what I expected from this book: female friendship, strong setting, introspection, character development
what I got: stereotypes, a boring romance, weird pacing, too much telling & not enough showing

I'll admit, the beginning did hook me: this book is easy to read and easy to get drawn into. It just lacks substance and follow through.
Two of the main characters, Spider and Meredith, are extremely condescending because they're smarter than everyone else around, apparently. One of the other girls, Britta, immediately got labelled annoying for? no reason?? as far as I could tell??? For the entire duration of the book, Spider makes snarky, mean, uncalled for comments about Britta (and a lot of other people), and honestly, if I were there, I would have thrown the first punch. Just reading through the comments I highlighted makes me mad again. Meredith is a nerd and "not like other girls," and she learns to like herself and questions everything she worked for because..... a boy falls in love with her. Over the course of two weeks. None of which are really shown to the reader, by the way- it kinda goes first date now, confession of love next chapter.
For some unknown reason, the pacing of this book is absolutely fucked- the first third of the book is just the first two days (day of arrival and day 1 at the cabin), and the entire 28 other day are squished into the other two thirds.
If you're thinking, hey, what about the fourth girl? I did too. Kate is rich, and that is her only character trait, and while Britta hides from or tries to appease ticking timebomb Spider, Meredith sneaks out with her townie bf, and grandma Ruthie, idk, just sits in her room I guess, she starts babysitting a kid she ran into at the grocery store. I guess her development is supposed to mirror the kid's family's- not everyone is out to hurt you, accept help when it's offered- but it's jus told to the reader, rather than shown, which makes it incredibly unimpactful and forgettable. I liked the little subplot with her boyfriend, and I think it would have been great for the book if Kate had gotten to interact with the other girls more than twice. Especially some conversations with Meredith about living up to your parents' expectations vs. following your own interests would have been interesting.... but alas.
The other thing that annoyed me was that Britta didn't really even get a plotline? All she did was hang out with Spider and try to make her not hate her. Which I'm disappointed in, because I thought they author was setting her storyline up to mirror Ruthie's life, in more ways than one, which I would have loved to read about. Why include a character if you're not going to develop it. There was no follow-through on things that were introduced early in the book, no fun banter, no! freaking! character development- the girls literally hang out together once all summer and decide that they're "all getting along now" and are bffs 4 lyfe with absolutely no buildup or believability. And Spider is still a bitch at the end.
I don't know what I'm supposed to take from this book, I really don't.