If I’m being honest…..this was one of the most disappointing reads of the year for me.

(Get it? Because the title is If I’m Being Honest? Buh dum ch.)

It was just...unpleasant. Like, none of this read as even remotely realistic to me? Parents at large were crazy flat nothing-but-evil stereotypes (except at the end, when exactly one of them made a near-explanationless development 180).

And the “friends” from the beginning...who were soon very cruelly replaced with a Ragtag Group of Quirky Teens...what kind of friends??? Insanity City, party of this lunch table. If you want to build characters off of the mean-popular-girl stereotype then go off I guess, but things really fall apart when you try to make three of them friends with each other without giving them any more depth. And also they’re mean - plot twist - to each other, as well. Because, you know, friendship.

Sure. Why not.

I have never so completely NOT clicked with any characters. None of them made sense to me. The way that people interacted with each other was so stilted and unnatural.

Thought this was a contemporary, but honestly considering how much I don’t recognize the world, may as well be fantasy!!!

Except no world building.

I don’t want to talk about this anymore.

Bottom line: I did not care for this!!!

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cue the eternal sadness.

review to come / 2 stars

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not to be dramatic, but if i don't like this book everything is ruined and i'll be sad forever