When I tell you that this book is dark, I am not kidding around. Glenn Maynard has created a story about characters who are all, for various reasons, at battle with their inner demons. Whether it is because of a past trauma, the need for medication that is being ignored, or the need to manipulate others for self validation, each one of them has something that they need to tackle. Or rather, that they refuse to tackle. Because instead they all lean into the worst parts of themselves, and the result is a story that was fascinating and wholly uncomfortable in equal measures.

As always, I’ll start with the things that I enjoyed about this book. First, I have to say that the characters that Maynard has written are well fleshed out. Although I loathed Troy with all of my being, I could also understand his motives at first. It was much appreciated that Troy’s descent wasn’t based entirely on his familial history. Instead there are actual events that slowly pile on top of one another. His back story is a tragic one, and it’s really no wonder that he ends up pushed into a space he was previously attempting so hard to avoid.

The writing is this book is also really solid, with the exception of the very start of it which was a bit a rocky. The dialogue felt especially realistic, chatroom conversations included, which was something that I thought added a lot to this story. These portions were a great way to get into the minds of the characters. The inner monologues of Veronica were the most chilling to me. I felt myself shrinking away from the idea that her and Troy would have to meet at some point. Both of them were such a mess that I knew it would be a disaster. Oh, how right I was.

In terms of what was a miss for me in this book, it was honestly the manic pace of the events. As I said above, I really disliked Troy pretty much the entire length of the story. I felt like it was hard to get into to his head after a certain point, and his actions felt more like a means to add sensationalism than true decisions. By the time that the ending approached, I was finally able to catch up again. In fact, the ending was rather satisfying. That made me a happy reader. So I’m more than willing to give this a solid 3-star rating.