Book Review: Four-Letter Word by Christa Desir

Book Title & Author: Four-Letter Word by Christa Desir
Published by: Simon Pulse on May 15th, 2018
Genre: Contemporary
Pages: 416
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
🌟🌟🌟
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.

Book Review: Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson

Book Title: Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
Published by: Katherine Tegen Books on May 22nd, 2018
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 448
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
🌟🌟🌟🌟

A gripping, relentless, and timely new novel from critically acclaimed author of Allegedly, Tiffany D. Jackson, about the complex mystery of one teenage girl’s disappearance and the traumatic effects of the truth.

Monday Charles is missing, and only Claudia seems to notice. Claudia and Monday have always been inseparable—more sisters than friends. So when Monday doesn’t turn up for the first day of school, Claudia’s worried. When she doesn’t show for the second day, or second week, Claudia knows that something is wrong. Monday wouldn’t just leave her to endure tests and bullies alone. Not after last year’s rumors and not with her grades on the line. Now Claudia needs her best—and only—friend more than ever. But Monday’s mother refuses to give Claudia a straight answer, and Monday’s sister April is even less help.

As Claudia digs deeper into her friend’s disappearance, she discovers that no one seems to remember the last time they saw Monday. How can a teenage girl just vanish without anyone noticing that she’s gone?

Review: I fell head over heels in love with Allegedly last year, so I couldn't wait to read Jackson's newest release. I originally didn't even have it on my schedule for March, but when a fellow blogger raved about it, I asked her if I should move it to my March TBR and she told me I should. So I did. I don't generally do things other people tell me to, but I trust this blogger's opinion and she knows me & my tastes.

Quite honestly, I struggled with this one at first. I was prepared to feel sympathy for Claudia and anger at Monday who seemed to have vanished from Claudia's life, but I couldn't feel those things. Claudia drove me absolutely bananas and I kept wanting her to stop clinging to Monday. I actually felt sorrier for Monday because she had a bad home life and she had a needy clingy best friend. I understood Monday just a bit more than I understood Claudia. I had been in Monday's shoes with the clingy best friend and it was not easy at all and I always felt frustrated with her because I never felt like I could do my own thing. So to have Monday just vanish from Claudia's life sounds harsh, but I would have given anything to be able to do that.

Claudia was desperate to be anywhere that Monday was going to be and that extended to high school. Monday wanted to go to Banneker, so of course Claudia wanted to go there. Even if that meant continuing to cheat on her assignments. Now, I'm not gonna say I never cheated on an assignment, because I did and I fully admit it, but the way Claudia went about it and for as long as she went about it, drove me insane. All because of Monday.

"We aint gonna get into Banneker if they put you in the stupid people class." Monday

So Monday wasn't really a good friend to Claudia either, and that pissed me off. Instead of supporting her, she was both enabling and belittling her. Claudia had learning problems and to see her struggling so much just stabbed me in the feels. I know too many people who struggled with learning problems for me not to be affected.

Claudia's obsession with Monday drove me bonkers. Wait, did I say that already? Oooops. Anyway, she wanted to do everything Monday did. Even wanted to do homeschooling because that's what she heard Monday was doing, At least her mom had a good head on her shoulders.

"If Monday jumped off a bridge, would you want to do that too?" Claudia's mom

Claudia also seemed really obsessed with Monday's siblings, especially her two younger siblings, Tuesday and August. A big part of it was probably that Claudia was an only child and her mother had gone through multiple miscarriages. Definitely sad, but like Monday said,

"He's not your brother." Monday

All of Claudia's eggs seemed to be in one basket, Monday's and just like it drove me bonkers, it was clear that it was starting to drive her parents bonkers too. It was also bugging Monday's older sister, April who had some truth bombs to launch onto Claudia on several different nights.

There were two sides to Monday's mom, Patti: There was the side that everyone outside the house saw, and there was the side that only people she allowed into her house, saw. On the outside, she seemed like a decent woman, one who wanted to interfere in a family's private business because there was clear abuse in the home. She was so convinced the abused woman was going to be killed and Claudia's mother could not convince her otherwise. But on the inside, she was a mean woman who really didn't seem to care too much about her kids. Always yelling & hurting them in different ways.

I loved Michael. He seemed like a good guy, someone Claudia definitely needed in the wake of Monday's disappearance. He cared about her and he was concerned about her. He was just a genuinely good guy. It didn't hurt that her parents liked him too. Michael fixed stuff around her house that her parents hadn't made a priority to fix. He too, launched some truth bombs on Claudia, albeit in a much nicer way.

"That don't mean she's your friend too, Claudia."  Michael

And he was right. Just because Monday was her friend, that didn't mean April was also her friend.

We didn't really learn the truth until about 80% of the way through the book and I just remember my heart shattering into a billion pieces. We didn't get just one devastating truth, we got several and then we knew the web of lies that were concocted in order to hide the devastating truth.

Final thoughts: This book started out a bit rocky, but it ended up wrecking me, probably beyond repair.