Iris's Reviews > Throwaway Girls

3.5 stars

I was given this eARC in exchange for an honest review, this hasn't affected my opinions in any way

Okay here's the thing. This was a good book. Maybe even really good. It was also . . . not my thing. That makes it really hard to review, because like . . . I really don't have much to criticize, but I also don't have glowing praise. I guess I'm just going to do a short little list of Things, both good and bad.

- The themes were really good!! I do wish they had been pulled to the forefront a little more, but I really liked the discussions of abuse of power, privilege, and the people who society does and doesn't deem worthy of saving. I truly think these themes were the book's biggest strengths, because they were so well done.

- I was sometimes . . . very confused? Which isn't necessarily the book's fault lmaooo, I think I might have just been too braindead to follow what was happening. But the fact remains that I still don't entirely understand everything that happened ahfghghfg

- Okay but the twists though. This book absolutely nailed the twists you absolutely should have seen coming and yet somehow didn't. I leap to every possible conclusion when reading mysteries, so I did sort of predict one of the twists, but in a "hm maybe THIS" way that was then promptly forgotten, so I was still very surprised + I didn't even come close to guessing the other big twist. Everything came together so well in the end, and I'm still shook.

- The main character was . . . this weird mix of like . . . really complex and sort of boring. I think the book tried to make her too complex, and instead she fell a bit flat. We were told how many layers she had, how much she drew people to her, but . . . I never really saw it?

- The side characters, however, almost made up for it. This book had one of the most well-fleshed out, fascinating casts of side characters I've seen for quite some time.

- The writing was amazing. Like . . . wow. It left me awestruck, at times.

Overall? The good parts of this book couldn't quite make up for it's flaws to me, however I truly do think it's a masterfully done book and I fully recommend it. I wasn't in the right headspace for it, but I do think this is one I might revisit down the line and fall in love with.

Here's the thing: if you aren't a thriller person (like me) this likely isn't going to be your book. But if you are in the headspace for a thriller, I cannot recommend this enough.

TWs (view spoiler)[murder, rape, pedophilia, mentions of conversion therapy, implied eating disorder (hide spoiler)]