Bleed Like Me

Goodreads blurb:
From the author of Fault Line comes an edgy and heartbreaking novel about two self-destructive teens in a Sid and Nancy-like romance full of passion, chaos, and dyed hair.

Seventeen-year-old Amelia Gannon (just “Gannon” to her friends) is invisible to almost everyone in her life. To her parents, to her teachers-even her best friend, who is more interested in bumming cigarettes than bonding. Some days the only way Gannon knows she is real is by carving bloody lines into the flesh of her stomach.

Then she meets Michael Brooks, and for the first time, she feels like she is being seen to the core of her being. Obnoxious, controlling, damaged, and addictive, he inserts himself into her life until all her scars are exposed. Each moment together is a passionate, painful relief.

But as the relationship deepens, Gannon starts to feel as if she’s standing at the foot of a dam about to burst. She’s given up everything and everyone in her life for him, but somehow nothing is enough for Brooks-until he poses the ultimate test.

Bleed Like Me is a piercing, intimate portrayal of the danger of a love so obsessive it becomes its own biggest threat.

Bleed Like Me by Christa Desir

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

When I saw that I’d gotten approved for this on Edelweiss I was like:

Really.

If I had a happy-o-meter with me, I’m sure it would’ve spontaneously combusted from all the high waves of exuberance I was sending off. It was like a dream come true. I almost peed myself.

Good thing I didn’t, though. Not only would it have been extremely embarrassing, but it also wouldn’t have been worth it because this book… it didn’t exactly turn out to be the all-time shit.

I mean, shit! WHAT the ever-loving crap was this all about? Did the author think she’d deliver some sort of special YA message with that crappy storyline and even crappier ending? Did she think lots of teens could relate to the bull spewed on those pages? Tell me! BECAUSE THIS BOOK FAILED TO MAKE SENSE TO ME AND IT MADE ME SO ANGRY!

Oh-ho. Okay I’m ranting – not good. I started this review trying to be all civil and fuck but I just couldn’t… this book was just sooo frustrating. Especially the ending. (I can’t explain why without giving any major spoilers. Just trust me – it was bloody awful.) It can’t even be called an ending – it gave no justice to any of the characters. I felt so sorry for Gannon and Brooks.

The disappointment is thick. I am so sorry I ever read this.
(ARC given to me for free by Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.)

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The Hollow

Goodreads blurb:
When Abbey’s best friend, Kristen, vanishes at the bridge near Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, everyone else is all too quick to accept that Kristen is dead and rumors fly that her death was no accident. Abbey goes through the motions of mourning her best friend, but privately, she refuses to believe that Kristen is really gone. Then she meets Caspian, the gorgeous and mysterious boy who shows up out of nowhere at Kristen’s funeral, and keeps reappearing in Abbey’s life. Caspian clearly has secrets of his own, but he’s the only person who makes Abbey feel normal again…but also special.

Just when Abbey starts to feel that she might survive all this, she learns a secret that makes her question everything she thought she knew about her best friend. How could Kristen have kept silent about so much? And could this secret have led to her death? As Abbey struggles to understand Kristen’s betrayal, she uncovers a frightening truth that nearly unravels her—one that will challenge her emerging love for Caspian, as well as her own sanity.

The Hollow by Jessica Verday
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I was bored out of my mind the entire time I was reading this.

Abbey was such a weak protagonist. She was constantly being stepped all over because she let people do it to her without a single peep. She never fought back – not even when people started to talk trash about her best friend. And she was easily moved to tears, whether it was about an orange juice spill or the boy who was or was not her boyfriend, so a sizable portion of the book was composed of her sobbing uncontrollably in some corner where nobody would find her. I think she’s the worst female character I’ve ever come across.

And, as if that wasn’t bad already, the story also had an insufferable case of the INSTALOVE. Abbey didn’t even know the dude’s last name yet but she was already claiming to be in love with him. Ugh. (view spoiler)[And, at the end, I found out the dude was actually incorporeal. Abbey’d baked him some cookies and seen him eating them, so if he was a damn GHOST, then where the heck did those cookies go? Seriously, I can’t even comprehend this. (hide spoiler)] I don’t know how I managed to finish all 509 pages of this book.

I’m curious about the secret Abbey’s best friend, Kristen, was keeping from her. Other readers say that the person Kristen was seeing will be revealed in book two but since I don’t feel like I’m up for book two, I’ll just settle on reading their spoiler-filled reviews to get answers. I don’t really want to continue this series.

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