2.5 Stars
What.THE.F.DID.I.JUST.READ?!
Yeah… that pretty much sums up how I feel right now. I am sorry, but I am going against the norm and say I was NOT a fan of Going Under and no, it’s not because of the subject matter.
I love my happy books, however, every once in awhile I love me an angsty, pull-my-hair, kind of read and I can see why there are so many rave reviews, but … HUGH SIGH I did not get the same feeling.
[Disclaimer]
Going Under isn’t for the faint of heart. It deals with a heavy subject matter that can offend some easily. Just a word of warning.
On with the review…
First Issue
WTF blurb? Really? I mean, EVERYTHING was mentioned in the summary. Okay, maybe not everything, but a huge part of the book, where in my opinion, I should have figured it out on my own OR it should have been revealed to me way sooner than it was.
[Copied of Summary]
Brooke Wright has only two goals her senior year at Charity Run High School: stay out of trouble and learn to forgive herself for the past. Forgiveness proves elusive, and trouble finds her anyway when she discovers a secret club at school connected to the death of her best friend. She learns that swim team members participate in a “Fantasy Slut League,” scoring points for their sexual acts with unsuspecting girls.
Brooke, wracked with guilt over her friend’s death, decides to infiltrate the league by becoming one of the “unsuspecting girls,” and exact revenge on the boys who stole away her best friend. An unexpected romance complicates her plans, and her dogged pursuit of justice turns her reckless as she underestimates just how far the boys will go to keep their sex club a secret.
Second Issue
The beginning was too darn slow. I understand Walden was setting up a back-story and I needed to understand Brook, but come on, I read the blurb, so I was waiting to get to the meat. You know?
Third Issue
I didn’t care for the Heroine. I really wanted to like Brooke, I really did. BUT she was all over the place. Brooke had guilt (which really pissed me off, but that’s my personal issue), so we have that, then her act of “revenge” was just ridiculous. What did she do? Go to a bunch of parties and prevent girls from getting drunk? Ug, okay.... I don’t know (and it may be easy for me to say) but shouldn’t Brooke talk to someone, like a teacher, a parent or talk to the girls explain to them the “situation” instead of saying “oh don’t talk to that guy”.
Okay, my rant is slightly unjustified because she does try to redeem herself and by “redeem”, I mean become less annoying and smarter. The story actually picked up around the 75% mark and that bumped my rating up half a point.
Fourth Issue
Even though it made me nervous, I saw the climatic-ending a mile away! I wasn’t disturbed by this, yes it was dramatic, but if anything I was just pure pissed. I thought to myself, really? Walden went there huh? I just pushed myself to get to the 90% mark.
Things I liked..
Brooke’s dad is freaking awesome
I wasn’t sure who was good or bad. Usually I talk about the Hero, but you really don’t know who it is. Brooke’s affections go back and forth between Ryan and Cal (to me) and at first I felt like there was just something more than what I was reading, but its clearly stated towards the middle.
Video Game Scene!
The ending was good. I liked. I think if I didn’t get that closure I would have just taken two sleeping pills and called it a night.
The cover is beautiful and very fitting.
Overall
I think my downfall was the hype. I hate having high expectations and not having them met. I don’t even think my issue was with the story, I think it was just the whole layout. I thought the beginning was slow and the middle-end was too obvious and quick. I didn’t understand the Heroine and felt there was just something lacking between the Heroine and Hero.
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