I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Rating ⭐
I was really excited for this one when I saw it on another blog because it sounded amazing - full of that fuck patriarchy vibe that I love. I requested it on NetGalley and only then saw that the publisher was Wattpad. Even so, I felt like this could be a diamond in the rough. The reviews were great so I gave it a chance.
Big mistake.
Here's the gist - our main character, Eden, is a reporter for her posh school's weekly newspaper. Nude photographs are anonymously emailed to the entire student body and she is ready to take on the story. Eden is repeatedly frustrated by the fact that the school is more about protecting their image instead of helping the young women impacted. Especially when the sender makes further threats in follow-up emails.
But that is exactly the problem because Eden is also not concerned about helping them. She is all about getting 'perspectives' of multiple people, and 'sources' to provide her with info. She's a pretty unlikable character and comes across as completely obsessed with one of the young women, Sloan, especially - mainly because Sloan won't talk to her about the story and repeatedly tells Eden to leave her alone. Yet Eden continues to chase after her, and even shows up at a support group type meeting that the young women formed for themselves when it is obvious the school is not going to do much of anything. Time and again they make it clear they don't want to talk to her, but Eden persists. It's obnoxious.
The book is not about the young women taking power back and fighting against the society that says they brought this on themselves by sending the photos to guys in the first place. It pretends to be, but it remains a book about Eden and her focus on getting the story. Everything else just happens around her.
I have spent some time thinking about the book could have such great reviews and I truly think it has to do purely with the subject matter. In theory, this is a book I should have LOVED. But there were far too many things that I can't overlook just because of said topic.
The writing is painfully juvenile and there is clearly a lack of professional editing. There were also these random inconsistencies that contradicted things stated previously. The conversations of supposed high schoolers were awkward and the train of thought inside Eden's head became almost unbearable. It was also repetitive and repetitive and repetitive.
Some examples...
- With every new character introduced, the main character made sure to say, "...a senior, like me." We get it, you're a senior. You're almost done with high school and you need a big story like this to help you for college. She also constantly comments on what everyone is wearing. But since they have school uniforms and everyone wears THE SAME FUCKING CLOTHES, this is also incredibly pointless and unnecessary.
- Around 7% there's a random comment about how people assumed Kolton was higher ranked at the paper than Ronnie, and I thought for sure I missed his intro. But I could not find it and we are actually introduced to him around 10%. Editing would catch mistakes like that.
- Around 17% the Eden referred to herself as "physically sick with jealousy" when she thought her ex could be the one behind it, and have all those photos of other girls. Again, poor writing/editing.
- Another major issue was the telling, with very little showing and just letting the scene play out. "Later, I was picking at my fries at lunch, entirely uninterested in eating them" (21%). Well, yes, picking at a food pretty much shows you are not interested in eating it. It could have gone without saying, but it didn't. This happens a lot.
- Around 94% the main character referred to the newspaper supervisor as her journalism teacher, even though she made it abundantly (and repeatedly) clear multiple times throughout the book that the newspaper supervisor literally knows nothing about journalism and has nothing to do with the paper except looking over the articles before they are published.
- A fantastic exampled of word salad fuckery: "Despite her appearance on the news, it would make sense for her to be cautious about being quoted in a newspaper run by the same school blatantly hurting her. There was nothing desirable about being interviewed by someone deemed untrustworthy. I understood, even though it was, in a way, me that she'd deemed untrustworthy" (71%). Also, no kidding. Sloan has been dodging Eden the entire book and Eden can't stop trying to get that interview.
- Another direct contradiction of her own words: "I was genuinely shocked word hadn't spread that there was a Slut Squad to begin with; all of the girls had kept their bonding entirely out of the public eye" (62%). Why the shock that no one knew, you JUST SAID THEY DID NOT HANG OUT TOGETHER IN PUBLIC.
- More obsession with Sloan: "My stomach dropped at the realization that she'd never had an issue with her name being attached to Nudegate; she just didn't want anything to do with me" (59%). I could not get over this idiotic statement. Shouldn't Eden's first clue to this have been the fact that Sloan is super open about her sexuality, but kept refusing to talk to Eden about it? For fuck's sake. Eden's obsession with Sloan was weird. The author kept forcing us to accept, based on Eden's word, that Sloan was critical to the story. Yet we never are told why.
- Lack of research or basic knowledge: Ronnie says she isn't worried about college admittance because, "...I've already sent my applications in for college. I'll be hearing back with, hopefully, early admission from a few schools" (58%). That's swell, except not possible. You can't actually apply for early admission to more than one school at a time. You can only apply early admission to the next school if you have been rejected from the one before it.
- "The fight wasn't all that physically violent, more verbal, but Luke was a little roughed up. Blood came out of Atticus's lip and nose" (46%). For the love of God, I hope this went through more editing before it was published. Also, "We exited the office feeling dejected and not speaking to one another (27%).
There's so much more in my notes, but I have to stop there and call it good. The concept was fantastic but readers deserve a better finished product than what I read in the ARC. And any victim of a heinous crime like this deserves MUCH better than this book.d not like i
