Sad Girls by Lang Leav

Challenge #5 ~ “A book with a cover you don’t like.”

★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

My opinion in three sentences:

I found it easy to read – it wasn’t one where I genuinely struggled to read the next paragraph, but more because the language wasn’t atrocious than because the plot was OK. Leav fell victim to several issues in the book with filler characters, an unrelatable and regularly changing protagonist, and some real mixed messaging. I thought there was much promise from the blurb, but by the time I finished the epilogue my hopes had truly been shredded.

(Without spoiling anything) the best bit:

Leav has a way with words. Her use of language is really great, and that’s probably why I haven’t culled any of her poetry off my TBR (because I am a poetry fan, and I’ve heard great things). Expression and language. The best bits of Sad Girls. I’ll leave it there.

A warning for the book: 

Where do I start, and how do I sum it all up? Inconsistency is probably the word to encompass it all. From characters introduced as key that just become filler characters (I’m looking at you Candela!), to moral messages that constantly contradict one another, to an ending that throws it all under the bus even more, Sad Girls feels like a mess of different ideas and tangents that the author couldn’t choose between. (Seriously, I wasn’t prepared for that epilogue and how much more harm a single chapter could do to my opinion of the book!)

(If that was a little too cryptic for you, there’s some more detailed explanation in my Goodreads’ review, although it’s a little bit more spoiler-y as well!)