Mandafofanda Reads Lots

I'm actually surprised at how much I loved this book. While I saw in most other reviews that it took a while for readers to warm to Dani's character, I loved her right off the bat. She's snarky, a smart-aleck and has a bit of a morbid and abusive sense of humour, and I found a lot of myself in her. It's funny how many times you'll see this type of male character in a book, but never as a girl, so this was really refreshing.

One aspect that I loved about this book, is that I felt that there wasn't any over-sentimentality or overt sadness to the book. But it is sad, and I did cry, because of how much raw pain, anger, guilt and helplessness I could sense hiding underneath all the brashness. When you meet Dani at the beginning of the story, she's already acting out and being truly despicable, but as the story progresses, I felt that I could really understand her as a person. At it's core, this is a book about a broken sisterly relationship.

Just a quick note: I feel that the cover is a bit too dreamy and melodramatic to fit the overall tone of the book and I wish it had more bite to it. To be honest, I'm not crazy about the title either, but I guess this can be one of those hidden gem things.

I don't think this is a book that everyone will love. But there's a brutal honesty to it, it's beautifully written and I would highly recommend it.