by Katie Cotugno
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Publication Date: April 21st 2015
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Pages: 384
ISBN: 9780062216380
Genre: Young Adult | Contemporary
Source: Edelweiss
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Day 1: Julia Donnelly eggs my house my first night back in Star Lake, and that’s how I know everyone still remembers everything—how I destroyed my relationship with Patrick the night everything happened with his brother, Gabe. How I wrecked their whole family. Now I’m serving out my summer like a jail sentence: Just ninety-nine days till I can leave for college, and be done.
Day 4: A nasty note on my windshield makes it clear Julia isn’t finished. I’m expecting a fight when someone taps me on the shoulder, but it’s just Gabe, home from college and actually happy to see me. “For what it’s worth, Molly Barlow,” he says, “I’m really glad you’re back.”
Day 12: Gabe got me to come to this party, and I’m actually having fun. I think he’s about to kiss me—and that’s when I see Patrick. My Patrick, who’s supposed to be clear across the country. My Patrick, who’s never going to forgive me. (Goodreads)
It’s not often that I read a book where I felt both sympathy and insane frustration for a main character. That’s exactly how I felt about Molly while I was reading this book. There were SO many decisions that she made throughout the story that made me shake my head, or really, made me want to shake some sense into her. But then, in a way, I kind of get why she did the things that she did. Not that I agree with them at all, but I get it. Otherwise, I love how strong her character seemed to be. While all that was going on around her, when everyone blamed only her for what happened, she stayed headstrong, and didn’t let anyone bring her down. I always find that admirable.
All of the characters in the book are very well written. No one is perfect in this story; a few of them are super far from it, but they are all interesting nonetheless. I think Gabe was my favorite character in the whole book, and even he had many flaws. There are also characters in the book that you are REALLY going to hate, or at least I did. I didn’t appreciate at all how some of the girls treated Molly. Yes, she made a few bad choices in the book, but I don’t see how that was any of their business at all, and it made me SO angry how they treated her.
I’m not a huge fan of drama, but in this book, it was addictive! And it wasn’t just the drama, this whole book was addictive. Even while was reading it and thing how completely wrong so many things were as I turned the pages, I still couldn’t stop reading the book. It was this really weird type of intense, one that was, at times, uncomfortable. And I just HAD to know how it was all going to end. Also, I really enjoyed the writing style for the book, and that each chapter was written for the specific day in Molly’s life. I really enjoyed the ending of the book as well.
Overall; while this book made me super uncomfortable in parts, I still really enjoyed reading it. I liked that the book was different than what I expected, that the characters and decisions made were so imperfect, and that the storyline was so realistic. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more from Katie Cotugno soon.
I hate when characters make bad decisions but that does make a book more interesting even if I shake my head or cringe with embarrassment on their behalf! I am glad you enjoyed this book even if the protagonist could be frustrating.
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