2,770 Books
See allI really wanted to like this. I love the trope–lottery winner–but halfway through I couldn't take any more. We begin with a girl so desperate to get a scholarship that all she does is study, thus setting up her social outcast status. She spouts random trivia and is clearly a bright young woman, but she wins the lottery and becomes TSTL. I get that lottery winners make bad choices, but I just can't reconcile Maddie's actions after winning with the girl I met at the beginning of the story. Maybe that was Ms. West's point, but I just didn't buy it–so much that I couldn't get past it. So this is DNF for me.
That said, loved the audiobook narrator. It's just the story that didn't work for me.
I couldn't finish this. The book was well-written, with a believable, scary plot and interesting characters. Ultimately, maybe Mr. Cutter was just too descriptive for me? It's not a problem I've encountered in my limited apocalypse/terror/horror reads, but I reached a point where I just couldn't go any further, even not knowing how it ends–something that typically drives me crazy. Trying not to spoil it, but one character is NOT okay. Shelly is a fvcking sociopath, and the author does a *really* good job--too good maybe--describing Shelly's past torture of animals *BEFORE* Shelly moves on other things in the present. How convenient for Shelly that there's an apocalypse and he can do whatever he wants? Yikes.
I might pick it up later and finish it, but this is just not for me. Gonna go find me a HEA.
Audiobook narrator was great.
Note to self–listened to 6:37:34 of 11:02:10 (60%) with 4:24:36 left.