With clear, engaging writing and two conflicting protagonists, this book started off strong and just got stronger. The POV sisters' personalities are distinct and equally engaging in different ways: hardass Autumn and nerd Ivy are sisters that went in opposite directions after their mother died and their father fell apart. Ivy has friends and benign interests; Autumn has underlings and a side-hustle selling drugs to her classmates.
Autumn comes across as tough, but Tate does a magnificent job of establishing her sympathetic motivations and some hints that she's got both a heart and a strong moral compass. She was complex from the start, and Ivy, a more typical YA protagonist, seemed at first like she couldn't compete. But Ivy's equally incisive observations of the high school world and her place in it made her just as exciting to follow, even if she wasn't evading cops and snitches. Though their bond is fractured and contentious, I desperately want to see these two come together and solve the case of Autumn's disappearance.
Autumn comes across as tough, but Tate does a magnificent job of establishing her sympathetic motivations and some hints that she's got both a heart and a strong moral compass. She was complex from the start, and Ivy, a more typical YA protagonist, seemed at first like she couldn't compete. But Ivy's equally incisive observations of the high school world and her place in it made her just as exciting to follow, even if she wasn't evading cops and snitches. Though their bond is fractured and contentious, I desperately want to see these two come together and solve the case of Autumn's disappearance.