STORYTIME: I finished reading this book last February, but after going through the entire thing, I felt conflicted and disoriented. Hours and hours of thinking how I would rate this book. I didn't know what to feel about it, I was an empty shell of dissonant thoughts. Weeks later, in the Lord's own twisted ploy to settle my feelings for this book, I went with my brother to fetch someone from the airport. I had told him to borrow one of my books and read them should he gets bored. Lo and behold, he chose this! Funny how it turned out that it was me who read the book after he skimmed the first ten pages and told me he was bored already.

Now I realize that my re-read didn't elevate my satisfaction, didn't contribute another level of enjoyment. It was the same feeling when I read it last February. Some parts were horrifying (if gore is horrifying to you then maybe I used the right word) and creepy, while other fractions were unnecessary, confusing, and didn't make sense. The main twist was super predictable, but I did enjoy some of the dramas brought upon by the side characters.

Spoiler

Chloe was Nicky's half-sister because it was the reverend who impregnated Hannah and not Sean Cooper

.

Some people compare this to Stephen King's IT because it has dual timelines (1986 and 2016) and focuses on this small gang's relationship. I haven't read IT yet but I think this book does a good job portraying issues such as bullying, family dynamics, small town gossips, and building friendship and how it changes through time. I think I was left wanting more from these characters, for them to be fleshed out even more, but I guess I couldn't fault the author for lacking those elements considering the book's length. It's only 280 pages in my edition (I exclude the sneak peak of her next book). If that's your book length for whatever reasons, I guess it's hard to balance plot and characters, and I think the author focused more on plot which was fine but a double-edged sword in commercial standards. Some people don't like slow-paced thrillers, some people don't like the plot overpowering the characters. I totally see why people don't like it, and at the same time I see why people eat this book up.

As for me, I am in the middle. Or maybe I'm a little bit biased because Asa Butterfield (my baby but unfortunately he doesn't know) is one of the audiobook narrators. Yes, I guess that's it. My thirst was the main drive of my rating leaning to three stars, so take this rating with a big grain of salt.