This was very suspenseful. I was a little thrown off by some of the pacing. The inciting incident didn’t happen until Chapter 11 and once this occurred the pace picked up. There were some twists and turns that were unexpected but my main criticism is that there were so many unlikable characters. I didn’t want to root for anyone at times. The mean girls were super mean, the nice girls weren’t really actually nice. The one person I ended up liking I didn’t really get to know as well because we spend the majority of the book with characters who are mean or getting fooled by kind of nice characters who aren’t actually nice. Sometimes, I just really wanted to scream at Lia to call her mom. Why suffer at Draycott? Why deal with these fake rich people? (just being honest)

I felt like I needed one character that seemed more stable and wasn’t going to pull the rug out from under me… (We need a Ron Weasley). I personally needed an anchor in the tumultuous sea…anything really…even a Neville will do. I felt Lia’s pain and suffering. She had a lot of depth as a character but many times seemed to be an anti-hero. Bad decisions were had by all. Very bad decisions. Yes, teens make mistakes but these mistakes were ruin your whole future sort of mistakes. I’m glad this wasn’t one of those books that put me on a rollercoaster just drop me off at fairytale land and be happily ever after. The ending was realistic. I didn’t like it, but I’m also grateful for it. Overall, I’m conflicted. It was good, but I’m not sure I enjoyed it.

For any teachers out there, there are curse words, drugs/drug dealing, and major bullying in this book.