Category: 2021 Books

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley, and I was very excited to read it. It was hyped as a modern day Thelma & Louise story integrating the #metoo movement. I’m all about girl power, so, like I said, very excited to dive in.

Now, I don’t know if the advanced reader copy I received had not gone through its final edits, but right from the start there were major continuity-type errors. The scenes would shift abruptly where a new chapter should be, but there were no chapters in the book. Like you will literally be reading one paragraph and in the very next paragraph, you are in different location. There isn’t even a gap to indicate a shift in time. The lack of chapters in books always makes it hard for me to read because it’s hard to find a stopping point, but this book desperately needed page breaks for it to even make sense.

The story, though, is super interesting. The girls find themselves on the run after Trixie, the main character/narrator, makes a snap decision. And in all honesty, what she does is completely justifiable self-defense. But, of course, when something traumatic happens, many people lose the ability to think clearly. While on the run, the girls meet some interesting people, but they are constantly running into problems. The major one being the lack of money. I don’t want to say too much here in case you choose to read it, so I’ll stop with that.

I did scan a few other reviews and the blurbs people wrote for the major retailers, and it seems that this is a “fast-paced, thrilling novel” according to them. It was definitely not that way to me. The book dragged, and I was bored through a lot of it.

The other part I have issues with is Trixie and Lux’s (the other main character) relationship. The author never really develops Lux since it is told through Trixie’s point of view. This was really hard for me as a reader because Trixie honestly felt obsessive and a bit possessive over Lux. The beginning of the book, Trixie makes it clear through her narration that she’s in love with Lux, but Lux sees them as friends (this opinion apparently changes, and it’s stated that Lux has always loved Trixie, but I just didn’t get that vibe from anything else that happened in the book). The idea of this being written with dual narrators would have been something I would have suggested if I were an editor.

All in all, I’m not mad I read the book. Like I said, the story was good. The execution of the story could have been much better. This is a book that I wouldn’t personally buy for my classroom, but if someone donated it, I would add it to my class library. Some people, who may be less critical than I am, would probably really enjoy this book.