Allison Rushby

Trigger warnings: Near-death experiences

6/10, I picked this up from one of the two libraries I go to and at first I thought this was going to be a good science fiction book written by an Australian author to boot until I realised this had a low rating so I lowered my expectations but even still I was so underwhelmed by this but maybe the author's other books she has written since then might be better, so where do I even begin? It starts with the main character Miri who is this intelligent character who goes to a poshy private school and is offered to participate in a program that she accepts not knowing what it entails. The characters were very flat, and the plot was just some boring random experimentation on people. And for half of the time, the characters more or less just sat around and waited. The ending was especially bad because the main character just ran away on her own and nearly died of her own bad decisions without bothering to stop others from being experimented upon and there was like a cliffhanger ending, but no sequel. What a shame. You can go read the Alex Rider series, for a better, more thrilling book series than this.… (meer)

I haven’t read a good chick lit novel in years, and I was excited to pick this one up. Unfortunately, it just didn’t do it for me. I found the characters over-the-top, and not in a fun way. I also couldn’t relate to Dicey at all (and I couldn’t get past her name; which isn’t even her real name, but I digress.)

The plot wasn’t terribly exciting either and it was rather predictable. Women’s lives go to shit, women eat and cry and comfort each other, women go on a journey to find themselves, women figure out all their problems and magically life is perfect again. And through all that, everything just sort of meandered along, with various revelations about Dicey, her sister, and their friend, Sally, sprinkled in at random intervals for good measure. I just didn’t engage with any of it: not the characters, not the plot, not even with Australia, which I usually love reading about.

I felt as though the entire novel was tepid. Like it was trying too hard and not really hitting any of the marks it aimed for. Overall, a disappointment.… (meer)