Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Punk 57

This book feels like something straight from Wattpad, written by some 15 year old girl who's never experienced anything vaguely romantic in her life. Not a single one of the characters is likeable (except for Manny, who honestly deserves so much better). Misha serves to remind me of why I am terrified of men. His theme song might as well be Norman fucking Rockwell by Lana Del Rey. And oh my god, I can not read another 'romance' where the characters just hate-fuck a couple times and decide they're in love without sharing even a single positive moment with each other. I can't do it. I'm going insane.

It's a shame, because I wanted to like this book. I'd heard mixed things, but from what I'd heard about the plot it sounded like something I would enjoy, or at least be interested in. I was not interested. I was either annoyed or outright bored for at least 75% of this book, and that's being generous.

I do want to give the dark romance genre another shot though, so if anyone has any recommendations that are not as god awful as this book, send them my way.

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ye_li's review against another edition

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This book had me fucking seething. I literally could not finish it, I was that fucking angry. I did end up skimming through to the end, and… like, holy shit? This book is fucking horrible??

To start with, almost every single fucking character was so 2D. A whiny, pathetic female lead that's "not like other girls" and a brooding male lead that's "tall, dark, and handsome." Every other female character was a mean girl stereotype, while every other male character was some douchy jock—with the exception of Ten and Manny. So, correction, every other male character was either a douchy jock of some flavor of queer stereotyping.

There was so much unnecessary homophobia with no relevance to the story, whatsoever. By the way, it's not directed at the main characters. I'll address that first because it bothered me so fucking much.

To start, there's this one part where Misha's truck was vandalized with white paint. Someone had written f@gg0t on the front. Most of the homophobia happens toward a minor character named Manny Cortez. Manny is used as a punching bag, just to make the main characters look better. Why is there so much homophobia thrown around with no relevant fucking reason? It's not adding anything to the story… Seriously, I was so fucking pissed off. Ryen only ever thinks about herself. Like, what? How can you be so self-centered?

It was so fucking uncomfortable.

I just could not stand Ryen. I found her so fucking pathetic and annoying. Like, c'mon, grow a fucking spine why don't you? Oh, boo-hoo, you didn't wanna go to prom alone, so you still tried to get with the misogynistic and homophobic asshole. Seriously? I gave up on trying to like her when she still put up with Trey, even after all his fucking bullshit. But, oh, she was still kind to so-and-so! Right, after she stood by and watched them have the shit beat out of them. No, she just didn't want to become a victim! She was trying to keep herself safe! And that's what's so fucking pathetic about her. She doesn't change by the end of the book, either… she still cares about appearances and shit.

I know most people hate Misha more, but I liked him more out of the two of them. Misha was more, I don't know, competent? He was still a prick, but at least he didn't try to cover it up, you know?

Oh, but, the whole thing with the principal, Trey's step-mom, actually being Misha's biological mother? Just fuck off. What a stupid fucking plot twist.

God, this book just made me so god damn uncomfortable and annoyed me to no end.

You could argue that, oh, they're not supposed to be likable! They're meant to be flawed, they're meant to be making bad decisions—blah, blah, blah. OK, fine, but there needs to be something likable about the main characters. Especially when the readers are clearly meant to empathize with them!!

I'm surprised I managed to read so much of this godawful thing.

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mllewellyn's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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nymphalis's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

Some things are so bad they're good... This is just straight up awful.
I'm surprised this was even published and it's getting this level of attention, it's straight up a bad fanfiction (and, for some perspective, most fan fictions I've read are way better).

It really tried to make a redemption arc for a bully that supported other violent bullies... Because she just was ✨ not like the other girls ✨ and had a deep dark bad boy love interest.
It's awful, the whole Manny forgiving her after her "boyfriend" Ripped his earlobe? I can't believe people don't see how wrong this book is...
Using the abuse of others to make a character arc? Ffs

I could write a 5 page essay about all the shameful tropes this book used, pretty much no character is redeemable, so much homophobia and misogyny it's disgusting.

Save your neurons and skip this one, even wattpad has better and less abusive stories (and definitely better smut)

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