Bro, I was entirely gripped! TDJ is like a spider, I'm always tangled in her word-web. I have some reservations about certain things and ways she went about this reimagining—like not doing something completely wild with some characters,

not unaliving Jules if (Sue) Wendy is still gonna survive

—but I understand why TDJ did what she did with the story she wanted to tell and since it's an homage of sorts I get why she didn't wanna veer too far off from the source material. I literally gobbled TDJ's writing, had to read this in a sitting bc I didn't want to get distracted at all! It was like when I saw Carrie for the first time on tv when I was like 6. I loved how TDJ refreshed Carrie for a modern and younger audience with a contemporary yet horribly outdated racist small town and that incredibly the inspo for this narrative practically happened the other day which ups the unsettling horror realism. I also enjoyed so much how she explored and deconstructed and reconstructed the characters of (Tommy) Kenny and (Sue) Wendy, for better and for worse. I loved how (Sue) Wendy came off as self-centered and self-serving bc that's how I've always seen/felt about her character, too! This book made her so much sinister, going from a half-assed remorseful bully All-American good girl in the OG to a conniving Teresa here lol. Most everyone here is trash, selfish, self-serving yet with legit reasons to act the way they do and those who didn't have legit reasons were compelling nonetheless. I liked that TDJ didn't forcefully justify everything in an effort to humanize awful people but also didn't flat out mock them. And what can I say about Maddy and Kenny, they were so wholesome! I don't care if Kenny may or may not have been under a spell. I enjoyed this book so much, savored it, and it didn't let me down which was one of my fears. And the open ending is great bc it gives me all the possibilities and they're right 💜. I hope Maddy did find her mama, and if not I hope she's happy with Kenny in some forest in the mountains or island, and if even not that, I hope they stayed friends afterwards and lived their happiest lives being themselves for themselves alone or with whoever, wherever.
But I guess this is kinda a spoiler or something but I have a crazy theory that

Tanya IS Maddy!! Think about it, T studied history/anthropology and that's everything M spent doing once she discovered her dad's history lessons were all wrong! M also has an affinity with old stuff bc of her dad and how he raised her stuck in the 50s/past. We never get any physical descriptions for T so she could be in her late 20s which would be M's age and she could be now so tanned enough bc she is no longer trying to maintain a false white passing image that she could be with her natural hair, brown, and removed from 17 year old Maddy to be unrecognizable. Also, Mireille whatsherface and South Carolina is a red herring used to throw off people who might want to look for M's whereabouts bc the riddle seems more likely to mean Australia to me idk. But why would she move to Australia? Well why not? America's history with racism is different from Australia's (idk much to say if it's worse or not and that isn't the point by then), but more pragmatically, she just wanted to escape from everyone and everything and discover her true self and where better to do that than outside of your damn country. And the way she says no response is best in that final podcast is just very Maddy like if you ask me idk. It's far off but it would be a twist reminiscent from A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay where Merry turns out being the same blogger. I don't know how others take that sort of twist but I like it and it'd be cool here

.