Author: Norah Olson
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Genre: YA Contemporary
Format: ebook
Release Date: January 20, 2015
Source: egalley received from publisher via Edelweiss
Rating: 2.5 Stars
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***I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way changed my opinion of the book. The review below is my open and honest opinion.***
Synopsis
from Goodreads:
When Alyson meets
Graham Copeland, the new boy next door, she instantly feels like he’s a kindred
spirit—shy and awkward like her, someone who has trouble making friends. It’s
impossible to resist having a crush on him.
As usual, her sister, Sydney, sees things differently. In Sydney's mind, Graham's odd personality and secretive past scream psychopath, not sweetheart. Her gut is telling her to stay away from him, and to protect a love-struck Alyson from her own naïveté. But despite her instincts, Sydney is surprised to realize that a part of her is drawn to Graham, too.
And the more Sydney gets to know him, the more she realizes just how right—and wrong—she is about everything.
As usual, her sister, Sydney, sees things differently. In Sydney's mind, Graham's odd personality and secretive past scream psychopath, not sweetheart. Her gut is telling her to stay away from him, and to protect a love-struck Alyson from her own naïveté. But despite her instincts, Sydney is surprised to realize that a part of her is drawn to Graham, too.
And the more Sydney gets to know him, the more she realizes just how right—and wrong—she is about everything.
My
Review:
I
have no idea how I feel about this book. On the one hand, it kept me hooked,
wanting to figure out what was going on and who the real "bad guy"
was. On the other hand, there were a lot of things that just didn't jive with
me.
What
I didn't like:
Way
too many POVs. We were jumping from Ally to Syd to Graham to Becky to the
police sergeant to Kim. It was confusing. I mean, I think that was the point,
but I was not a fan at all.
The
whole story kind of felt disjointed. The timeline was a little hard to follow
(because of all those POVs) and I feel like I never really knew what was going
on.
The
ending was just weird. I still don’t think I completely understand what’s going
on, although I do have a basic idea. But it was ultimately confusing.
And
because I spent the whole book trying to figure out what the heck was going on,
I didn’t get to know or connect with any of the characters. I just never got
invested in them because I was too busy trying to figure out what was going on
with the plot.
What
I did like:
It
definitely kept me hooked. I finished this one up pretty quickly because I
couldn’t put it down. I desperately wanted to know what was going on, who the bad
guy really was, and how it was all going to end.
Interesting
look at mental health. There are a couple different mental health issues going
on in this book. I thought it was an interesting look at mental health. At the
same time though, we didn’t learn much about said mental health, just kind of
saw how it affected people’s lives.
Sister
relationship. Although the relationship was messy and kind of strange, there
were still moments that felt real and genuine. And those moments were great. I
do love sister relationships.
Honestly,
I don’t think I can recommend this one. Too much confusion, too many POVs and
not enough character development all meant that I couldn’t connect with the
story. It’s definitely not something I would reread. And I have no other
sentence to wrap this up because I’m still feeling so confused.
Have you read
this one? Were you as confused as I was? How did you feel about the multiple
POVs?
Ugh, I hate when I read a book that's confusing from beginning to end. I saw this one before, but for some reason, the cover just wasn't working for me so I didn't look into it further.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't mind being confused at first as long as things are explained, but this one was really one of those "draw your own conclusions". And I get what happened, but there are some parts that still don't make sense and it is driving me crazy!!
DeleteI felt the exact same way Rebecca, weird ending, disjointed story, TOO many Povs!!! I did know what was happening basically immediately though, so the entire rest of the time reading was picking apart the plot holes. I was so frusterated when I finished because there were so many things that weren't explained or just didn't make sense. This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year :(
ReplyDeleteI still don't understand the ending. With the water in the bedroom? Am I missing something here? It was so disappointing.
Delete