Overview: I added this book to my TBR a long time ago, so I can’t remember what intrigued me about it, but it doesn’t really matter because it was disappointing anyway. This is a book about a girl named Comet, an insufferable Mary-Sue “I’m not like other girls” type. She is annoying as a narrator and worse as a character; she is dramatic, tries too hard to be quirky and is very self-righteous/holier-than-thou.

Writing & Characters: The book itself is poorly paced. It touches on sensitive subject matter (drug use, overdose, divorce and parental death among others) but is written in a juvenile way and the juxtaposition can be confusing. The situation with her parents could have been more realistic but was terribly overblown. Tobias is a boring character, despite the author attempting to characterize him as the quintessential bad-boy-who’s-soft-underneath, and exists solely to give Comet an emotional character arc. Their relationship is also confusing and oddly paced. The bullying was out of a PSA, that is to say, unrealistic and dramatized in the worst way. Steph exists only for Comet to complain about. Vicki is barely characterized past “a gorgeous blend of her mixed heritage” and has a few substantial scenes but ultimately falls back into her role of the good friend, opposite Steph.

Nit-picking: Unnecessary details- The author spends way too much time, sometimes multiple paragraphs in a row, describing outfits Comet is wearing and even naming specific brands multiple times (i.e.: Irregular Choice). There are also several stretches of pages where nothing happens except Comet describing how her day was, which is ultimately irrelevant to the plot. Typos upon typos- I understand a few small typos in the average print book, although I got the impression this book was barely proofread. A lot of garden path sentences and misspelled words. Bad ending- Roughly forty pages from the ending, a major character dies somewhat randomly. This made me think that there would be a cliffhanger leading into a sequel, but no. It just ended abruptly with several plot lines remaining unaddressed.

In Conclusion: This book was like if a tween tried to write a soap opera about bullying and drug use. I would not recommend this book. Two stars is being generous. I could go on.

☀️9/20