whitneydaniell

by: Sian Gilbert
published: Jun 13, 2023
genre: Murder Mystery, Thriller, Fiction
352 Pages, Hardcover
GoodReads Link

I have very, very, v e r y few good things to say about this book – which is sad because it has been on my TBR since March and I was excited to read it. Quick synopsis… Four childhood friends get an invitation to a bachelorette weekend on a remote island. The twist is, the bachelorette is another childhood acquaintance whom these four, bullied relentlessly and without regard.

• Poppy – The bachelorette.
• Annabel – The “queen bee” of the foursome. Currently married to Andrew who, by all intents and purposes, is a fuck boy. If I had to choose, she would be the most insufferable of the lot. Annabel is quoted saying, “why do I like to pick at people’s insecurities? I know I’m doing it, in fact, that’s almost why I do it in the first place. There’s something about watching someone’s face fall and know you’re the one that caused it, that you’re in the stronger position.” WTF.
• Chloe – The “wild card” of the foursome. She’s the one who is unpredictable and impulsive but also, a terrible human being. She is runner-up to being most insufferable and, depending. on the chapter being read, she may be a clear winner.
• Tanya – The “former best friend”. She was Poppy’s best friend before running behind Annabel. She’s not the worse but, nowhere near redeemable. Also, her whole “secret” seemed like. after-thought – I didn’t like that.
• Esther – The “responsible one”. She was boring. A snooze-fest. Of all four of the women, I didn’t mind her chapters but, she had no redeeming qualities either.

The story is told from each of the foursome’s point of view with a few chapters from Poppy mixed in there. Speaking of Poppy’s chapters, they’re written like diary entries and I absolutely hated them! I skipped through most of them and only took the meat and left everything else. The diary entries should have just been written like chapters because no young girl is writing full mini-novels in their diary – complete with dialogue and everything! It was too much.

Without revealing too much, the “plot twist” didn’t give what it was supposed to give. Everything in between was predictable and actually, rather foolish.

BUT WHAT I HATED THE MOST is how the foursome downplayed the awful things they did to Poppy and tried to brush it off as ‘kids being kids’. Every time the bullying was brought up, they acted as if it were no big deal – as if what they did to Poppy was “normal” kids teasing other kids. It was not normal by any stretch of the imagination. I really felt for Poppy. Poppy deserved so much more and it seemed like everyone around her failed her. Her teachers, her parents, her sister, everyone knew what was going on and no one did anything to stop it.

*slight SPOILER* The teacher could have done more to investigate who vandalized her painting instead, the teacher fails her (literally, she gets an F grade) and she can’t get to her dream school. That was BS! They all failed her!

Final Thoughts: It wasn’t my cup of tea. The writing was okay, it was a quick and easy read. The character development, plot, and ending didn’t do it for me, however. This premise could have been done better with a little more thought put into it. Not a single character would be someone I would root for, they were all unbearable.