The Quick Cut: A girl struggles to cope in her senior year of high school with moving forward as her grandmother gets cancer and her anxiety reaches new levels.
A Real Review:
Thank you to Black Rose Writing for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Anxiety is a real fickle thing that can turn your dreams into nightmares. If you let it get out of control, it can ruin your life very quickly. For our leading lady Maddie Hickman, this is far too much the case.
Maddie is still devastated from her ex boyfriend when she finds out her grandma has cancer and her anxiety reaches new peaks. A panic attack hits her so hard she can barely breathe and doesn't leave the house for days out of exhaustion. Meanwhile, she dates other guys (and breaks hearts) while aimlessly dealing with whatever is happening in the moment until she decides to defer college and take a road trip to take care of her grandma. Will Maddie continue to wander through life with no control or will she figure out how to deal with her problems?
While this book is definitely a quick and breezy summer read, there are multiple things that bothered me about it. At any given point, it seemed like Maddie didn't have a passion at all beyond her family and her ex. Sure, she spends time writing for a class project and to vent some, but it comes off as work - not love. There's also the issue of theme here and how the author didnt really stick with one. Like the heroine, themes aimlessly wander in and out without sticking.
By the time you get to the end, all you have is a book with a lot of wasted potential and a girl who needs to grow up before life kicks her in the face.
My rating: 2 out of 5