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A review by melbsreads
Blood on My Hands by Todd Strasser
2.0
Trigger warnings: murder, parental abuse, bullying.
Oh jeez. This sounded like it was going to be a pretty intriguing YA thriller, albeit slightly Christopher Pike adjacent. Buuuut it was basically a big ol' hot mess.
- Callie is frustratingly dense. Like...GIRL. If you already look guilty, you're gonna look ten thousand times more guilty if you spend multiple days hiding from the police.
- The romantic relationship. Like...a kid who's still in middle school dating a sophomore? ICK. Hard pass. And even by the time the events in the book take place, he's 19 and in the National Guard and she's 16. No thank you please.
- The whole subplot with her brother being in jail for attacking their father was...really poorly explained.
- There was insufficient demonstration that the narrative was switching from the present to the past. Half the time, I was like "Wait, she's meant to be on the run. Why is she suddenly talking to Mia?? Ohhh. Flashback."
- I just didn't give a shit about who killed Katherine because she was a stone cold bitch.
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- Honestly, if this has ended any other way, I might have given it 3 stars. But it didn't.
- 2 stars because at least it was fast paced.
Oh jeez. This sounded like it was going to be a pretty intriguing YA thriller, albeit slightly Christopher Pike adjacent. Buuuut it was basically a big ol' hot mess.
- Callie is frustratingly dense. Like...GIRL. If you already look guilty, you're gonna look ten thousand times more guilty if you spend multiple days hiding from the police.
- The romantic relationship. Like...a kid who's still in middle school dating a sophomore? ICK. Hard pass. And even by the time the events in the book take place, he's 19 and in the National Guard and she's 16. No thank you please.
- The whole subplot with her brother being in jail for attacking their father was...really poorly explained.
- There was insufficient demonstration that the narrative was switching from the present to the past. Half the time, I was like "Wait, she's meant to be on the run. Why is she suddenly talking to Mia?? Ohhh. Flashback."
- I just didn't give a shit about who killed Katherine because she was a stone cold bitch.
-
Spoiler
The big reveal that Katherine was being a stone cold bitch because she was a lesbian who was in love with Callie and was trying to get her hetero ass to have WLW feelings was FUCKING STUPID. SO FUCKING STUPID. Not to mention rage inducing.-
Spoiler
Speaking of, the whole thing with Dakota being like "I made Slade murder Katherine because I had lesbian feelings for her and I figured if she was dead, I'd stop liking girls" thing was BULLSHIT, especially because she was all "Slade was super hot and I was sexually attracted to him so I banged him a bunch of times". Girl. If you're sexually attracted to a dude and you act on that attraction multiple times? You ain't a lesbian. You bi. But of course we can't mention the word "bisexuality" no no no no no- Honestly, if this has ended any other way, I might have given it 3 stars. But it didn't.
- 2 stars because at least it was fast paced.