bethbarron's reviews
477 reviews

Thank you to Netgalley & Macmillan for the audio-arc! 

The plot follows a group of teens who try to locate Shara Wheeler (that they all kissed recently) through a series of clues left by Shara.

I appreciated the setting - Alabama, somewhat religious admin at a high school - and the development of queer teens throughout their time at high school. The first 2/3 made me think of As Simple As Snow by Gregory Galloway.

When Chloe, the main character, finds Shara, I almost put the book down. It was anticlimactic given the tension/mystery that was built up.

The last third, however, really came out of left field and was interesting. All in all, I love Casey McQuiston's work, but this wasn't my favorite. Give their other stuff a try, though!

Gosh this was hard to read because of the subject matter: Corrupt cops, white supremacists, brutal murders and countless lynchings, and JFK conspiracies. 

But..good? I'm not sure how I feel about someone using racial slurs, but it captured the evilness of the characters. 

This was easy to read in the sense that the action was quick, but it contained a lot of abuse and violence that were hard to stomach. 

V thankful for the highlight on endo, though. Menstrual abnormalities and struggles are not discussed enough. 

I read audio and print together. Audio is missing some dialogue and has a handful of things mixed up from the final text, but still a fun "read-along" experience.

Super interesting, dystopian in the same way as the hunger games, but a little bit more expansive and thought out. There were a few parts that were hard for me to wrap my brain around from a setting perspective, but otherwise I enjoyed it

Read this along with Literacy Partners online which was a really wonderful experience.

This is a very difficult book to process due to its content, but a very necessary one.

This was really interesting and fun to read. There were parts toward the end where I thought they'd gotten the characters wrong, but that ended up being cleared up in the end, haha!

BRILLIANT.
Both the short story and the intro.
Absolutely brilliant.

Fascinating. 
If you read this, do read Passing by Nella Larson and The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.

Do not skip the historical note or authors notes at the end. 

This almost felt like a satire on the over-30 dating scene.

I didn't hate it but parts of it were so weird that it didn't land well. No real surprise at the end. 

If you go into it not being too serious about it, you may enjoy it. If you go into it thinking it's going to be the next great romance novel...you will be squarely disappointed.