bumblebee's reviews
134 reviews

I really wanted to love this book, but I just didn't. I was really excited by the premise and I loved the tag line, so it took me by surprise when even after a hundred pages I still just didn't vibe with any part of it.

The writing is okay, there is some pretty interesting worldbuilding, and overall it's a serviceable story, but nothing in the book really grabbed me. I didn't find the characters compelling, and most of them felt pretty one-dimensional. I never found myself caring about any of them, and the characters didn't come across as convincingly competent enough to actually solve a murder mystery either, all of which made it difficult to be invested in the plot.

The mystery itself also wasn't that interesting to me, in part because I just didn't feel a reason to be invested, and the solution felt pretty obvious quite early on, though the exact how and why kept me just interested enough to keep me going and not DNF this book. The fact that the last part of the book has about 10-20 pages total outlining the villain's plan (TWICE!!! in TWO different monologues!!!!!) didn't really speak to the overall quality of the mystery, in my opinion. The fact that it literally had to be explained twice from different perspectives was kind of boring to read, and I had to actively stop myself from skimming the second explanation because I wanted to give the book a chance even though I just didn't care for it. 

I also feel like this book doesn't really know what to do with the concept of romance. At times, I felt like I was reading a TV drama rather than a mystery novel, but none of it really went anywhere in the end, and none of it interested me either. Maybe it was an attempt to give characters more depth, but it fell flat for me.

The one thing I think this book did very well was disability representation. I really liked how the main character's fibromyalgia existed throughout the story, and her struggles with this felt realistic and well balanced. I really appreciate that there was never a moment where her disability was sidelined for the sake of convenience for the plot, which I've seen other stories do. All this alone makes it impossible for me to rate this book lower than three stars, even though it's pretty much the only thing I 100% liked.

Overall, I'd say it's fair to give this book a chance if it seems interesting to you, but I personally won't be recommending it to anyone.

I am Fine. I am Normal. And I have Very Calm Opinions about whatever the FUCk brandon does in the last 30 pages of his books. (i enjoyed mistborn)

revisit this sometime when i’m not suffering from seasonal depression