2.5/5
I don't even know what to say about this book because honestly, I can't decide if I hated it or loved it. This book would be amazing and I would be obsessed with finding out what was going to happen next but sometimes it just felt like the author handed over the computer for someone else to write before they decided to take it back over. I don't even know what else to say about this book other than it just felt all over the place. This book definitely had so much potential to be amazing but I just don't understand what happened it kind of felt like the author didn't plan it out and was just creating the story as they typed. Overall this book just didn't work for me the author has great potential and I would definitely try out another book from them but still, I personally wouldn't recommend this book as it disappointed me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this eArc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you TCK Publishing, IBPA, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. IYKYK, my review are always honest.

TRIGGER WARNING: explicit suicide and self harm

This was an attempted buddy read with Chantel, but the prologue gave her a brain aneurysm so she's still recovering.

THE PLOT

Dr. Glass is a psychologist who gets some heat after defending mothers who murder their own kids. Shocker—not everyone agrees with her and she starts getting threatening letters. Anddddd that's all I can say without giving the rest away.

MY OPINION

Usually I give three scores for writing, plot, and the ending, but I found this difficult because the first half of this book is garbagio and the second half snapped back like J Lo after giving birth to twins. When this book is good, it is GOODT, but when it's bad, it's a crime against humanity.

First half lowlights:

- Shitty supporting characters: Lucy the fat-shaming/fatphobic "nutritionist" can fuck right off with her outdated BMI bs. Kat and her synchronizing tongue flicks with her snake can also exit immediately. Major horse girl/pick me energy with this one.

- Idk what it's called but the fat fetish sex scenes can also go ... really unnecessary. Literally has no relevance to the overall story.

- A lot of unnecessary details about the clinic's parking situation, the colour of the walls, etc.

- Prologue nearly killed me and after I finished I don't see where it fit in with the story?????

Second half highlights:

- After the fat fetish couple, Kat, and fat phobic Lucy POVs were dramatically scaled back, the book was WAAAYYYY more enjoyable. I liked the unravelling of Drew's mental state and Emma's struggle with Stockholm Syndrome. If the novel had kicked off from the kidnapping, it would've been much better overall. It's really the scenes between Drew and Emma (esp the scene where Drew goes fully off the depend) that lifted this rating to a 3, otherwise it was giving me 1.5 stars AT BEST.

- I enjoyed Emma's inner conflict about the whole kidnapping ordeal with Drew... I've always been fascinated by Stockholm Syndrome and I found this to be a decent exploration of this complex coping mechanism.

- I'm glad Emma located her logic and reasoning at the end and chucked the deuces up

Overall concerns:

- Tryna figure out how Lucy was in her 20s or at most early 30s, but her mom was 86????? I know I'm bad at math, but unless this was some sort of miracle birth situation, it's not adding up.

- I dead ass thought Emma was like 40 yrs old, not besties with Lucy since they went to college together. Emma gave me old lady vibes, whereas Lucy seemed like she was constantly a deer in headlights.

- Why did AJ do what he did? What was his motive? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Unrelated to the book's content, but it seems like this book was previously published in April 2021? The description is diff on Goodreads, but it's def the same book. Not sure what's going on there?

PROS AND CONS

Pros: Second half tightened tf up thank GOD, good psychological insights

Cons: First half, nonsensical POVs, dumbass characters, weird, misplaced prologue