Shine

one of the weirdest books i've ever read.
First of all, theres a character named Beef. Enough said.
The word ‘meth' is mentioned hundreds of times in this book, it started to not feel like a real word any more.
There were more slurs in this book than you hear when you step onto a Sydney train full of 13 year old boys.
Everyone in the book is on meth.

The romance was NOT needed. It was gross. He calls her the N word and a bunch of other slurs and she FALLS IN LOVE WITH HIM?!? and hes a college boy while shes 15 or 16. Dudes a weirdo.

This book is just one big PSA to not do drugs.
especially meth. The main character of this story wasn't Cat, it was meth. It was mentioned so much it might as well be the main character lmao

i grew up poor so i grew up around crackheads in my neighbourhood, its scary stuff.
I'm still poor but living in a slightly better neighbourhood but can still hear my neighbour yelling about the rising price of heroin.. Yeah lets just say that i will NEVER do drugs.


So in conclusion: DON'T DO DRUGS

Two stars seems harsh, but the Goodreads definition of 2 stars is “It was OK,” which is exactly how I would describe this book. I wanted to like it. Lauren Myracle seems very nice and she's very passionate about this book. It deals with important topics like hate crimes and sexual assault and meth. I don't like hate crimes or sexual assault or meth either, Lauren!! But this just seemed clunky to me, I suppose. The characters seemed like... elaborately cookie cutter'd? Like she knew she shouldn't have 2-dimensional characters so she deliberately gave each character a secret and/or flaw? And for me, none of it flowed together very well. But clearly a lot of teens are connecting with this book and I think where Shine succeeds the most is in capturing small town Southern life, which isn't where a ton of YA books are set these days.

This was one of the better books I read this fall. I loved the character of Cat and her determination to solve the mystery of her friend's brutal beating. I didn't really see the ending coming until it got closer so that is a positive. The revelation of the mystery was satisfying and believable. I also loved how Myracle described the setting and the cast of characters. A very enjoyable read.