Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsLovely writing, but thinner on plot
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2018
Good, but not great? There was a lot of hype around this one, but I didn't quite understand what made it so different than every other literary troubled-girl-coming-of-age narrative. I didn't feel like the past and present sections were evenly weighted, and that the New York chapters could have been more well-rounded. Give more than just a glimpse into Cat's continued depression and the impending meeting with Sal, which was a let down. I wanted it to dig deeper. There is some fine writing here, but it felt very textbook MFA stuff, not a huge amount of soul behind the sprawling similes and metaphors. Also, the time period threw me off. I assumed it was early 2000s given some of the clues (early days of Facebook being a major one, so I was thinking) but then, if the book is set in 2017 (no other indication of time is given) how is Cat almost in her mid 30s, if she was 15 in the Michigan chapters? Why do all of these teens have cell phones, when they were a rarity for teenagers until the 2010s? The video posted to YouTube means this takes place at least after 2005, but unless I'm missing something, it didn't quite add up. Given all the attention this got, I was hoping for it to be better. The realities of addiction in rural communities, and the strange beauty and draw of home were done well, but I think too much time was spent on musings, and too little was spent really diving into the characters.