I won this book through BookishFirst, and from the excerpt I read I thought I was going to love it... but I just didn’t. I read this book in one night, and it held my attention at first, but then I started skipping chunks of copy just hoping something—ANYTHING—would happen. Maybe I’m just too used to fast-paced thrillers, but this book is slow and not really thrilling, more a kind-of love story (but barely, since the two characters are literally too terrified of each other to do anything about it for more than half the book), with a weird secret government project thrown in for “tension,” I guess?
I’m not familiar with the Bright Sessions podcasts, so maybe that’s the problem, but I thought this book had a lot of dialogue that didn’t really go anywhere. Maybe that’s the point, with Caleb being an empath, he “feels” more than he speaks, but I felt like a lot of the book was two awkward guys trying to awkwardly find their way to one another, well, as awkwardly as they could. There was a lot of “stuttering” dialogue and incomplete conversations and longing glances (not to mention the constant reminders of how tortured and beautiful these young men are to one another), and again, maybe if you’re familiar with these two from the podcasts it would make sense. Honestly, I didn’t get any sense of a big twist, or anything else... and the payoff for reading was near the end?
I hate writing a review like this because I know the podcast is super successful and award-winning, and I’m sure there are legions of fans ready to tear me apart for positing this. But it just wasn’t my kind of book. I haven’t been a teenager in a long time (*sigh* ) and I couldn’t connect with it. I know Ms. Shippen will find success among her many loyal fans, and undoubtedly some new ones, but it wasn’t a book that connected with me. Much luck to her when the book drops—I am only one person, and based on the love for the podcast, I’m sure it’ll go far.
I’m not familiar with the Bright Sessions podcasts, so maybe that’s the problem, but I thought this book had a lot of dialogue that didn’t really go anywhere. Maybe that’s the point, with Caleb being an empath, he “feels” more than he speaks, but I felt like a lot of the book was two awkward guys trying to awkwardly find their way to one another, well, as awkwardly as they could. There was a lot of “stuttering” dialogue and incomplete conversations and longing glances (not to mention the constant reminders of how tortured and beautiful these young men are to one another), and again, maybe if you’re familiar with these two from the podcasts it would make sense. Honestly, I didn’t get any sense of a big twist, or anything else... and the payoff for reading was near the end?
I hate writing a review like this because I know the podcast is super successful and award-winning, and I’m sure there are legions of fans ready to tear me apart for positing this. But it just wasn’t my kind of book. I haven’t been a teenager in a long time (*sigh* ) and I couldn’t connect with it. I know Ms. Shippen will find success among her many loyal fans, and undoubtedly some new ones, but it wasn’t a book that connected with me. Much luck to her when the book drops—I am only one person, and based on the love for the podcast, I’m sure it’ll go far.