HelEinir's Books

This book started so well. I really enjoyed it up until 40-45 % in, then the characters ramblings started annoying me a little bit. They just went on and on about the same things and took forever to get to the point. It think the book could've easily been a hundred pages shorter if they hadn't circled back to the same things so much in their inner monologues.

Riley's self-pity party got old very fast, and it didn't help that she acknowledged what she was doing because she kept going on and on about the same thing over and over and over aaaaand over again (yes, that's how repetitive it got) and I just wanted to smack her sometimes. Still, she had some pretty badass moments and I appreciated that she genuinely cared about the other characters and did her best to help everyone.

I liked Max's POV, it was certainly more interesting and much less annoying than Riley's but his crush on Riley seemed a little bit forced to me. I just didn't feel the chemistry between them, even though, objectively, Max was a sweetheart and had his swoon-worthy moments. (It's that brain and wit of his, mostly.) Max was a very interesting character and I wouldn't have minded reading more about him without Riley in the picture.

Towards the end of the book I found myself having to seriously overlook several situations that could not have possibly happened in the real world and that made no sense. Just...no. Also, there's no way 100% of adults around you are that incompetent and moronic. I know that's a pretty common trend in YA books but it had never jumped out at me this way. From Riley and Max's mothers to the police, the doctors, the nurses, the killers... it was absurd.

All things considered though, this wasn't a terrible book. So two stars for giving me a good dose of gore and for Max's witty dialogue.