Emma Di Nardo

I don't know who decided this book would be not only enjoyed by Year 11 students (an enjoyable story that can be interpreted easily by teens makes studying the book easier) but I also don't know how teachers thought this book was actually good. the way the author uses figurative language is sloppy, she uses too many metaphorical words or phrases that ultimately have no meaning whatsoever and it seems like she's trying to make herself look like a poetic author. The women for some reason are sexualised all the time including Elsa, who is 12. I'm not even an adult and it felt gross and wrong to read the sexualised relationship of a 12 and 13 year old, who at that age should not be dating under any circumstances. The story is also written poorly (because London focuses too much on misusing figurative language) individual character stories jump from one to the other constantly, skipping time. Little insight is given about MOST of these characters making it hard to remember and distinguish between their stories. Finally, Elsa and Frank's relationship is baseless. They weren't even friends before or knew a single thing about each other and now they're 'in love'. their conversations are no greater than 1 sentence each. None of their discourse suggests a strong connection as friends nor lovers. The author describes their love as if it's so deep and special when there's nothing of substance there. An awful read, not looking forward to studying this in 2022. Unless you have to for school, do not read this book. If you are reading it for VCE, I'd say at the end of the year give the english teachers some feedback and let them know how and why this book is awful. I consider myself someone who has always enjoyed english, and most of the time the titles I have read for class have ranged from meh to 5 stars. This 'book' is less than 0 stars, bottom of the barrel garbage and I don't think I like english much now. This book will be extremely difficult for average scoring English students as well.