Published by: Simon Pulse on May 15th, 2018
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 416
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
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Synopsis:
Eight friends. One game. A dozen regrets. And a night that will ruin them all, in this high stakes gripping story of manipulation and innocence lost, from the author of Bleed Like Me.
Chloe Sanders has wasted the better part of her junior year watching her best friend Eve turn away from her for the more interesting and popular Holly Reed. Living with her grandparents because her parents are currently serving as overseas volunteers, Chloe spends her days crushing on a dark-haired guy named Mateo, being mostly ignored by Eve and Holly, and wishing the cornfields of Iowa didn’t feel so incredibly lonely.
But shortly after spring break, a new girl transfers to her high school—Chloe Donnelly. This Chloe is bold and arty and instantly placed on a pedestal by Eve and Holly. Now suddenly everyone is referring to Chloe Sanders as “Other Chloe” and her social status plummets even more.
Until Chloe Donnelly introduces all her friends to a dangerous game: a girls vs. guys challenge that only has one rule—obtain information by any means necessary. All the warning bells are going off in Other Chloe’s head about the game, but she’s not about to commit social suicide by saying no to playing.
Turns out the game is more complicated than Other Chloe thinks. Chloe Donnelly hates to lose. She's got power over everyone—secrets she’s exploiting—and she likes to yank their strings. Only soft-spoken Mateo is sick of it, and when the game turns nasty, he chooses Other Chloe to help him expose everything Chloe Donnelly has done. But neither realize just how much the truth could cost them in the end.
Review:
I will read anything Christa writes. She is one of my auto-read/auto-buy authors and she has been ever since I read Fault Line several years ago. I was super excited to get my hands on this book. It looked dark, compelling and very character driven, which are all things that I enjoy in books and awhile I did enjoy parts of it, it wasn't as good as her previous books were.
The two biggest issues I had were: character development and pacing. There was character development, particularly for Chloe S., or "other Chloe" as she was nicknamed as well as character development for Mateo & Chloe Donnelly, but the other five players in this game called Gestapo? Yeah, not nearly enough character development. We learn their secrets because Chloe Donnelly learns their secrets, but I wanted so much more in the way of character development. Especially for Other Chloe's closest friends, Holly & Eve.
In a book like this one, character development for all the main players has to be the most import thing, but to have decent character development for only 3 out of the 8 players in this game was very disappointing to me. I felt like even Other Chloe's parents and grandparents were better fleshed out than Cam, Aiden, Holly, Eve & Josh were. I definitely didn't expect that and like I said, I desperately wanted more.
The pacing also really bothered me and to be honest, I felt like there was quite a bit that could have been removed from the book. Certain things that slowed the book down. In a book like this, I was expecting a fast paced book with not a lot of "filler" and that wasn't what I got with this book. Surprisingly, I don't feel like Other Chloe's romance with Mateo was filler. I freaking LOVED them together and the way the book ended, just tore up my insides.
Final thoughts: If there was a bit more character development and smoother pacing, I think I would have loved this book. I will still continue to read Christa Desir's books, but this one was not my favorite.
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