So I hated this book! We’re gonna talk about why. Also, I received this ARC at no cost in exchange for my honest opinion.

One thing that was probably not this book’s fault:

• It takes place during a time when the pandemic is ’mostly over’ but the protagonist is still kind of wary about it and is still wearing a mask, which you know, honestly, commendable! But everyone else in the novel is terrible to her about it! Honestly with the way the pandemic is going right now (Literally everyone I know has COVID and people are being pressured to go back to work before they’re well – by the CDC, so, you know, pretty bad) this is just kind of a weird nightmare to read about. But like, maybe when this was written it did not seem like this would be a problem that we would still be having in 2022!

I also hated the writing style, which was hyper-casual in a voice-y way, but also both of the main characters (Ellen and Renee) sound exactly the same in dialogue. There’s also a ghost character, Katharine, who is supposed to come off as hot via the narration, but she actually just comes off as incredibly creepy and weird. There’s a lot of detail about things that don’t really seem to matter – lots of details about how the protagonist’s cats threw up in the car on the way to their destination, and really I just could have done without that? These cats are just played off as kind of a joke and it’s not particularly funny?

There’s a lot of this book that is supposed to be played off as a joke and it just isn’t funny? Like, one of the first scenes has Renee drinking a cup of tea that her best friend Ellen makes her, and then she is super high because Ellen made her peyote tea without telling her. Like?? Excuse me?? People don’t do that! People shouldn’t do that! Are you friends? Is this what you do to your friends? What the fuck! Ellen signs Renee up for a drag show performance and Renee just really doesn’t want to do it and Ellen will not let up! This is not what friends do! This is my worst nightmare!

Look, I understand that it is supposed to be a thing about how like, Ellen drags Renee into things that she doesn’t want to do because Renee is a nervous person that needs some encouragement, but I really feel like Ellen is going about it in the worst possible way . There’s actually a point where Ellen is like “yeah I did this secret ritual and I attached this ghost to you in a weird magical way but I kind of fucked it up” and you know what! Maybe just don’t do rituals on your best friends without telling them about it! I don’t know, just a suggestion!

I kept reading this book in the hopes that it would get better, but reader, it did not get better! I would have abandoned it if it were not an ARC! And now I am done reading it! Thank you and good night! (One star.)

You can find it on Storygraph here or at the publisher’s website, Bold Stroke Books, here.