This book was stressful and often irritating but I was also completely invested. The look at power dynamics and agency was interesting and was left appropriately unsettled and ambiguous. Alex is toxic and I wouldn't want anything to do with her in real life. But she's also a rather tragic character who clearly never experienced genuine love, romantically or platonically. She never really had a chance. In this way, she felt realistically infuriating and sympathetic. Also Emma Cline's prose is just really good.