r.bookish

hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about the vanishing stair by Maureen Johnson. i gave this book 5/5 stars. i honestly really loved this book, since it was just so good and the whole mystery honestly blew me away. and i honestly loved this book so much.

trigger warning- harry potter mentioned, panic attacks/disorders, death, child death, kidnapping, alcoholism, murder, violence, suicide, and infidelity.

honestly, i seriously do not remember who this characters name is, but i literally loved this one character so much. like, his whole personality was liking Disney, which i literally loved about him so much. and how he wanted to work at disney and be a cast member so much, like he was just so funny and kind of dorky which i lowkey loved. and how much he would go into how much he liked it, i really just liked it.

i also feel like the double time lines in this book worked so well together. like, i feel the first book was kind of a mess, but i literally feel like the whole plot was so good. and i mean, it was just so cool and i thought that they were being done so well. like, how everything was happening was just so well written, which was just so amazing.

but, the ending of this book was just so wow. like, it literally was just such a wow, and i really had no clue or idea that it was gonna happen, since it was just so insane. but, i feel like it was kind of cool, which i honestly really liked. and i straight up don’t know how to put must of this book into words, so this probably won’t make sense so yeah.

i know in book one, i did say in that review that i didn’t really like the romance, but i lowkey liked it in this book. since, i feel like this book had so many awkward moments which i really liked. personally, i feel like there are so many romances in YA that are just a mess, and like so perfect. i think the romance in here was just so accurate. which, is something i really enjoyed.

and i also really liked that each character was so different. and i thought it was so cool to see how different each character was, and everything that would happen. and also how their was so many of these characters had this many different mysteries around them. and i found it to be so cool, and i literally thought it was just so cool in the end.

but, if you read this book, did you find that when Stevie would go on and on and on about Edward King he was so much like trump? like how she would talk about his ideas and his mindset, it was very much like that.

also, the cliffhanger at the end of this book was mad. like, when i finished it i believe i was taking photos for instagram, and i had to step away from it, since i literally was so shocked. and i really am so happy that i did read this book so much, since it was so good. but, i really loved the whole book especially the ending of the book.

honestly, though i’m so happy for this time that i didn’t get into this series when the book came out. since, i don’t think i could wait a year for the third book. but, now i really have a matter a days till i can get to it, since the ending was such a cliffhanger.

but, i am really happy in this book we got to figure out what happened in book one, and the whole mystery was finally solved. like, i feel like there was so many crazy things was finally a closed case. which, was just so good. but, i am honestly kind of excited to read more of the books that are going to happen in the next couple.

i also feel that Stevie is such a weird character to talk about. like, there are so many layers to her. which, i lowkey really liked since she wasn’t a flat character. but, then again i thought it was just so cool. like, then again i feel like it is really cool since we get to see the thing she really wanted to happened in the end. which i honestly really liked in this book.

this book was honestly so raw and even like relatable in a really weird way. like, i feel like there are so many issues in these books, like good issues in a weird way. but, i feel like Stevie was such a good character to have one of those people who have so many different things going on her mind and then how she really wants something to happen, it happens.

and i just feel like i’ve read so many mystery and thrillers books, that i really never am super shocked what was going to happen in one of these books. like, there are so many books that i can be like, oh yeah this is happening in the next couples pages and this is going to happen. but, for this book, it was just so hard to figure out what was actually gonna happen. which was a really nice surprise for once.

i really feel like Johnson does such an amazing job with writing characters and people that are easy to relate to. and i mean, i could really see myself in Stevie and how passionate she was throughout the story. which, i really loved so much. and i think that how she can create these crazy ass murder mysteries was just so cool. and i really loved it so so much. and i cannot wait to read more by her in the future, cause i do have an arc of a disney book that is getting published.

but, i saw someone on goodreads say this, but they mentioned that Johnson should continue this series till like Stevie is an adult and works for the FBI or something for cold cases. and i lowkey think that it is such a good idea. like, i know it probably won’t happen, but it lowkey is such a good idea, since we see everything she does in these books, so it would be kind of cool.

anyway, that is all for today! i hope you enjoyed this post, since i feel like i was just rambling about how i love so many different things in this book, since it was so good. but, i really can’t wait to read more book in this series, cause it is just so amazing.

hello everyone! today i am going to be doing a little i read 5. and from the title you can probably figure out that it is about YA thrillers and mysteries. so, if you follow me for any amount of time, you probably know that i honestly read a lot of adult mystery and thriller books, but i honestly want to get into reading more and more YA books, so i’m going to combine my two interests, and do a little taste test thing.

and honestly, for me i do feel like a lot of YA thrillers and mysteries are either plain boring, or they are two predictable. i mean, some of my favorite book are YA mystery books, aka one of us is lying, sadie and a good girls guide to murder. but, i always found that adult mysteries are better and they are a lot darker, which i always really liked. and i really want to get more in YA mystery books, hence the topic of this post.

so for this, i picked 5 books that i either see all over instagram or i picked books that i found on goodreads and that my library had, so i’m going to give them ago. off the bat, this is going to be more of a relaxed review, and each of these books will get their own full review, this is just going to be a little short thoughts i had while reading them.

and, the whole point of this is honestly to see what kind of YA mysteries i prefer, which is something i really want to find. and since this year i do feel like we are getting a lot more of YA mysteries and thrillers it will be pretty cool to see what books i like, propose to reading books i don’t really care for.

the inheritance games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. first off, i gave this book 3/5 stars. honestly, going into this book i had zero expiations before i started this book. i know i saw a lot of people talking about this book on instagram, but i never was that hyped up for this book, besides the cover was so pretty. and i also saw people comparing this to Holly Jackson’s books, which i love but i never really saw the similarity between them.

overall, with this book i saw people saying that this book was pretty good by just scrolling threw goodreads reviews. but, i honestly was so underwhelmed when i read this. i mean, the whole mystery was kind of boring, and it was called a romance but there was zero romance in this book. and i also found it to be so predictable, which was kind of a pain in the ass. i mean, i can see why people like this, but i’m more for books where someone is solving a murder, not why she got billions and billons of dollars.

off the bat, i did find Avery to be kind of annoying, since she got handed this letter that said she won all of this money and all of these houses and planes and hotels, but she was just like no i don’t want it all. which, just to be so annoying after awhile, and this was kind of a theme for this whole book.

with that being said, i do feel like this is more of a middle grade book then YA. since, whenever they swore it was like fax instead of fuck and like beotch instead of bitch. and also the whole romance was something you’d see in like a PG movie, like one kiss here and there. and, even just as some of the other YA books i’ve read this just felt so childish.

with that being said, i’m still excited for the sequel, but not enough to buy a copy of it and start a countdown on instagram. but, i mean, if anything this really just taught me what i like, and told me more of what i like and don’t like.

truly devious by Maureen Johnson. anyway, i gave this book 4/5 stars. and this book was honestly so much better then the last book. but, i mean i still had a couple issues with this book, but it was still a decent book in my mind.

so, overall i honestly really liked this book. i mean, it was honestly such an cool mystery, and that it was kind of cool. but, there was just some issues with the plot. like, half of the older mystery kind of just got dropped, and focused on the other murder. which, to teach it’s own, was a little more important, but i still wish we got both of the mystery solved and have them being worked on at the same time.

but, i also feel like the romance was kind of terrible. like, i mean it was just so unneeded and the whole murder mystery could, and should have been the whole plot. and i mean, i feel like it just got dropped half and then we were supposed to forget that it ever happened.

sadly, i feel like the pacing was kind of slow, only at certain points though. like, i feel like when it was supposed to be romance heavy, it was way more slow, but then it just picked up for the most part. but, this is a four book series, so it is understandable why this book was slower, cause you need to flesh everything out.

with all that being said, of course i’m going to read the sequel, since i honestly really liked this whole series. but, this honestly sounds like such a good series, and since they had a couple of non tied edges and i’m really excited to see it all wrapped up.

teen killers club by Lily Sparks. i gave this book 4/5 stars. this book was honestly pretty good, and i honestly really liked the whole premise of this book, since it was like such a cool concept. but, i’ve had a weird experience with the author so yeah.

okay but i feel like this book didn’t really work character wise. since, there was just so much happening, and it kind of confused me, since they were all so bland and kind of boring. but, i mean, they all are kind of the same, but with different ways to kill and of course, different names. and i wish they had better development.

this was also kind of a funny book, but in a weird way. like, it was just a book about killing people, so it was funny, but in a morbid way. like, i really think it had some moments, if it was unintentional, or like if it was like that on purpose. i just felt like it was kind of weird, since this book is kind of gross.

this book also had a really good plot. like, i feel like it just hit the ground running, which was just cool and i liked how it worked together. and also how they never really had a slow plot, and then really just worked so much and then how it was just pretty good.

the cousins by Karen M. McManus. i gave this book 2/5 stars. this book has so much potential, since i really loved other books that McManus wrote. but, i mean, this just felt to be really bad and this book was just so bad.

overall, i found all the characters to had the same personality. like, i feel like they had some differences, but they weren’t even that big. but, overall they just were the same person with different names, which honestly got to be a pain, cause i wanted three different people, which they really weren’t.

and i honestly found the mystery to be not that good. like, it was they were going to this island, and we didn’t really get the plot or the mystery, if you could even call it that, at like 50% or like a good chunk into this book. and like, i just feel like it was boring to say the least, since nothing was happening.

not to go into spoilers here, but so much of this book just doesn’t make sense. like, with how different things played out, it was just not good. and some of it was like so stupid, i have no clue how anyone didn’t pick up on it, since it was so easy to pick up on. but, i mean, it is whatever.

those who prey by Jennifer Moffet. i gave this book 2/5 stars. this book honestly threw my for a loop. and it had so much potential, and i thought it was gonna be so good, but it honestly just like fell off a cliff at some parts.

one of my biggest issues with this, was the f slur and the homophobia in the book. like, this book was so good up until this part. like, one of the characters dropped the f slur and then so much homophobia was in these couple pages i was about ready to throw this book off a cliff.

another one of my issues was all of this religion was packed the book. like, i thought this was just a regular cult book, which is already kind of a pain, but i didn’t expect there to be so much religion. and like, there was so much in this book it kind of made me so pissed off at some parts. and i literally hated how they would make religion be the best thing in the world, when it honestly isn’t, in some cases.

and i mean, there was like zero logic at some parts, since like the driving force for Emily to want to go in this cult, besides that she wants to make friends and get a boy. like, that by itself kind of pissed me off. and i know people do stupid things, but at parts it got to be a little much and started to annoy me.

anyway, i hope you liked this post! i honestly messed with the format with this a little bit, but hopefully it was still good. but, i do have more of these themed i read 5’s coming soon, so yeah. but, i still feel like this was a win overall, since i do kind of know what i like more then i did before i went into this.

hello everyone! today i am going to be talking again about Rick Riordan and why shouldn’t hype him up to much. this is a second part, so you can find that post right here. but, this one is more centered about Samirah and Hazel, if you can actually read this mess.

and like i said in the last post, everything i found for the info is from tumblr and reddit and twitter threads. and i pretty much just complied everything from own voices reviewers, and i also asked friends that read these books for their opinions on the matter

SAMIRAH 

One of the biggest things about her character that are always brought up in discussions are about Samirah’s arranged marriage because she is so young. Granted, i’ve never been in an arranged marriage, and i’ll probably never be in one, so this is kind of just coming from different posts I’ve seen.  And i’m going to list some of the issues. 

1. The biggest thing you need to know about Samirah is 12 years old when she got engaged. And if you think that is terrible, Riordan’s justification about it just gets worse. 
2. She was in love with him since she was 12 years old, so of course it’s fine to get engaged so young, while also saying getting into this long term relationship at 12 is okay. And I know people will make the argument about how Annabeth first met and kind of had a crush on Percy when they were 12.  But, those two relationships are completely different. 

• One thing that i’ve seen people point out all the time was how Riordan treats WOC and Black characters and how he treats the white characters. So, Annabeth is white, where characters like Hazel, Samirah, and Sadie are all WOC, so getting into the relationship is okay and makes them more mature.
• But, going on further, Annabeth was only crushing on Percy when she was 12, if i’m remembering everything correctly. So, it was only a simple childhood crush. Where the relationship with Samirah was a full blown relationship when she was so young. 
•  And i’ve been on twitter for about a year, and all the time I see people talk about how WOC and Black women will always be way less innocent and more mature in the eyes of the media. 
• But, yeah i know that none of these relationships are sexual. Which is good, but Riordan doesn’t need to get praised for it since all of his characters are children. Like, most of them are under the age of 16, so yeah. 

2. “My grandparents are old-fashioned. They were raised in Baghdad, but fled to the U.S. when Saddam Hussein was in power.” (this can be found in Magnus Chase, The Sword of Summer.) 

• Okay cool, your grandparents are old fashioned. But, from what i’ve been told is that this is just misunderstanding the tradition. But, also being old fashioned doesn’t just give you the green light to put a 12 year old into arranged marriage. 

3. I don’t know about you but it’s pretty clear in the books that Samirah is manipulated into this marriage. And she thinks that this is the right thing to do, especially since she thinks she needs to repent for her mothers sins for having a baby out of wedlock. 

• “When she died.. Well in the local community, I was damaged goods, a bastard child. My grandparents were lucky, very lucky, to get the Fadlans’ blessing for me to marry Amir. I won’t really bring anything to the marriage. I’m not rich or respectable-” (Magnus Chase, Sword of Summer.)
• When i read that, it kind of tells about how she was groomed. And also how when she was growing up she needed to do something to save her mothers actions, even though she can’t fix it. And all of this isn’t her responsibility to save her mother from her sins. 
• She also says that her grandparents are getting Fadlan’s blessing for this marriage. So, she is being manipulated to get married at 12 years old, which isn’t cool. Like, she’s 12 years old, she can’t pick and choose if she wants to get married, hell even if she wants to get married. 
• Samirah’s whole relationship is about her grandparents. This is about them controlling her future and that they don’t want to have more shame on their family. And yeah they are kind of emotionally abusive, which honestly sucks. 

2. “ ‘He’s my cousin’ she blurted. ‘Second cousin, twice removed. Or something.” (Magnus Chase, Sword of Summer.) 

3. The one and only Muslim character in these books are is in an arranged marriage, with her cousin of all people. Which just reinforces the stereotype, not trying to break them. 

And yeah, I know arranged marriage is still a thing. I’m fully aware of it. But, i mean for Riordan to make one Muslim character, and then make them get into an arranged marriage with their cousin, just isn’t right. And he has a very young audience, who doesn’t know right from wrong, so they would see this rep and just think it is good. Like, when i was growing up, i literally never saw any rep in books, and i’m really happy that if i ever have kids, or even just other kids can see themselves in books. But, when it’s harmful? It’s giving these kids that are going through all the racism and Islamophobia, it literally sucks. And i really don’t think he should be praised for this terrible rep.  

And these young Muslim girls don’t need to be shown at a young age that these arranged marriages are good and okay, when they aren’t. And I just read a book called More Than Just A Pretty Face, which talks about how women have to go through hell when they are getting arranged. Granted, it’s fiction but I still learnt a lot. 

So, now let’s forget that the arranged marriage happened. Forget about it for a second. RR still would give her these badass moments, cool but it’s the bare minimum, that when she has these badass moments, just like everyone else in the series, she is still with the ‘tradition’ at a super young age. And anyway you can see the way he treats a character like Annabeth and then how he treats Hazel and Samirah. 

Yeah, I know all the RR stans are gonna make the argument that they got married when they were older. And that they ‘seem happy’ if everyone can just believe you’re going to get betrothed at a young age and then just be happy for the rest of your life. But, also she got married at an older age cause 12 year olds can’t consent to getting married, so it wouldn’t work out anyway for her. 

And yeah, i know arranged marriages happen, and hell i know they happen to cousins all the time. I’m fully aware of that. But, when you have Riordan sitting here writing about a young child getting married to an abusive man, when she is not even a teenager yet. And he is just sitting at his little laptop or ipad or whatever trying to validate all of this, when everyone can see how wrong it is. Like, if he really wanted to change the narrative like in his little essay he wrote, which i’ll get into later, he still wouldn’t make her a walking stereotype we already see on netflix. 

First off, I’ve never worn a hijab, and I’ll probably never wear them. But, i’ve seen some people make some points, which i just want to bring up quickly. 

• It is told that she needs to take off her hijab so she can fight better. 
• She ties her hair up, which kind of says that she doesn’t have her hair tied up under the hijab. 
• She can’t touch her fiancé, but then she can take off her hijab off around her friends, since they are supposedly family. 

Now before we get into the essay, i just want to bring up how on multiple occasions Riordan shortened Samirah’s name from Samirah to Sam. which, if you didn’t know Samirah and Annabeth both have three syllables, but yet he never calls Annabeth Anne and Anna hell even Beth. 

And if you want to read the full essay, you can google Rick Riordan apology essay and it should be one of the first ones that pop up. 

Like many of my characters, Samirah was inspired by former students of mine. Over the course of my middle school teaching career, I worked with dozens of Muslim students and their families, representing the expanse of the Muslim world and both Shia and Sunni traditions. One of my most poignant memories about the September 11, 2001, attack of the World Trade Center was when a Muslima student burst into tears when she heard the news – not just because it was horrific, but also because she knew what it meant for her, her family, her faith.

Okay, so for the essay when he gets talking about Samirah, he talks about his student that he has had in the past, but then he compares and starts talking about the 9/11 attack. Which is a really shitty move he could move in my mind. Like, to this day, we can see the hell that Muslims still get to this day, so i don’t know why he would have to pull that move. And i can’t be the only person that got a weird vibe cause it kind of says that he just thinks about Mulisms and t*rrorist at the same time. 

During the following years, I tried to be especially attuned to the needs of my Muslim students. I dealt with 9/11 the same way I deal with most things: by reading and learning more. When I taught world religions in social studies, I would talk to my Muslim students about Islam to make sure I was representing their experience correctly. They taught me quite a bit, which eventually contributed to my depiction of Samirah al-Abbas. As always, though, where I have made mistakes in my understanding, those mistakes are wholly on me.

I’m not sure if this is just me, but i got really big ‘i have a gay friend so i can’t be homophic’ or ‘i have a Black friend so i can’t be racist.’ from this part. And, cool that you went up to them personally and asked them if they are okay, and how they feel. But, basing your whole character on what they said, shouldn’t be enough. Like, you still need to do so much research in order to write a character that isn’t your sexaully, race, or religion. 

What did I read for research? I have read five different English interpretations of the Qur’an. (I understand the message is inseparable from the original Arabic, so it cannot be considered ‘translated’). I have read the entirety of the Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim hadith collections. I’ve read three biographies of Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) and well over a dozen books about the history of Islam and modern Islam. I took a six-week course in Arabic. (I was not very good at it, but I found it fascinating). I fasted the month of Ramadan in solidarity with my students.

Like i’ve said, i’m not Muslim. And all this info i’m getting from friends and other posts like this. But, I mean, just because you studied it once, doesn’t mean you’re amazing at it. Like, it is just like me saying, oh I read Romeo and Juliet freshman year of high school, so I’m like a genius when it comes to shakespeare. Like, you would still need to go into more detail and take courses and courses so you understand this completely. 

And that kind of loops into about the whole sexuality talk about if authors should be able to write characters that aren’t their sexuality, to a degree. Like, i wouldn’t want some random straight white lady to read loveless one time and then to think she knows everything about asexuality, so now she writes about it. No, like you need to read more work, and you will never, ever get the experience of a real life person and their experience based on some story. If it is a religion or a sexuality. 

And yeah, i know people will be bitching about this, and think that he is still this amazing ass writer. I mean, when people brought up this issue and all the issues in his work, he blocked us. And hell, I was one of the people that was blocked, I’m unblocked now but still. Like he can’t take criticism for shit, then he just pens some essay which kind of sucks. 

HAZEL 

So, the next and final character I’m gonna be talking about is someone everyone probably knows if they are in the Percy Jackson world. Is Hazel Levesque. And she doesn’t have that much talk that i could find, but i still want to bring her up since i find dives into some of the same topics, about race mostly, that Samairh had. 

The first part is talking about how they whitewashed her. 

The main thing is that she is a Black girl in the pjo books, which is honestly cool, but yet again, we can’t praise Riordan for that cause it’s the bare minimum. But, i see so much art work and just people talking about her as this lighter skin, which i guess some of this isn’t about like Riordan, but i still just wanted to bring it up as, don’t draw her as a white girl, which i’ve seen, or as lighter skin. 

And then there are some drawings, which I’ve also seen circling a lot with her having golden eyes. Which, some people have talked about, but not enough cause it’s Riordan, so i guess we are just gonna cover our eyes. And even i feel like it needs to be talked about how Riordan pretty much was like “oh sure let’s throw a Black girl into this story, but we are just gonna give her light eyes, and then light hair.” but, you know, he of course just throws into the mix that its her fathers genes and how its fine and shit. 

But, also her backstory is literally a mess??? Like Annabeth’s backstory is so spelt out so well, and we know everything about her, but Hazel’s is just a mess. Like it was so back and forth and just so confusing. Like her mom was like a fortune teller or something, but i feel like it changed 5 times, and her father looked liked fucking Hilter, and Riordan didn’t even bat an eye.

And if i’m remembering correctly she is the youngest character in these books and this series. But, Riordan like made her so threw the most trauma and gave her the most darkness shit happened to her, but like say bye bye to her character development after soon. Like, if you care, if you don’t why are you still here in this 2438 word essay, and I haven’t even written the ending and the intro yet so yeah. . But, she had being cursed, killed, resurrected, throwen into a love triangle in the middle of the fucking war. 

(( But, also can we please stop fancasting her Yara Shahidi and Amandla Stenberg, no hate to them, but please fancast them as actual dark skinned Black girl like Skai Jackson or Kheris Rogers.) 

hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about teen killers club by Lily Sparks. i gave this book 4/5 stars. honestly, this was a pretty decent book, and i really liked it, even if it was kind of a mess. but, i still overall really liked it.

trigger warning- death, blood, grief, murder, violence, body horror, and confinement.

side note: before we get into this review, can i just mention a weird interaction i had with this author on twitter? so, if you don’t know, or you don’t follow me, my @ is bookish_r. and my pinned tweet is this list of all the books i’ve read this book. and it’s not to up to date. but, anyway, i listed this book on here and i didn’t even tag the author or anything. but, the author liked that tweet?? like i was just talking about my feelings, and yeah it was kinda rude, but her liking it lowkey made me feel a little bit uncomfortable.

first thing first, i really liked the premise. like a group of teenagers going to jail but instead they go to this camp to be these assassins? sign me up. it just sounds so cool and was just so interesting and i really liked it. and it was pretty good, even if it was kind of a mess at some points.

and also the names for this book where like weird af. like, these two names that really stick out to me, is the main character, Signal and then her friend, Nobody. i mean, it was cool, but it was also just kinda weird. cause like they aren’t real names, it’s like all of those instagram influencers that name their baby Cove or Summer.

but, i do feel like this book was like funny, in such a dark way. like, i mean, i feel like it was the slapstick funny, in a way. and i do feel like it was kind of premature, since this is such a deep and dark book. and like i feel like this book isn’t the kind of book that you should be laughing at, since it is so dark. and it was kind of weird if you like laughing since it was all about murder.

i can see why some people might find it a bit funny, since they would go on these talks about how to use acid to break down a body. and then how to make a knife out of these everyday object. which, i thought was more cool then funny. but, whatever floats your boat i guess.

then there is a lot of characters, and i mean each of these characters that i mean it was kind of cool since they all kind of was like one of those old tumblr posts, ‘if each zodiac sign killed someone, here’s how they would do it and hid the body.’ and they each had their own kind of method and way they do their thing. and i thought it was kind of cool since they were all so different, which just was so cool in the end.

but, my complaint was how many characters there were, but we couldn’t really know each character. i feel like we got all of these different characters brought up and that they were important to the plot. but, in the end it was like, ‘oh yeah we kill people lol.’ and i feel like we never really got to see each character grow as a character and their really personality. and since there was so many different characters, if you gave them all of their personalities and charactists, i couldn’t tell any of them apart.

and i feel like whenever you have a big cast of characters, especially ones that are all so different, you need to take time and build up their character. which, i feel like Sparks didn’t do whatsoever. and i mean, they were just all basic and boring. and like i guess Signal and the boys that liked her had a bit more personality, but still not that much.

but, on a more positive note, i do feel like this is one of those books that the plot hits the ground running. which i honestly really liked. and because of that, i feel like it worked really quick and that the plot was very fast paced. which was honestly pretty good and it was one of the best parts of this book.

but, i feel like this book was so dark and almost sour, so i’m going to use a candy reference for explaining this. so, i would say like 75% of this book is jolly rancher, which like is kind of bitter, but it isn’t that bad. and most people like these, and they are bitter, but still kind of sweet. then i would say 23% of this book was like a skittles sour candy, which is super sour, and in this case, it is dark and a bit much. then, the last 2% was like a reese’s cup, like super sweet, and it doesn’t really go hand in hand with what this book was about, cause they just rode off to happily ever after.

i would say though, Signal brings up this huge mystery about her best friend dying. and like she kept saying it over and over again about how Signal didn’t kill Rose, but like it was the same info all over and over again. and it just got to be a pain in the ass. cause, she was like i was drugged, which, if the police were treating you as the main suspect, wouldn’t they run some sort of test and see that you were drugged with something, especially if it was the date rape drug. and i don’t know, but that seemed to be a little unbelievable, especially cause it was just such a mess.

and if you want to have that whole camp setting, but have it be a bit darker, this book is for you. just, be mindful of the trigger warnings cause there is a lot of blood and, of course, murder.

now i’m gonna go in depth about each character, cause there is a ton of them, so i want to talk about all of them for a little bit.

Signal- honestly, i found her to be do annoying. like, for everything that she did, she needed someone there to hold her hand, or hell just do it for her. like, and that kind of played hand in hand with her not killing her bestie, cause she’s soooo helpless. and i mean, just cause your helpless doesn’t mean you can’t kill someone. and she also had zero growth with like learning to be stronger or whatnot.

Nobody- this is more Spark’s fault then Nobody’s fault. but, i mean, i really disliked the portrayal of this girl being said that she is so ugly, that she needs to were a ski mask all the time. this just rubbed me the wrong way, especially when she took it off and she was like gorgeous. like, it just was kinda weird cause it was like, oh if your ugly you need to wear a mask and yeah.

Erik- this man had no purpose in this book besides to be a piece of meat for Signal. like, seriously. his whole book was pretty much just like being this man that Signal can crush over, which was like kind of weird cause he had so much potential. but, i just wish there was something more.

Jada- honestly, i feel like she is one of those girls in the Netflix movies that if you flirt with one of her many exes, she will make your life a living hell. and that is the only thing i really remember about her, is that she will probably kill someone if they get in like 20 feet of her ex, who happens to be Erik.

Kurt and Troy- him and his brother literally had zero play in this book, and it honestly sucked. like, all that they did was kind of just stand there and it was so weird. like for most of the book they just stood here like 🧍‍♀️.

Dennis- he was probably the most interesting murder in this book, since he did use the internet to do everything. so, i honestly really liked him and he was probably one of my favorite character in this book since he was just so cool. but, i do wish he had more play in this story.

Javier- i feel like he did nothing to the story besides be this guy that Signal kind of had a crush on so she would flirt, but it was so weird and like such awkward flirting. and like he really didn’t do to much to the story.

anyway, that is all for today! i do feel like this book was really good. like, for all my reviews they are mostly negitive, but i would still highly recommend this book if you are into this type of book. cause it was pretty book.