don’t be fooled by the blithe, cheerful cover. the title and tagline pretty much sum up the basis of this book: toxic friendships.
i think the cover and synopsis of this book is misleading, because it gives off the impression that it’s solely based on hope and her point of view. it’s not. we also get to see the world from logan’s, her ex boyfriend, and daisy’s, logan’s current girlfriend, perspectives.
hope is on her way to malia, greece with the ‘lads’ for fun, partying and freedom. the book starts off with a lighthearted atmosphere, which is so contrasting to the rest of the book. i knew something bad would happen, though i wasn’t expecting such a dark turn to the story – it’s amazing how the author has managed to write in two very different tones for one story.
the book was divided into three parts for each character. whilst i enjoyed all the sections equally, i would’ve liked to have gone back to each viewpoint to see how the characters have all been coping with the different issues they have had to face.
this book touches on many every-day issues such as homophobia, peer pressure and lad culture, which i thought was important. the lad culture especially, as it plays a significant role throughout the book. it really shows how badly it affects how ‘lads’ act to women, those ‘different’ to them, and even themselves.
unfortunately, i found that this book is too informative. it has so much information and so many subplots with minimal development or description all squashed into less than 300 pages. there was a lot of telling instead of showing too; though we were informed of what was happening, not much of it was delved in to and built upon.
things were tied up rather brashly, leaving me with a few things i’m a little unclear about. most of the ending felt pretty rushed, but apart from that the story did reach a decent conclusion. it was just a bit disappointing that more action wasn’t taking place after the worrying events that occurred in this novel.
i feel like if this book was longer, a more satisfying ending would have been reached and i would have enjoyed this book even more than i did.