a lot of spoilers ahead, beware:

I don’t really review books I DNF on principle (unless I am forced to because of an ARC obligation or something) so I pushed through this one to the end just so I could give an honest review on it. I think I was hoping it would get better…but…

*blows out a huff of breathe*
Where to start? I’m not sure how (or if) I can put this delicately/without a hint of anger…

Do I begin with how cringe I felt reading about a 12 y/o being attracted to a 17 y/o? Or maybe the suggestion of faking the death of a child to fool her parents so Sophie could essentially run away to a magical realm? Possibly LICKING LOCKERS to gain entrance instead of something like, idk, a combination. Not everything has to be odd and unique. Because that’s just gross.

I think what honestly really tipped me over was the way Sophie treated the memory of her family after she ran away. “That’s the guy who raised me” Sophie said harshly after someone mentioned her FATHER. That man DID raised you, girl, being none the wiser to you being anything but HIS DAUGHTER. AND! — she was very quick to leave them in the lurch and allow some league to alter their memory. I’m appalled to say the least. They raised her with love and that’s how she treats them? As a mother this bothers me a lot. Blood relation isn’t always what makes a person a parent and this just sh*ts on adoptive/IVF parents, and what makes it worse is they didn’t know they were raising a child who wasn’t *technically* theirs. So: rude, Sophie. And also callous. (And yes I realize she’s a donor baby but her human mother still carried her, or so I’ve gathered from that whole weird scene, and yeah Sophie deserves to know who her donor parents are, but it all just felt so heartless on Sophie’s end.) AND! — her “caring” towards the end of the book felt really out-of-character and a bit insincere after an entire book of her *not* caring.

*sigh*
I made a lot of in-real-time updates on here as I read it, I think those truly explain my feelings. I added them in the slides and they are spoiler-filled. Pinch-to-zoom if you care to read all my mini rants.

AAND! — are we just never going to talk about how she was PULLING HER EYELASHES OUT as a nervous habit?! You can’t just say things like that once and then never bring it up again!

I can’t even say I liked the bones of this story because I was so put off. I’ve seen this book across booksta a lot lately and people rave about it, but this one I just don’t understand the hype for. At all.

Yikes.