There's no other way around this...this book just made me sad. It was the very opposite of uplifting; instead of giving hope to those who suffer from apathy or depression, it seemed to highlight the very worst of the disease while offering no relief. Alright, so the ending was somewhat hopeful, but it wasn't cheerful enough for me. I felt that the entire story had a downcast undertone and it was not a happy summer story.
Boring. Boring, boring, boring. I feel
terrible about having no empathy for the main character, who is depressed and
suicidal and just overall miserable. But he is a flat character with little to
no personality. His disease seems to define him in this story, along with his
obsession with saving his sister, who was kicked out of the house. Ironically,
he seems outraged on her behalf, but even though he is abused by his parents as
well, it doesn’t occur to him to get help. He merely spends his time obsessing
over a girl who already has a boyfriend. It’s cringe-worthy. Plus, the writing
style is amateurish. While the author may have been aiming to mimic the thought
process of teenagers, he fell short with his fragmented sentences and excessive
exclamation points. Even worse are the side characters. The protagonist’s
sister was kicked out of school and there is originally a sense of mystery
around it. The author sets it up to seem like a larger conspiracy, only for the
reader to find out that there was no bigger story. It was disappointing. There
was potential for the story to improve with the introduction of Dr. Bird, an
imaginary psychiatrist. However, the bird does very little and doesn’t seem to
matter much in the bigger picture. I just kept having my hopes raised every
once in a while, only for them to be dashed. Maybe I prefer stories with happy
endings, and the slightly optimistic ending here wasn’t good enough for me.
Either way, I found the story to be the very opposite of uplifting, and not a
worthwhile read.
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