3.75 stars

This book was going really well until that very abrupt ending. I am thinking maybe the author could have spent more time on the ending and less on the beginning half of the book where not a whole lot happens. I really related to the meredith’s anxiety. although I did think she was pretty naive for an 18 year old, I kind of understand how sheltered she would be growing up in that sort of family. I absolutely Loved Jo! We all need a friend like her who is willing to push us out of our comfort zones and also be there when we fail spectacularly. I really liked the book all in all and can’t wait to see what the author does next.
On a side note I sort of thought “those camps” were a kind of urban legend. Anyone else?

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of THE ANTI-VIRGINITY PACT by Katie Wismer in exchange for my honest review. I struggled to read this book as it had a lot of triggers that I was not prepared for. I did appreciate the premise but found it a bit unbelievable and somewhat complicated.

The many things covered in this book somewhat muddied my enjoyment as there were too many unanswered questions and things added that did not improve the plot.

Arc provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, so thank you so much to them!
Let me first clear the bias out of the way and say that I am a huge fan of Katie and her YouTube channel, but that in no way influenced my critical review of her work. I rated this book 4 stars because, in my opinion, it’s a 4 star read and I would have rated it as such regardless of who wrote it. I also read her published poetry collection, The Sweetest Kind of Poison, about 6 months ago and rated that collection 5 stars.
This is the first published novel by Katie and I was really excited when she finally announced it, and I was even more excited when I was granted an early review copy. This is a hard-hitting YA contemporary that focuses on Mare, a senior in high school who makes a pact with her best friend to lose their virginities before going off to college. But that synopsis is just scratching the surface to what this book is about. This book provides a coming of age story, family and friendship dynamics/relationships, bullying, debates on religion, discovering sexuality, and a sprinkle of romance.
I thought Mare was a very interesting character to read from, especially when it came to the relationship with the rest of her family. Mare’s parents have strong religious ties, while Mare considers herself an atheist (but closeted amongst her family). I can see how the debate on religion can be frustrating for people who are strong believers (I am not), but I found this the most interesting and well-done piece of this story. Aside from Mare’s differing religious standpoint, her little sister is gay and doesn’t know how to come out to her parents, knowing they would “disapprove”. I really liked the acceptance Mare shows to her sister, and how their sibling relationship grows a lot strong throughout the book. I hated Mare’s parents for their closed mindedness and their constant push of their religion onto other people, and I didn’t particularly like Mare’s best friend because she made countless stupid decisions. There was one specific part of this book where Mare makes a terrible decision and I wanted to throw my kindle across the room.
As the synopsis says, the anti-virginity pact does get released to the school, which leads to a lot of bullying for Mare. Bullying is never nice to read about, but I will say that the bullying in this novel was an accurate portrayal of how terrible teens can be to each other. As for the romance sub-plot, I thought it was cute but was also very happy that it wasn’t the main focus of the story. I also really like the realistic way the story ended in regards to Mare and the love interest’s relationship.
Now for the reasons I gave it 4 stars instead of 5, because you might be reading this positive review and wondering where it went wrong in order for me to drop a star. My main reason for dropping a star is that too many things were trying so hard to be stuffed into one book. You can tell that Katie wanted to include a lot of social commentary that is very relevant in today’s society, and I totally respect her for that. The issue is that the topics of discovering sexuality, sexual assault, and conversion camps all deserved to be as fleshed out as Mare’s religious struggle. I was enjoying this book enough that I wouldn’t have minded it being longer in order to fully develop and address some of the other issues. There was also a minor plot line that had to do with a dog fighting ring, and that plotline was completely unnecessary and could probably be removed all together without impacting the rest of the plot at all.
Overall, I was very happy with this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a contemporary with a lot of social commentary. I am really looking forward to Katie’s next poetry collection and her next novel!
CW: sexual assault, animal abuse, bullying, religious debate.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for granting me early access to this book! Unfortunately, I was not the biggest fan of this novel, and I'm really glad I was able to finish it. I was pretty excited, because the premise and also the cover look great. I have just found out that Katie Wismer is on YouTube, but I have not watched her channel yet.

Our main characters are both 18 years old, and seniors in high school. Our main character, Meredith, behaves very immature and child-like, as well as her dialogues are very immature. She keeps making mistake, after mistake, after mistake. Plus what's up with the teacher side plot. It's a bit odd. I'm all here for the teacher/student romance if it's done well. But this is not what I was looking for.

There was a whole lot of bullying in this book too, and I kept on wondering where the teachers were, or the staff, or the parents. Meredith's parents were extremely christian, and that's fine, but it's just a wild concept for me. I can't say anything about it, because I'm not in that situation, but idk if it was realistic. I just saw it all coming, it was very predictable and that was a bit unfortunate. It read very quickly though, so I could finish it in one day.

The dog fights though. Was that truly necessary? Doubt it. I skimmed over that part, because I'm very sensitive to animal abuse. I only gave this 2 stars because of the cute dogs and the writing wasn't that bad. But I really did not like the majority of this book. Sigh. I'm sorry. I hope someone else likes this better!

I really enjoyed this book and Merideths character. The romance was spot on even with all of the trigger warnings in this book. I liked how the author dealt with the critical issues and still had me intrigued throughout. Gorgeous cover, interesting story line and cool author!!

First of all thanks to netgalley for this book!

I absolutely LOVE the cover and I knew right away this would be something I would enjoy. It did not disappoint! I could not put this book down and I was able to finish it within a few days.

The story is about a girl named Meredith and her journey senior year for self discovery. As a preacher’s daughter she faces a-lot of pressures and ridicule to be a certain type of way. We find out she is a closet atheist and her younger sister is a lesbian. Two things that overly religious parents would not understand.

The real mess begins when Meredith (Mare) is drinking one night with her best friend Jo. They semi-jokingly make an “Anti-Virginity pact” which they agree to both lose their virginity by the end of senior year. Jo picks their english teacher which obviously turns into an embarrassing mistake. Mare picks Sam who is her father’s best friend’s son. They grew up together and drifter apart but now Sam is gorgeous. Jo decides he will a perfect candidate for Mare’s pact.

Mare finds love in Sam and learns he has demons in his closet too. She also seems to discover that no teenager is perfect and they all make mistakes. Ashley, a popular mean girl, finds the pact and posts the contract all over school. Rape is a trigger warning here as some guys try to push Mare and one gets too hands on.

Another trigger is dog fighting. I found this part hard to read and almost cried when I pictured it. I think this part could have been left out of the book for sure and was not necessary to the plot.

Without giving too much away I loved the beginning, plot and ending. I loved all of the characters except for a few parents. The story kept me entertained throuhout. I never felt bored or like it was dragging at any point.

I definitely recommend this!

This was fun! I didn’t know what to expect, since I originally thought it would be a bit of a darker contemporary, but it ended up being more on the light-hearted side.

There’s a lot I liked about this book. It was a fun, fast-paced book that I couldn’t put down most of the time. The pact was such a unique concept and I liked how its consequences really set the plot in motion. I also really enjoyed Meredith’s character and her struggles as an atheist in an extremely religious household.

I couldn’t quite give this 5 stars because I occasionally found it cheesy and the main plot point mentioned in the summary doesn’t happen until halfway through the book.

Otherwise, I think this is a great debut!

I have been a viewer of Katie's YouTube channel since her junior year of college. I love watching her reading vlogs. When I heard that she was coming out with this book, honestly, my first thoughts were "eh, that's cool.. probably won't like it but I will probably try it..."

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this AMAZING book!

The story follows Meredith, a high schooler whose father is a pastor while she is a closeted-atheist. She signs a (you guessed it) anti-virginity pact with her best friend and chaos ensues.

I love how this book was your typical high school story about a girl coming into her own, but not being typical either. The twists I did not see coming, because other stories don't do it ways that Katie does it! One second you're feeling sad about something and next think you know you feel on the edge of your seat of the next events.

As an person with severe anxiety, the representation was SPOT ON. I decided I am still going to pre-order a physical copy so I can annotate the heck out of those moments that made me think "finally, someone gets me!" There is a trigger warning of alcohol use, religion (if that for some reason triggers you), sexual assault, rape, animal cruelty (VERY SMALL PART), anxiety... The sexual assault scene just broke my heart. I have(luckily) not had that ever happen to me, but I felt what Meredith felt. I have not connected so strongly to a character in a long time.

Overall, Katie's writing style is amazing (as you would expect from graduating with a degree in creative writing) and once I was hooked to the story, I was hooked. I am so proud of her and feel so grateful to have gotten the chance to read it before its release!

I really loved this book! I was taken completely by surprise with how much I enjoy this book because I don’t like contemporary that much. I felt that the characters and story was very well developed. Issues were also dealt with really well which I appreciated since some topics were a sensitive subject. Highly recommend!

A shy senior in high school, Meredith hasn’t done much of anything to stand out, like kiss a boy, or even talk out in class. Most people don’t even realize she exists, so signing the pact to lose her virginity before graduation is more of a joke than anything. But she is tired of hiding her true self inside…tired of being invisible, tired of doing nothing, and tired of acting like she believes in all the things her devout Christian/pastoral parents believe. She would never tell them, of course, but she wants nothing to do with the church, nor the beliefs that go along with it, and so she stands to follow through with the pact. And it actually goes really well…for a time. Until all kinds of hell breaks loose.

My Thoughts: This took me awhile to get into. It seemed to have very simplistic writing, at the start, and it was very difficult for me to separate the voice as imagining Katie narrating it. That may have put a slight damper on the beginning of the book for me.

But I also may have taken slight offense as well to the basis of this character, and her actions. All the details of the main character, Meredith…I practically LIVED. I was a super quiet kid, never talked to anyone besides my close friends unless I had to, never spoke up in class. Kids looked over me, as I wasn’t good at anything specific. I however, did not grow up in a Christian home, but now try to lead a Christian home for my own children. So I get the feelings behind not believing.

I feel like the description of Katie’s family is conflicting. For a super devout Christian family to be so over the top about their beliefs…I feel like would be similarly controlling over all aspects of things related. Like wardrobe. And friends. And activities. She does mention, once, that her father would approve of certain outfits more, because they cover more skin…but then she talks about wearing shirts too tight for her chest, and her parents say nothing. Her parents don’t seem to care about who she hangs out with, or where she goes and what she does, more than being excited that she starts dating a kid who they presume to be a well-standing Christian kid, as well. THEN, not only are they excited, but they PUSH it a bit. Just all slightly conflicting actions, and doesn’t make sense.

Also, the plot line progresses so easily at the beginning, it’s hard not to feel like things happen specifically for this book, and that because the book is being read is why they are happening. I’m not sure what this is called, but this is the 2nd book recently to do this, and makes the starting of the plot line kind of cheesy. Once things start happening and progressing, by about halfway through the book, things start looking up and I get hooked to the story, making the rest fly by.

Katie’s character goes through a severe arc. She does seem pretty young and naive at the start, and traits by other characters just seem senseless. The fact that all the girls fawn over a teacher and try to get his attention is a bit ridiculous. She goes from not talking to anyone and an anxiety ridden child to a bad-ass, rule breaking 18 year old who doesn’t care who she hurts. I don’t see her starting character as being so true, and feel its a bit severe. It never comes back into play, the rest of the book, but for being severely lacking in the communication department.

Overall, once I finished the book, I enjoyed my time reading it, but despite the several heavy topics, the final impact wasn’t very noteable. It’s not one I find super important that people read, or making a mark on the world. Not that I care about that sort of thing. I just don’t think this one is going to stay with me.

First of all I love the cover, and that is what first caught my attention. After reading the blurb this sounded like a very interesting book full of teen angst, which I love by the way. I don't read a lot of coming of age/Young adult novels but I wanted to give this one a try. I was definitely intrigued and looked forward to what would happen. However, the second half/last quarter became a bit of a mess. It was very chaotic and a lot was going on, some of it felt a bit unrealistic in my opinion. Also I had a very hard time connecting to the main character Meredith. However, the author was able to keep me curious enough to finish the book, which isn't always easy. But at the end of the day this was just an okay read for me. I wasn't sucked into the story, and I was just on the outside looking in. I didn't feel anything for the characters, which is a big deal for me when I am reading a book. Maybe it is just me, so if you are intrigued by what you read in the blurb then I say give it a go.

There was a lot more going on in this book than I thought there would be. It was a well written, fast read for me. I did overall like the book however I was left a little disappointed by the ending.

This book surprised me in a good way!
It started a little slow, and I thought the story would be very predictable. But as soon as the romance began, I was hooked!

I liked the way Katie explored all these polemic topics—anxiety, religion, sexual assault, and animal abuse. I felt like I was reading a Kasie West book, but “darker.” And I think the author was very brave for getting out of the comfort zone and talking about these subjects, because whenever you discuss religion, for example, you just know people are going to have a strong opinion about it. (You probably shouldn’t read this book if any of these topics trigger or offend you, by the way.)

But what I liked the most about this story was how it evolved from the Anti-Virginity Pact to something totally unpredictable (at least to me, when I first read the blurb). So I was happily surprised with the second half of the book and ended up loving the ending! Now I can’t wait to read more stories from Katie Wismer!

I appreciate trigger warnings at the start of a book and I'm baffled at how not everyone does this. The trigger warnings are also well-grounded and justified. They prepared me for worse, which made me feel relieved.

While finishing the last chapter, my mind whispered: "That's all?". Not because it's bad, but because I was waiting for more. The book has a slow start, in a good way. It gives you time to adjust to the theme and atmosphere, while also getting to know the main characters. Halfway in, the main event in the book appears and everything starts happening in a fast pace. Because of this, the ending felt anti-climactic and quickly reduced my overwhelming feelings.

There is a jump in time that felt like a device to escape parts of the story. The last sentence of the book is motivational but I feel like the book could've been more inspiring in general. While there is criticism towards religion, I needed more criticism on other subjects. There is bullying and slut shaming and the book didn't handle it like I wish it would. I see this as a missed opportunity to give inspiring and supportive commentary through fiction.

This features events and dialogue around rape, substance abuse (both drugs and alcoholism), animal abuse, bullying, slut shaming, extreme religion, abusive parents, student-teacher dynamics, anxiety, LGBTQ, sexual identity, graduation, virginity, and so on. I think this book would be better if it chooses to focus on just a few of these themes, instead of handling them all. I questioned the purpose of a handful of theme-related events. This book is (according to my Kindle) 4.5 hours long, I would not have minded a longer book. Longer, or more selective focus, would make this deeper and more vivid.

Summarised, I did enjoyed this book. The writing style is fluent and full of characterisation, and the subtle humour in dialogue was relatable. Although you could say the main character was juvenile at times, and would be better portrayed as a younger girl, we know that not everyone acts their age. If this had more focus, though, I would give it more stars. I'm curious what the author brings in the future.

I really wanted to love this book and I am disappointed that I didn't. I have to admit that I believe I had high expectations as I really love Katie's BookTube channel. I was thrilled when I was given the chance to read her book. I enjoyed the premise of the book. I feel it was well written and I enjoyed the characters. I did have a few issues. The part were it is discovered that Squirt had been sold into dog fighting felt a little rushed. I also felt the part about Mare's parents sending her to a bible boot camp and her reaction to it seemed a little unrealistic. I realize the book is a work of fiction but her moving back in with her parents two weeks later even though she is an atheist seemed a little unbelievable to me. I think the book tried to cover to many hard hitting issues at once. The sexual assault and the bullying could have been a book all their own and there would have been enough material to adequately resolve both issues. I definitely would read another book written by Katie as I do feel she is talented and is just getting started.

My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This debut author has a bright future ahead of her. The writing is snappy, youthful and real.
I was expecting light and frothy. Wrong.
Religious fervour - or, in this case, fanaticsm - takes the spotlight in this story. Some parents are willing to beat the fear (if they can't put the love) of God into their wayward, sinning children. Christian Camps, organized d0g fighting and teen slut-shaming are some of the many themes running through this story.
This author is going for authenticity, so waive goodbye to any standard HEA. In the movies, comedies never win Oscars. Serious authors, likewise, have a great contempt for any form of a happy ending. Sometimes, we have to settle for hopeful. So, although you may have THOUGHT this was a young adult high school romance trope filled novel, you did get some standard tropes, but with a twist on it.
The clever dialogue was not always natural. The scene where Meredith tells her parents off after they try to abduct her was a bit out of character for a shy girl "who never talks". Also, the parents were hell-bent on sending her to Christian Camp, but the next day they are all remorseful - just because a cop slaps them on the wrists? The sudden transition and capitulation was not working for me.
But this is a debut novel written by someone fresh out of college.. She will learn soon enough that people rarely let go of their fanatical beliefs after one stern "talking to". i look forward to this author's future novels. I'm giving this a 3.8 ut of 5.

Preacher's Daughter's aren't supposed to be atheists. They're not supposed to make pacts to lose their virginity by the end of the year.

The Anti-Virginity Pact by Katie Wismer had promise to be a Gritty YA that explored the topics of religion and sexuality but overall, It missed the mark for me. From the beginning the female character, Meredith Beamount is said to be shy but being tired of told what to do and for once wanting to take charge of her own life and choices but the way her characterization was written a bit unrealistic and the way her actions are immature and I found myself cringing at some of the things she said or did. It felt like this was written by someone that does not know how teens act or tried to hard to fit that "indie teen movie" dialogue that does not always translate well.

It was rather slow and I found myself struggling to finish. I wish the author took time to space out the time frames and made a little more realistic plot. I was hoping for a 'Virgin Suicides' -esque book but It felt more of a lifetime movie. Personally not for me, But theres a niche for everyone.

So, huh. This is definitely YA, but it feels like a young YA even though the main characters are allegedly seniors. Often times when I'm reading YA, I actually forget that it's considered to be YA (how many times more can I say YA?!), because the characters are written like fully formed humans who just happen to be mature for their age. Here, it felt more like the characters were all written so immaturely that it made it hard to like them.

The plot was okay - some plotlines weren't necessary for the story, but were more or less shoved in to add drama. I think the pact itself could've been explored more and been a bigger part of the ongoing plot, too.

Overall, fine! Not my favorite, but not terrible either. Not necessarily one I'll recommend, though.

This is a book that sounded extremely promising on the outside, but a bit strange and disjointed once opened. While I do think there are positives to discuss (and I'll keep them at the end, yanno, ending on a positive note and all that!), there are quite a few problems I had with the book that took me out of the story and made me like it less than I could have.
The major problem I had with this book is that it tried to tackle too many topics. For reference, here is everything I pieced together during my read: questioning religion/extreme religion/zealots, conversion camps, LGBTQIA, immigration, sexual assault, student-teacher romances, animal abuse, mental health (specifically anxiety), school bullying, poor parenting/verbal and emotional abuse from parents, and animal fighting/animal abuse.
That's A LOT to unpack. And quite frankly, it's way too much for a standard contemporary novel. I think if paired down to only a few of those, this book would have been a four-star (maybe 5) read for me. And the other ideas could have easily been formed into other novels. Yet, we are left with fragments of these intense issues that never really get to the core. Because each other these issues are skimmed over, the intensity you are supposed to feel isn't there - I couldn't connect with one plotline because the next was already starting. It was hard to believe this was just one book because each time one plot seemed to end, another started, and then we somehow got back to one of the earlier plots. As such, this book read like a bad early 2000s teen drama instead of the emotional roller coaster it was intending to be.
The next major issue is because the plot is now shallow due to all it is trying to accomplish, it suffers from telling you how to feel rather than letting you feel that way on your own. The entire book is in the viewpoint of Meredith, an 18-year-old who is the religious zealots' daughter, doesn't believe in God, is the victim of mindless bullying and on and on; Meredith then gets angry and upset because of what is happening, but as the reader, we never actually see all that is happening. Meredith jumps to conclusions because of her gut feelings and history with the characters in the book, but we don't see this. We're told her preacher father is over the top with his religion; we're told that the kids at school are bullies and there's never any reason why the bullying is so bad; we're told everything, and the other characters never actually do anything to make us come to the conclusion that they're bad, or annoying, or sickeningly sweet. We just have to accept that this is how the world (book) is. And it's unfortunate because I think this is a direct by-product of having too many plotlines in one book. Thus, all of the characters are put into a caricature of who we are supposed to believe them to be, and there is never really any character development.

Here are some specific spoilers that made me confused:

Meredith’s thoughts and reactions are the only reasons to dislike the church community (in my opinion). While some of her dad's plans are a tad much, I never really got the sense that he was a bad person or over the top with religion from his actions, I only think he's bad because this is how Meredith feels, and that isn’t a good enough reason. So when the conclusion to this book happened, it seemed to come out of the left-field for me.

The pact was scarcely mentioned. It also seemed weird that Meredith's friend, who made her sign the pact, made Meredith ask a boy out and then never brought up the pact afterward. And when Mare started dating Sam, it still wasn't mentioned. The pact only came back halfway through the story and caused a huge scene (and the boyfriend wasn't even impacted!) so you could almost forget that it even existed in the first place if it wasn't the title of the book.

The school reaction to the pact seems straight out of a 90s movie. it was over the top for a piece of paper when technology could easily be used to make this blow even more out of proportion (would have been more devastating for a text to get out or email). Unless the book was set before technology was big, it seems hard to believe the school would give that much attention to someone wanting to lose their virginity. Additionally, once a boy made an advance on her in the hallway, Mare immediately thinks the pact got out. There’s no indication that that is what they’re talking about, and there was nothing suspicious leading up to that point where she would assume it was leaked. And again, it might garner attention but probably not in that way (because if the football players didn’t know her, then just hearing her name wouldn’t immediately cause them to know her face; it would take a while especially if she was "the quiet one" and unremarkable up until that point). For this to work, we would have needed more set up in the school and with the peers - and I think the lack of development in this area makes it hard to believe (because we’re comparing it to real-life). The bully seems to have no reason to hate Meredith so this just baffled me the entire time. Even in Mean Girls, there was a reason for the bullying to happen. Also, I can’t say for sure, but all the schools I’ve worked with in recent years would never let that scandal continue in the manner it did. They would have intervened and helped Meredith instead of letting her continued to be bullied openly.

In addition to the bullying, the weird student-teacher romance plot was not handled how it would have been handled in real life. Or at least I sure hope not because how could that teacher just turn a blind eye - he couldn't, because if Joanna wanted to she could have spun a story of how he tried to take advantage of her if it got out that she kissed him. This plot just seemed a bit messy and because it was relatively minor I wish it was exempt.

There was barely any lead up to the dog fight. The man who gave Meredith a bad feeling was bland and there was nothing to suggest his motives except his quietness and suit? If we saw more of his behaviors (overheard him talking on the phone, he kept coming in to buy dogs, etc.) it might have made it a bit more plausible.
Similarly, it seems weird Sam would have a sketchy contact given how much of a nice guy he is (and a throwaway line about his past - the past that was only two years ago, mind you - still doesn’t convince me). Further, the dog fight scene, in general, was messy and too chaotic to seem real. I've never been to a dog fight, but this just seemed so outlandish - and for adults to assault the kids... what were they expecting with that? I wish this scene was removed from the book because it really killed a lot of my vibe (which was pleasant despite the book's flaws).

In general, there was the miscommunication trope and attempted cheating with poor reasons behind it, both of which typically annoy me in fiction. But this is a personal taste. Another weird personal issue was the line, “The sky was a bruise." This metaphor was used twice. First I thought it was unique and different, but the second time it appeared it was less impactful and kinda weird to be repeated. I guess it lost the spark on me.

That was a lot, and this is only meant to be critical, not negative because there were some positives about this book that will make me pick up something else by the author.
To start, I think the description of anxiety was solid. I felt that was real and true and very descriptive, which made me think the author has personal experience because it was very specific.

I like the sister relationship - I felt that this was pretty accurate, especially the back and forth nature (sometimes you love them, sometimes you hate them). I think this was the best relationship in the book and I wish it was focused on more.

The author is a good writer! It disheartens me to make this a two start review when the author has SO much potential. I can tell she put work into this book, and she writes well for the YA contemporary genre. There have been books that were a hot mess and the writing was so bad that I couldn't keep picking it up. The Anti-Virginity Pact was smooth enough that it kept me around until the end, and that's definitely a good thing (because I would have definitely DNF'd it if I hated the plot(s) AND the writing).

So, in the end, the author made choices with this book and it, unfortunately, did not agree with me. I hope she continues to write and publish and I think she'll make a lot of progress with her later works!

3.5/5

I gotta be honest here. This story took a different turn than I was expecting. It was enjoyable, but honestly, not really something I’d pick up to reread I think.

There were several bits that annoyed me a little. For example, I think the story would’ve fit better if the main character was 15 or 16 years old instead of 18. The entire time I was reading it, I was picturing Mare as a 15/16 year old instead of the 18 year old she is. It’s isn’t majorly disturbing, but something that ticked me off.

The second is, the pact got revealed halfway through the book. True is necessary for the plot and everything that happens after the reveal, but I would’ve liked the pact-reveal to happen a little later than it actually did.

I did really like the relationship between Sam and Made. It felt really realistic and tangible, and I liked that they didn’t end up together in the end, it’s refreshing.

Overall, a very enjoyable read, but I don’t think I’ll pick it up for a reread in the future.