sam <3

in theory, this book had the potential to be absolutely amazing but it didn't really live up to that. as much as i liked logan and her dads (ashley was annoying), i couldn't connect to any of the characters and found most of them awful. this book was just underwhelming and even the romance felt rushed. i did like the writing but that is not enough to carry a whole ass book. the mystery was...aight but i didn't exactly have my panties in a twist. i liked how easy to read this was tho. and at least i got some dilf action so not everything's doomed lmao.

i mean...i liked it and i didn't??? it did follow a lot of typical thriller tropes as KMM's books often do and I didn't find this particularly thrilling but it was still good. it won't go down in history as the best thriller to ever grace the ya genre though and the big reveal was really underwhelming. but i have to say i do like KMM's humor a lot. and the characters were cute. it is definitely unconventional in its own way. i really didn't see the point of the allison pov & think that it took away from the story but if you like character focused thrillers (aubrey was my favorite), you can give this a try. don't really have a lot to say about this one other than that. 

This is Kara Thomas' best work yet. She is truly such a versatile author.
In case it isn't clear: I fucking loved this book. The twists & turns kept on the edge of my seat the whole time (tho I can see how people might dislike that particular one but, for me, it just made me laugh). It took such wild directions. It was fucked up & so not what I was expecting, like, at all. The twists are literally jaw-dropping. Okay, maybe not literally but you get my point.
Sure, Clary was kind of annoying sometimes (more on that later), but I can't deny how good this was. 
This was also much darker than I expected it to be which I loved (also unexpectedly). But some parts actually made me sad. Check out the trigger warnings before going in because it deals with some serious topics.
This book is so binge-able & I wasn't bored for a second. It is full of such raw emotion. Also, I love Thomas' writing so much. The pacing, too, was amazing. I couldn't stop reading it.
Btw I did not love the romantic subplot at all. Like, why.
Now coming to the reason I didn't rate this a full five stars.
I did not like the way depression was treated in this book. First if all, when it is suggested that Jesse may be depressed, Claire vehemently denies it which pisses me off. You can't tell just by looking at someone if they are struggling. Mental illness isn't always visible on people's faces. Also, I hated how depression was villainized in this book. It is heavily implied that Jesse killed Kat because he was depressed. Which is just a terrible thing to put in a book. Of course, that doesn't actually end up being true but I did not like how Claire did nothing to deny that and instead, kind of played into it. 
For me personally, I can overlook that blip & still love this book but to each their own. 

I really, really enjoyed this book. I devoured it in a blink. The characters were well-fleshed out (though there were one too many conflicts for my liking), the writing was really digestible and at times, profound, and I just had a fun time.
Sure, it was predictable and pretty standard YA but I need just that sometimes. Also, Tash is asexual!!! Even though she is not where I am on the spectrum, I still loved the representation. Even apart from that, this gets brownie points for ALL the representation. It is quite a diverse story in all spheres.
None of the characters were too likable, which is fine, because I don't like saints anyway. This also deals with some heavy topics so check out the content warnings in case you are bothered by that. I really enjoyed the Unhappy Families parts of this book, which was A LOT. All in all, a pretty solid read!