A really entertaining high school detective novel. Yes, it might be a tiny bit preachy at times, but it's heart is in exactly the right place. The plot is gripping, the characters are vivid and either likeable or hateable as appropriate and the prose crackles. Loved it. ( )

I find Wendig's prose entirely too aggressive to allow me to get enjoy the story. ( )

There is a lot to unpack here. Let's start with two percent of the way through the ebook, where a character of color's skin is described with food terms. Then, self-conscious (but don't worry, fully benign!) racism on the part of the main character, then the graphic description of a sexual assault. And it just. Kept getting worse and worse. The fact that it ends with a LITERAL IT GETS BETTER VIDEO IN THE TEXT was. Too much for me.

I'm not sure if this book is listed as YA on this site due to a bunch of bad tagging (which happens!) but it's wildly graphic and I would have to really know a kid to recommend they read it, and even then I don't know that I would.

It was just too much and kept getting worse and worse, until I was left like. Stunned by the ending because it seemed so surreal and like a joke. I understand this book was written probably with good intentions, but it was just. So bad. ( )

First things first, trigger warnings all over this book. Please be very careful with yourself if you can be triggered by sexual assault, child abuse, abuse toward a gay teen, animal harm, suicide, racism of the neo-Nazi variety. There were so many times in this book where I just plain hurt and had to stop reading in shock and horror. So. That is a thing.

Now, the book. Atlanta went through some hard stuff, went away, and now she's back and she's--of course because this is high school--outcast. She eventually makes friends with Shane (the nerd) and Chris (a member of the "Cozy Nostra," as he says). Shane was hurt, he hopes she can help him, and she does. So there we go, and this is why reviewers compare this book to VMars. The spoilers pretty much tell you what happened.

My 2.5/5 star rating is because there was barely a second of happiness in this book and there was no trade-off to make that worth it to me. Wendig's a good damn writer, otherwise I would have tapped out almost immediately, but I trusted him to take me through this story.

Now, a thing about suicide, as mentioned in the book, that I will put under a spoiler cut, not because it is a spoiler but because it could be triggery. The entire world needs to cut the shit with this "suicide is selfish" and it "lets the bullies win" crap. Don't put that sort of guilt on someone suicidal. Just don't. You won't be helping them and you may be harming.

Provided by publisher. ( )

This is one of those books that I despised so much I couldn't even put my thoughts about why into words to formulate a review. ( )