By: Rory Power

The Plot: It’s been eighteen month’s since a horrific disease known as the Tox hit Raxter School for Girls and Hetty’s life fell apart. It affected everything on Raxter’s island, the plants, the animals, and, the people. It started slow, killing the teachers one by one, until only two were left. Then, the students, afflicting their bodies with horrendous disfigurements.

The school has been under quarantine every since, it’s resident’s praying that the navy will find a cure and things can go back to normal. Now, all they can do is wait and obey the rules, the most important being not breaking the quarantine.

But, when Byatt goes missing, Hetty will do everything she can to get her back, even if it means wandering outside the school’s fence where the Tox made the woods wild and dangerous. Hetty and her friend Reese set out on a journey where they uncover big secrets about Raxter and the Tox.

My Thoughts: I was so excited to start this book. The cover was beautiful and the synopsis was intriguing and exciting. Maybe it was my high expectations, but this book fell short. It took way to long for anything to happen, and when it did, a third of the way through, it wasn’t that exciting. There were so many different offshoots of the story: the pieces didn’t fit together. When we started to figure things out, they didn’t all fit in. Also, the ending was very inconclusive, and it didn’t make sense.

The character relationships were a bit rushed and underdeveloped. Hetty is obsessed with Byatt, Byatt is a bad girl who likes at cross boundaries, and Reese is a orphan who doesn’t like to open up? They didn’t have any more traits…

The writing style was not my favorite either, or just the lack of editing. There were many places where I thought the lack of commas changed the whole meaning of the sentence. I don’t know what made the author ignore the rules and conventions of grammar, but…?

I also love when books “show” the backstory (incorporate into the plot) instead of “tell”, (explain plainly). This book was more of a “tell” which was disappointing.

But, there were aspects of this book I liked, like the female/female relationship that was adorable! Though, there was a boy in the plot who really didn’t need to be there. I also loved how the author switched perspectives of the book, which helped the plot move along a little faster.

As for the “horror” part of the book, it’s more of a “makes your skin crawl” than “jump scare.” I would recommend reading Rory Power’s content warnings, (at the bottom of the page) before starting this book.

The Cover: Oh, this cover! I LOVED it! It was probably one of my favorite covers ever, though I wish the inside was just as great…

My Rating: I am going to give this book… A 3 STAR RATING. It was just.. meh.

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La Petite Book Girl