Undone

by Cat Clarke

[Leah]

This was a mind-bending read! I read Cat's debut novel Entangled when it was released years ago and it left me in a perpetual state of confusion - the ending left too many questions!!!!! But it was a very good book. I've had Undone sitting on my shelf since 2013 (apparently), and I've finally gotten around to reading it.

I love books about revenge. There's just something so amazing about seeing someone enact their revenge, especially when they become friends with the very people they're trying to destroy. And that's where Jem finds herself, after her best friend Kai kills himself after being outed online. She's angry, she feels like she can't go on, until she realises she needs to find out who was the culprit behind the outing and she can make them pay.

The hardest part of understanding Jem's revenge plot was the very simple fact that I actually grew to like the people she was trying to pull down. Sasha seemed LOVELY. Lucas was a delight. Even Bugs had his moments. The only person I didn't ever really connect with was Stu, who just seemed horrible and irredeemable (but not for the reasons you think).

Jem probably wasn't my favourite ever female MC. She's holding a lot of rage, and grief, and anger, and it very much warps her mind a little bit, but on the other hand, you can understand why she feels the need to get revenge, because this was her best friend. Regardless of whether her revenge would bring Kai back (it obviously wouldn't), wouldn't anyone else do the same for their friend? If your friend killed themselves because of someone else's horrible meanness, wouldn't you want to know who it was and punish them? Because of that, I totally understood her reasonings. I'm not saying I agree, by any means, and some of her methods were a bit suspect, but I could see her state of mind and see how that had affected how she viewed things.

This was such an intense read, from start to finish. Probably my only issue with the novel was the ending. It was exactly what I expected, but I actually wanted a very different ending. I wanted consequences, and Jem having to deal with the things she had done. Especially because I knew who was behind the video from the very beginning. Now it wasn't a bad ending, it was just sad and it made me want to cry. Cat Clarke is a super talented writer, and I look forward to diving into all of her other books soon. They don't half pack an emotional punch.