sunny

Disappointed that I paid $20 for a hardcover version of a novel in which I predicted the killer from the beginning.

It was so obvious that Simon committed suicide to pin a murder on the other characters, because peanut oil is just such a specific thing that simply seems unrealistic for the gravity of the secrets these high schoolers had.

It was also very unrealistic that Yale tweeted at the end that they were looking forward to her application. Um, what? That makes no sense considering how most private schools will generally automatically rule out anyone who cheated, especially someone who cheated and exposed themself for doing so publicly. I just found that part extremely odd to add. It didn't add anything to the novel except for praise for the studious girl who cheated because she was bad at chemistry, which is just unfair.

I absolutely loved this book. I read this for my AP Literature class and had such an enjoyable time whilst analyzing the bildungsroman present in the novel. The imagery is beautiful, especially in the exposition. Although the slang was hard for me to sort through, I found a wonderful audiobook online and after a few chapters with the audiobook, I was able to mentally read the rest. Great book for literary analysis!

I did not like this novel. The language was way too flowery, making the book cumbersome and tiring. The plot is great and there's so much to analyze which makes me deliriously happy as a literary nerd, but it comes with the cost of having to read through paragraphs of absolute word vomit.

The story was wonderful, and I loved how the characters were pieced together. However, this book was hyped up a lot to me before I read it, and so I went in with huge expectations. Big mistake - I think I was expecting something like Gone Girl or The Girl in the Window type book, but I was left disappointed with the ending because it wasn't as climatic as I'd expected. I'd say to go into this book without high expectations to enjoy the book.

I feel like this book is a little (emphasis on little) outdated in terms of the setting, but it still hits every part of a beautiful coming-of-age story. I read this when I was in middle school and found it terribly boring then, but in retrospect, it was a pretty good read. Still a little dull through.