A special thank you to Tor Books for giving me an advance reader’s copy of this book to review.
I sped through the first 100 pages of this book with a glossy-eyed sugar fever. Meeting the characters, feeling the initial tension between Evie and Luc, being teased with government secrets…plus a near-miss apocalyptic world event…this is going to be so good!
Unfortunately, something went wrong soon thereafter. Pages dragged on and on with nothing happening – Luc goes to Evie’s house and…nothing happens! Evie talks to her mom and…nothing happens! There are some friends who are mad/sad/pretty…doing nothing. Even when girls at Evie’s school start to die, the way the scenes are written is so diluted with mundane thoughts and Evie’s endless stream of faceless friends that I found it difficult to engage.
The book also became incredibly formulaic: the “hot girl who doesn’t know she’s hot” with the protective single parent, the other-worldly attractive, broody guy who only has eyes for our Plain Jane, and reminders of how much tension there is (don’t you FEEL it?!) in nearly every scene.
At 366 pages, there’s just too much filler. If the book had been cut down to maybe 300 pages or so, this could have been delicious, guilty, quick read for book devourers.
I sped through the first 100 pages of this book with a glossy-eyed sugar fever. Meeting the characters, feeling the initial tension between Evie and Luc, being teased with government secrets…plus a near-miss apocalyptic world event…this is going to be so good!
Unfortunately, something went wrong soon thereafter. Pages dragged on and on with nothing happening – Luc goes to Evie’s house and…nothing happens! Evie talks to her mom and…nothing happens! There are some friends who are mad/sad/pretty…doing nothing. Even when girls at Evie’s school start to die, the way the scenes are written is so diluted with mundane thoughts and Evie’s endless stream of faceless friends that I found it difficult to engage.
The book also became incredibly formulaic: the “hot girl who doesn’t know she’s hot” with the protective single parent, the other-worldly attractive, broody guy who only has eyes for our Plain Jane, and reminders of how much tension there is (don’t you FEEL it?!) in nearly every scene.
At 366 pages, there’s just too much filler. If the book had been cut down to maybe 300 pages or so, this could have been delicious, guilty, quick read for book devourers.