Status Updates From Beneath the Skin

Y'all, stop what y'all are doing right now and read this ... It has been such an emotional eye opener.. amazing book and I'm dreading finishing it 😭❤️

okay this is actually so crazy i did not expect this to be so intense

I relate entirely too hard to the FMC

Hope she lets someone in before it’s too late

I have a feeling things are going to get worse before it gets better

That’s f*cked up!!

Really excellent story, with characters I cared about, dragged down to irritating story, with characters I was impatient toward, by a lack of (or ignoring of) editorial advice: chop those unnecessary, repetitive inner monologue bits out and move the plot along quicker, my friend.

Really amazingly well done emotions and corresponding behaviours, but it’s dragging now. Repeat Darlings need to be killed.

Lucas is the most unrealistic boy ever. He just shows up and is all like "I like you even though you've told me 1000 times you're not interested and I have no reason to actually like you since I've never really talked to you." I hate romantic sub-plots like this.

Anyone else tired of reading about depressed teens that still somehow have the motivation and focus to do well in school? And whose counselors actually cared for them? Was my high school experience the only one that was the complete opposite?

This book was amazing. I cried and felt the pain right along with the main character. It was very moving.

Few holes, but keeps some interest. There are "deep" things, but I don't like all the ways they're being used

wow. Just wow. Incredible writing

Amazing story can't put it down

I'm going to shelve this for now. I just find it too distressing to read.

I'm just heartbroken reading this. :'(

This is just ..... haunting.

I can't Fricking BELIEVE this WOMAN! THAT'S HER REASON?!

"I don’t want to be this way. I know that now. I want the light Lucas cracked open and the warmth Arianna brings with her calm, steady, dependable, gentle self. I want light, and life, and laughter. And something like love. (...) I want a future where I forge a new me, a new life, but my ties to home, to my brothers, are still strong as steel. I want it all."

"I can’t keep doing this. I don’t want to do this.
I hate what’s inside me.
I don’t know how to get it out."

Thank God for true friends! :)

End of Chapter 21 - OMG! What's going to happen NOW?!

"Something dark slithers through me. It won’t ever be over. And when I’m gone? It’ll keep going. He’ll keep going. Even if I manage to escape, even if I fly a thousand miles across the country and never return, he won’t stop. He’ll just hurt them instead of me."

"Black fangs of despair sink into my brain. I can’t do this. I can’t. I thought I could make it, power through until graduation, then flee and never look back. But I’m not strong enough. I’m not that girl Lucas sees. I’m not who Arianna thinks I am. I’m not strong. I’m weak and I’m dirty and my soul is a black shriek of fury."

"This is what I want even though my gut is filled with jagged rocks. I am officially the most terrible, awful person in the world. Lucas leaves me alone now, just like I asked, just like I said I wanted. And now Arianna, too.
They’re both good, too bright to look at. I’m the bad, ugly girl who pushed them away". - God! This girl REALLY needs a Friend! ... A TRUE Friend!

"For someone like me, there’s no God who can save me and no one I could ever trust. For someone like me, my own pathetic self is all I have". :(

End of Chapter 11- Oh My God! :'-(

“You are good. Just like this. Whatever you want to be is just fine. It doesn’t matter if you like boys or pink sparkles or wear purple polka dotted skirts to school every day. Okay? No one has a right to treat you like crap.” - Sidney, you are so right, girl! AMEN!

Enjoy the book. Review to come. I really felt so bad for Sydney and her brothers in this book.