Rating: 2.5/5
I received a copy through the group YA Buddy Readers’ Corner of goodreads in return for an honest review.
Summary: Anna’s home life is crap. Her parents are always screaming at each other and recently her father has turned his anger on her. Hiding bruises is a lot easier when you don’t have friends. Anna’s friend Mark notices when she comes to school with a bruise hidden under make-up and he tries to help her. The beatings at home are only getting worse, and without Slade there to protect Anna, she has no escape.
This book has a good story line filled with potential; however, the narrating and characters lack development. Anna felt like a stereotypical girl, all she wants is to gossip about celebrities with her friends and go to the formal. Which, there is nothing wrong with that, but it’s plain boring. She didn’t really seem to like her friends and I don’t think they talked about anything that wasn’t the formal. They never had a real conversation. Anna also didn’t seem to really like anything. I was hoping she would have a creative outlet to cope with what happens at home whether it be art, writing or whatever.
This book is told in multiple perspectives and while nice, they didn’t seem to bring in anything, we didn’t know from Anna’s perspective. There wasn’t any flow to them either. Anna is the main narrator, but we also hear from Mitch, Mark, Jemma, Miss Salasky and the constable randomly. There were also two points in the copy I had where it switched perspective in the middle of a block and it wasn’t bolded, so it was very confusing.
I think this story could be really good, but at this point it’s not there.