The quick cut: A girl struggles with the disappearance of her lifelong best friend and ex girlfriend. Emotions run high when she tries to discover the truth of what happened.
A real review:
Pressure to perform and succeed highly is placed on just about everyone in high school nowadays. It can be too much to bear. For Chase, it pushes her to extremes, especially after her ex Lia goes missing.
The city of Meadowlark is filled with expensive homes and overachievers - with Chase being one of the expected to perform. Between her great grades and multiple school activities, she is the front runner for valedictorian. Underneath the surface though, she's struggling. Her lifelong best friend and ex Lia has moved on, leaving her a shell of who she once was. Then Lia disappears, throwing Chase even more into distress. How much more can Chase take? What happened to Lia?
This book is intensely dark and emotional, so I do not recommend it for the faint of heart. It's sadness is a lot to read, especially when you're not the overly emotional type like me. That being said, the story is a great example of how the pressure to succeed can drive kids to destructive places.
Chase is in a dark hole and no one in her life seems aware of how deep the pit is. She's living an unsustainable life and only making things harder on herself. While I know she's not the only person to go through it, her portrayal is excessively depressing to read.
Chase and Lia may have been lifelong friends, but their relationship was toxic. They wanted different things and ended up hurting one another in the process. Seeing Chase learn just how awful it got was tough to see unfurl too. There's a reason she hid the memories from herself.
An intensely dark story that's hard to read emotionally.
My rating: 3 out of 5