This was an odd book, and it's really really hard to review without spoilers so I'll probably keep this one short.

Listen, the ~Lolita~esque premise of the book is problematic. There's no getting around it. The author tries to cloak it in shame, but the attempt feels pretty half-hearted honestly and he kind of gives up partway through. So if that's something you can't get over, I'd encourage you not to even bother picking this up because you'll hate it.

So my two-star rating is based on a slew of problems I had with this book:

Problem #1: see above lol. Aside from the obvious, I also find Nola and Harry's "relationship" [this is NOT what it is] so problematic because it's kind of unnecessary! This scandalousness is obviously intentional, but I feel the relationship could've been different and still served its purpose in the plot. Like for instance, what if Nola had been an adult, but married? Or there'd been some other barrier preventing them from being together that had nothing to do with age?? I'm frustrated by this because I think the provocativeness took away from what could've been a really intriguing mystery.

Problem #2: The pacing!! This book was SOOOO slow and way way too long. EDIT, JOËL. 800 pages was too many, and there were so many interactions that dragged and moments of boredom.

Problem #3: Too many characters, my head was spinning trying to keep them and all their relationships to each other straight. And as a 3b, a lot of the characters were somewhat unbelievable, both in their actions and dialogue.

For example, NO ONE fact-checked Marcus' book and found a really glaring problem? The police officer just let Marcus tag along and full-on interrogate suspects???

Mmmmm...

Problem #4: Dare I say too many twists? Listen, I love a good twisty thriller. But in the second half of the book as the hits just kept on coming, I honestly got a little worn out. There were definitely some really great jaw-droppers—

Nola's mother being dead was certainly my favorite, even as it came on the heels of the kind-of-unbelievable plot point of no one fact-checking Marcus' book—

but there is a limit to how many red herrings you can reasonably add before it becomes tiresome.

This book certainly has flaws, not even limited to the above. "But Kathy," you argue,"then what's up with that second star??" For all its flaws, I still saw a lot of potential in the construction of the story... there were some seriously great twists and reveals, and with better pacing and execution I think this could've been an entirely different book! I didn't think it was *bad* per say, but the flaws really overwhelmed any potential greatness from shining through.

Remember when I said this review would be short lol.