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skcoe's review
4.0
“This is not a story of bad things happening to bad girls.”
I will always love a story about obsessive friendship and girlhood. This book gives me that and something i’ve been desperate for in all other iterations of the toxic friendship narratives: both perspectives - that alone pushed this book to a four.
Teenage girls have a habit of seeing themselves as doomed protagonists, sometimes forgetting that the people in their lives exist outside of the role they play in theirs, and the relationship between Lacey and Dex explores that phenomenon beautifully.
I felt wholeheartedly connected to the the main characters, even when i hated them a little, especially with some of the feelings and experiences Lacey endured. The things that feel like the end of the world to one person can seem entirely trivial compared to the horrors of someone living a different life.
“Of course she turned out the way she did; she couldn’t have been any other way”
Girlhood is lying, love so intense it’s a string of enemies to friends to enemies to friends i hate you i love you never leave me fuck off i can’t live without you, and this book sets it to early 90s America, the rise of satanism and grunge. I honestly think this book might’ve been made for me.
“it was always another thing, being a girl”
I think most girls have felt like a Dex, or a Lacey, or a Nikki, and/or had one or multiple of them in their lives. These types of friendships delve into the obsession and devotion granted to each other in a space where you see each other 5+ times a week, in a boring town full of boring parents (who are never as oblivious as you think) and boring peers, convinced you’re the only ones who can see through it. The dangers that can come in a friendship like that, where someone is both life raft and ocean, is heart-wrenching and familiar and telling it through the lens of this unfolding tragedy packs a mean punch.
“you can love something and still understand it had ruined your life”
I will always love a story about obsessive friendship and girlhood. This book gives me that and something i’ve been desperate for in all other iterations of the toxic friendship narratives: both perspectives - that alone pushed this book to a four.
Teenage girls have a habit of seeing themselves as doomed protagonists, sometimes forgetting that the people in their lives exist outside of the role they play in theirs, and the relationship between Lacey and Dex explores that phenomenon beautifully.
I felt wholeheartedly connected to the the main characters, even when i hated them a little, especially with some of the feelings and experiences Lacey endured. The things that feel like the end of the world to one person can seem entirely trivial compared to the horrors of someone living a different life.
“Of course she turned out the way she did; she couldn’t have been any other way”
Girlhood is lying, love so intense it’s a string of enemies to friends to enemies to friends i hate you i love you never leave me fuck off i can’t live without you, and this book sets it to early 90s America, the rise of satanism and grunge. I honestly think this book might’ve been made for me.
“it was always another thing, being a girl”
I think most girls have felt like a Dex, or a Lacey, or a Nikki, and/or had one or multiple of them in their lives. These types of friendships delve into the obsession and devotion granted to each other in a space where you see each other 5+ times a week, in a boring town full of boring parents (who are never as oblivious as you think) and boring peers, convinced you’re the only ones who can see through it. The dangers that can come in a friendship like that, where someone is both life raft and ocean, is heart-wrenching and familiar and telling it through the lens of this unfolding tragedy packs a mean punch.
“you can love something and still understand it had ruined your life”
muhuhu's review
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
erica1994's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
caffeineaddict980's review
5.0
Remember how good it felt to burn.'
After the popular girl's boyfriend at school commits suicide and a new girl named Lacey arrives, Hannah Dexter finds her life changing forever.
Hannah and Lacey become best friends, rebelling as much as they can in their small town. Lacey transforms Hannah into a new version of herself named Dex.
A secret of Lacey's has been hidden for a while and could turn everything upside down.
This was a brilliant and intense YA thriller about intense and obsessive female friendships.
Favourite book I've read so far and has definitely made it's way up on my top books of the year list!
5 stars.
After the popular girl's boyfriend at school commits suicide and a new girl named Lacey arrives, Hannah Dexter finds her life changing forever.
Hannah and Lacey become best friends, rebelling as much as they can in their small town. Lacey transforms Hannah into a new version of herself named Dex.
A secret of Lacey's has been hidden for a while and could turn everything upside down.
This was a brilliant and intense YA thriller about intense and obsessive female friendships.
Favourite book I've read so far and has definitely made it's way up on my top books of the year list!
5 stars.
horfhorfhorf's review
2.0
This book is YA as told for grown-ups, complete with high school tropes that don't make sense and only sort of fit together.
90sinmyheart's review
3.0
3 stars for the plot, 5 stars for the true star of the book, the early 1990s
edepriest's review
3.0
I quite enjoyed reading this book. The prose was great, and I kept wanting to set aside what I was doing to read more of Wasserman’s interrogation of of female intimacies. As a teen of the 90s it also has a great nostalgia factor. I love that a book like this exists. But as the “mystery” at the heart of the story came into focus, and the friendship at its center continued, I found myself less willing to recommend it to others.