Reviews

My Rating: 3.5 rounded down to 3⭐️⭐️⭐️ this is a sad story, that is written well and weighs on your heart.

A dysfunctional family in the seedy wilds of 1990s Florida, C.C is the youngest and she has a decision to make - save her family or save herself.

C.C’s father is a salesman/conman who is making money by any means possible, he is also a drunk so he is spending money they don’t have. C.C’s mother is 35 going on 17 a housewife who just wants pretty things and to be told she is beautiful and hang out at the mall.

C.C’s older sister experiences a traumatic event which changes her from being sweet and quiet to having a full blown drug addiction and only listening to heavy metal.

In the midst of all this C.C is trying to stay afloat… she loves her family and she wants to be everything to everyone which is a hard task for a young child who knows no different. Can she get out of the dysfunctional cycle of this family and ever make something of her life that belongs to her…

This is a sad story that weighs on your heart… it is not the saddest book I have read but it definitely points out the “baddies” of families. They are not all beating their kids and assaulting them after dark (although TW there is mention of assault) to be causing emotional damage. The behaviour that the adults in this book display are despicable and they help shape the people that C.C and her sister become.

C.C is caught in the middle of everyone’s world she wants to save her family keep them together and be there for them even when they treat her poorly… she knows no different.

Told in multiple timelines going from present day to various timelines when C.C was growing up we see the dysfunction and emotional abuse get worse and worse as the book goes on. C.C survives on her learned behaviour and is barely getting by.

In the present day she is marrying a man who she thinks is the smartest man alive because he has school smarts… but to me while he treats her fairly well… the respect is not there for her as a person. His family are rich snobs and it is just another way for C.C to feel shitty about herself and her life.

There are no winners in this story… the mother is a real asshole, the dad is a loser and C.C’s sister is lost with perhaps no way of getting her back. Even the secondary characters are terrible people. I think C.C is the best character and you want her to survive, you want her to win and you want her to do well… it seems almost impossible that, that will happen though.

Overall - My 3.5 star rating is not bad, it is just in comparison to other stories I have read like this, it didn’t hit me as hard. The writing is still very good and I liked it.

I recommend this to some people probably not all my friends (Pink I am looking at you hehehe). It is a shortie clocking in under 300 pages so I read it in a few hours. It is not an uplifting coming of age story rather a cold hard look at living life on the verge of losing it all, all of the time. And just doing your best to get through the day.

monazaneefer's review

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Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Format: Audible

I began this book with a lot of enthusiasm because it reminded me The Glass Castle: the memoir-esque writing style and the coming-of-age themes. Regardless of my low rating, I have to say the writing style was admirable and lovely. A lot of the descriptions were symbols and similes that I’d never have thought of (albeit it not being out of this world) yet it fit so impeccably and perfectly to evoke the characters’ emotions.

However, my issue with this book is it felt very bad staccato. I couldn’t quite understand the characters’ motives. The cause and effect of their behaviour felt like a stretch or under developed. It made it hard to find them realistic or people I could connect to. This and the realisation that this story was heading nowhere - no poignancy, no circle, no revelation - made me speed up the latter half of this novel and that’s why saying I’ve read this feels like a cheat. I have but for the sake of finishing it.

Another problem I had with this book, and observed it better when I read a few reviews, was the passivity of these characters. When you conflate the disjointed feel of this novel and less engaging characters, it’s of course difficult to feel anything deep. This is what Bronte did well with Villette: how despise her protagonist being passive, we still gather her emotions through the surroundings. That is different between the type of passive narratives I enjoy.

kaylaaromigg's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

rachelreadsdaily's review

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Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this novel, but I can definitely say I didn't get it. I listened to the audiobook and while the narration was good, this book didn't really have any redeeming quality. It was one series of tragic circumstance after another without anything positive in between. I found this story heartbreaking, tragic, and depressive. I stuck it out hoping for some wonderful conclusion at the end, but that was not the case either. While I can have empathy for CC and her life that is filled with one crappy situation after another, this book felt like nothing more than consistent doom and gloom with no sunshine at all.

Content Warnings

manicmawma_'s review

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

hazel_oat's review against another edition

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5.0

i put off reading this for ages because i read a spate of 2-star books and was tired of slogging my way through them. i figured this one would be another mediocre 2-star, but i was extremely surprised when i devoured this in just one day!

imo the best thing about the book is that the narrator is wonderful. the book feels very quiet and calm throughout, tackling hard-hitting (and quite frankly, obscenely fucked up) issues while still moving at a steady pace. you never feel overwhelmed with information and you're never tapping your foot trying to get through a chapter. it's the goldilocks of books, lmao.

thank you to random house publishing group for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review!

hannahga's review

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adventurous hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.25

I really liked this! It reminded me a lot of demon copperhead in tone and theme, but a little lighter and girl version lol. It deals with family and how our upbringing can make it difficult to feel understood or able to truly relate with others and the world around us. It touches on the responsibility towards family and the difficulty (or impossibility) of setting healthy boundaries. It exposes the class disconnect and the shame or embarrassment of simply not having the same access or opportunities as your peers. And it shows how when faced with adversity, self preservation and stress responses can completely take over - for better or worse.

Also really enjoyed the little orange and harp pictures at the start of each chapter, indicating where we were in time.

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