elena
was that a fever dream or i've actually read that?
Ines was the weirdest main character, there literally was no personality or drive but it also worked perfectly for this story? Confusing open ending, no thorough explanation of the weirdness, creepy ass atmosphere and culty shit - yesss?? fun, awesome, amazing??
But the biggest wtf of this book wasn't any of that. it's these.. um, brilliant, inspiring quotes:
“I didn't like the cookies. Every time I ate them, my stomach filled with unsettled dread.”
“By afternoon, the first flakes fell. They multiplied like a cancer on the glass.”
“I paced from one wall to the next. I took nervous shits.”
“I was sad like a vacuum was sad.”
2.5: honestly, i was disappointed because the synopsis was so promising and made me expect an extremely dark & disturbing book, but.. i didn't think either of these qualities were there. the writing was too disjointed to make experiment descriptions creepy to me, and everything else felt like a surface level attempt to discuss deeper issues: it made me think, sure, the topics of race & class were mentioned, but weren't actually explored further. the ending was very rushed also, and overall the book made me question what exactly was the end-goal of this story.
“I just really need it to be a love story, you know? I really, really need it to be that. Because if it isn't a love story, then what is it? It's my life. This has been my whole life.”
3.5: very tense & thrilling but there are many little discrepancies that just show that these SmArT sisters aren't smart enough to actually get away with the stuff the book says they did
..kinda half-baked? chapters were too short for the amount of things happening within them, which made it harder to connect with characters & their stories. the thing is that all of them were interesting enough to deserve more attention and development and instead they all felt too rushed like there was a page limit for the author..
“acceptance is a powerful drug, and I should know because I've done them all”
this was quite a journey. made me feel kinda sad that this band never actually existed and I can't go listen to their songs myself now. had to take a star off because, even though some characters were well rounded and interesting, like Camilla, Billy, Daisy, the other band members just became this one “music person” blob for me, with no features that'd make them feel like different people. the story itself did get me though: wanting something you can't have, and still doing the right thing was hard for everyone here and I can see how this can resonate with a lot of people.
okay Mark, we get it, the detective is really attractive and ~so recognizable~ because of her being..a redhead, no need to repeat it from everyone's perspective, thanks
it honestly would've been much better if the first 1/4 wasn't as slow and got into that main plot point quicker
