20 October 2023

As always, Hoover’s books are a quick reads. I picked this book to read to have a quick and fun read. However, this book was a bit of a downer compared to some of her others. It seems I just cannot escape these sad books.

This book is told from Merit’s point of view. Merit Voss is a seventeen-year-old girl who has to deal with the normal teenage angst most kids go through and has strained relationships with her very eccentric family. She seems to think everyone else in her family has major issues but doesn’t necessarily notice that she has some odd behaviour. Merit collects trophies from garage sales and thrift shops, their family lives in what used to be the town’s church. Merit’s dad ended up having an affair years ago when her mother was sick which later resulted in her parent’s divorce and her dad’s remarriage to the woman he ended knocking up. Not to mention that the mother and ex-wife is now living in the basement of the church. Overall this whole family is a disaster.

Merit was such an interesting character because there were times when she was starting arguments with everyone around her and you just wanted to yell at her to stop. However, more often than not, I sort of agreed with her and could see where she was coming from. Because at time her family was just terrible.

I do like the fact that this book is more focused on the family dynamic and mental health than just boy drama, which is what most of Colleen Hoover’s books are. The only thing that drove me mad was the names in this book, the twins, Honor and Merit the older brother, Utah. We also have Sagan, and Luck. And the dad’s was Barnaby. Also, the mother and the new step-mother having the same name was hilarious. That was the only normal name, Victoria.

I still read this book fairly quickly as I just could not get enough of the train smash that this family is. A solid four stars, would recommend.