All These Things I've Done (Birthright Trilogy, #1)

by Gabrielle Zevin

[Amber]

I'm kind of disgusted by her best friend to be honest. Not sure how to rate this yet.
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This is another review of a book that I'm not sure how to rate. I enjoyed some of it, but I was also quite disgusted by some characters and the plot kind of veered off course halfway through.

All These Things I've Done is written from Anya's point of view. Anya is the daughter of a deceased mod boss and she has to looks after her siblings and dying grandmother.

I really liked the idea of a world in which chocolate and caffeine had been banned. Who in the world would ban chocolate? Anya's family run an illegal chocolate business, although Anya doesn't want anything to do with them now that her father is dead.

The plot was excellent at the beginning, and kept my hooked, but after the romance started up the entire plot shrivelled away. I was really looking forward to reading about Anya's mafia family, but we didn't get to see much of them. The book became all about Anya and her love interest, and there was no depth there, either. I was looking for something akin to Holly Black's White Cat, which balanced a crime plot with character development wonderfully. But this was as if the two plots couldn't wind together. One had to be abandoned for the other to go ahead.

I also couldn't really relate to Anya. She was a Catholic - which alone I was fine with, of course - yet she wasn't a very 'good' one. She also only turned to religion because of her deceased Catholic mother, which I thought was a bit silly but whatever. Also, she couldn't make up her mind about how she felt about sex. Before she met Win, she didn't believe in sex before marriage, and after she met him she almost jumped on him right there and then. Sigh.

Win, the love interest, was also kind of bland. He didn't have much of a personality and I couldn't relate to him at all. If anything, he was far too sensitive. He acted like an overly hormonal girl at some points when he whined and got his feelings hurt over nothing. Man up.

Like I said at the beginning, I was quite disgusted by some of the characters in this book. Anya's ex-boyfriend tried to force himself on her not once, but twice. She did end things with him after the first time, but after the second time she didn't really do anything. Even worse, HER BEST FRIEND STARTED DATING HIM!! What kind of a friend starts dating a guy who almost date raped their best friend? And what kind of friend (Anya) lets her do that?! And what kind of a boyfriend/love interest takes sympathy on this almost-rapist?! This left such a bitter taste in my mouth and I'm sorry that this was a bit spoilery. I just think it needed to be said.

At random times, Anya started addressing the reader. It was really out of place, and it took me out of the story every time this happened. I would have preferred it if this hadn't happened at all, or at least happened consistantly.

So, yes. That's my choppy review. I was really disappointed in this book, but I did enjoy the beginning. Maybe I need to come up with a new rating "DISGUSTED" because that's honestly what I mostly am at this point.