I think people get so caught up in this book because the author took on the challenge of writing about such a dark subject matter. I feel like trauma-based fiction often get generous ratings because on some level we feel like a the rating diminishes the characters trauma.

That being said it wasn’t a bad book by any means, it just didn’t blow me away. I found it to be a bit too long and I hated the whole plot line with her guy friend who irrationally had a crush on her. That whole plot point was so confusing. And her best friend sucked. I understand that Edith/Eden (whatever) was a difficult person to love and her best friend was going through her own shit but forgetting a birthday, barely apologizing, and then immediately bringing it back to you is imo unforgivable.

Amanda

EVENTUALLY Amanda figured out E was raped but I’m so confused. Even though she was originally under the impression that she had consensual sex with her brother, why the fuck would she care that much??? She was 14 so I understand thinking that it’s weird or gross but she HATED E for it (and therefore made her already hard life infinitely harder). Also, I have a hard time believing that E made it all the way to her senior year before the rumor about her having sex with the guy who raped her got back to her. Amanda and her friends were clearly gossiping about it.