagine a teen reading this and thinking "but wait- I am 180 pounds so does that mean I am grossly overweight?" and okay, don't young women have enough problems? And if it had anything to do with the story, or was resolved in any way, I'd probably have been less stabby, but it wasn't, so here we are.
- •The ending underwhelmed me. I mean, I am glad it did have an ending! (Especially since I am still so worked up over Requiem.) I just felt that it was kind of anticlimactic for a book that had been so engaging up until that point.
Bottom Line: Definitely enjoyed reading it, would have probably been close to five stars if I'd liked the ending better. Still a solid book, one I am glad to have read!