Micah’s Reviews > The Opposite of Here > Status Update

The Amelia reveal was interesting. The Hitchcock references were interesting. The thing that’s throwing me off is the hypnotism coming out of nowhere, that feels off for some reason?

As per usual, I lock in around the hallway mark and don’t add any of my thoughts for a while, but I never thought I’d be this invested in teen drama

I was right, I didn’t update my progress for a while after a whole lot of updating
The jarring style fits a lot better with this portion of the book and and choppy nature actually works pretty well for a thriller

This guy sucks I hope he explodes

Maybe I’m just a loser who doesn’t get out much but I’m always baffled by how frequently these characters who are literally younger than me will just start drinking in excess. Yeah, I’d tried alcohol by 16, most teens have, but never enough to get drunk, and these authors treat their teenage characters like wine aunts. They would not have the tolerance for all that at 16! And if they did they’d have liver damage

If I was this girl and I met a guy and his response to hearing that my boyfriend had died and his first response was to joke about his dick I would push him off the edge of the cruise ship. Natalie has the patience of a saint for not mauling this asshole

I know I’m doing that thing I do where I update my progress 400 times in the first half of the book and then not again till the end, but I have a criticism. Getting on the course could wait. The flashbacks are fun, but they break up what should’ve been a really short scene, when I think it would’ve been fine to put them beforehand. That gives us time to actually meet the friends tbh

I have never heard the phrase “she adjusted her breasts in her bra” before and I have no idea what to visualize. I can visualize each of those separately from each other. you could adjust a breast and you could adjust a bra, but how do you do both at once. Also I think she’s still wearing a shirt so is her shirt also included in the adjustment? Lexi what the hell are you doing
Okay I’m done that just gave me a laugh

Because it’s kind of like
Charlotte is the sensible one, Lexi is the troublemaker, Nora is also here. Those are pretty flat for right now. (Also a little skeeved out by how the first thing we learn about Charlotte is that she faces microagressions. If the author wants to bring that up as part of who she is and what life she’s lived that’s fine, but we’re on page 10 and it’s all we know about her)

The setup for the atmosphere is well done, it’s both cheerful and jarring. You can really tell our protagonist is way too fresh off her trauma to be socializing with huge masses of people on a cruise
Though I will say, her friends haven’t gotten any personality yet. Idk if it’s intentional but they kind of seem like all one person. I’m hoping it’s a purposeful choice and I’m not losing it