EricaO

It took me a really looong time to get through this book. I read it during a phase of reading YA fiction with protagonists that were 13-15 years-old so I was fairly immersed in that point of view at that time. I felt the main character of this book did not have that voice, that 13-15 y/o stumbling through life voice. Actually, she didn't seem to have much of a personality at all, especially considering her circumstances. And that is why it took me so very long to finish the book; I was constantly irritated with the non-genuine-sounding teenage girl. I also did not enjoy the ridiculous amount of music and literature references; it felt like an extended book discussion.
To me, the story lacked warmth and accessibility. There were too many just-barely-out-of-date pop-culture references which made the author sound like he was trying to be all with-it but missed it by a month. I couldn't connect with any of the characters. It just didn't draw me in. Finally, toward the end, she became a little more tolerable, closer to a realistic character...or so I thought. Just when I stopped wanting to shut the book on her, she suddenly has a profound realization about life and its problems and the potential solutions. From there, her grand cliche epiphany starts showing up in every single chapter. Over and over to the point of hellfire-and-brimstone preachy-ness. I felt that perhaps the author had experienced grieving over a student who had committed suicide and this message is how he tells other teens not to follow that path? While he's not wrong, delivering the message on repeat in a short amount of time is not going to help anyone.
And what was with the anti-Christian sentiment? Apparently, all God-believers are sheep so while her comfort in classic rock vinyl is hip, comfort via faith is not. I'm not a Christian and I found this offensive.
The hypocrisy, the constant pop-culture references, the whole victim shpeil, it was all too much for my taste.
So why did I even bother finishing the book, you ask? Because I promised I would. And then I never told the person how I felt about it because he loved it so very much and I didn't have the energy to have that conversation; he's grown up a bit since so we could probably discuss it now.