I wanted to love this book. I did. I did. I did.

I did not.

Trigger warnings: depictions of violence, gore, gun violence, emotional and psychological abuse, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, discussion and implication of sexual trauma and assault, instances of negative/derogatory language about mental health issues.

Trope-y Summary: Unreliable Narrator sees a major danger coming, but no one believes her—the girl who cried wolf and all that. Now UN must embark on a dangerous quest to both save her friends and convince them they need to save themselves.

Hendrix's writing is fast-paced and easy-to-read. I actually quite liked the odd glimpses of reddit threads and newspaper clippings that were interspersed between chapters, as well. My good things to say about the book might end there.

I'm a sucker for an unreliable narrator, but I'm not certain I've ever encountered one quite as unreliable as Lynne. I found her distorted reality actually quite difficult to try to co-exist in with her (I found reading from her perspective quite anxiety-inducing—as was the point, I'm sure). I think Lynne is supposed to have OCD—

Spoiler

one of the other characters refers to her as "an obsessive-compulsive" in a seemingly derogatory sense

—, but the portrayal was lacklustre. Granted, as someone who has OCD, I am overly bored of OCD only being depicted through pushed-to-the-brink recluses and what I like to call one-hit-wonders (characters who miraculously have their OCD show up in only one "theme" or tiny area of their life that never evolves as their values shift like the chronic ego-dystonic illness actually does). Lynne is somehow both of these tropes I dislike.

Also, MAJOR ENDING SPOILER:

Spoiler

I did not like how the book tied together slasher films and mass shootings in its ending. The nearly school-aged children using automatic rifles for glory...

It made a point, but not an insightful one IMO