Okay, so…I have A L O T of mixed emotions about this book. I finished The Outliers about a week ago and I’m still a little…dazed (?) when it comes to how I really feel about it. I’m just going to put them in bullet form so my scattered thoughts are some-what organized. 1. I read about 4-5 reviews on Goodreads prior to reading this book (after I checked it out from the library). Let me clarify that the reviews I read were the first that show up when searching and each review was extremely negative. Each one I read awarded 1-2 stars, which I then immediately assumed this book was going to be bad. One of my favorite reviewers (Emily May) even said it was “laughably bad.” So yeah, there’s that…I think going into this book with the mindset that this is just going to be so bad kind of ruined the actual experience for me. I caught myself kind of pushing off reading more and more of it based on what everyone else had said. 2. The beginning is V E R Y slow, which probably didn’t help how I already felt about it. The book automatically starts off with a lot of sadness surrounding a tragic event Wylie (the main character) experienced, then immediately jumps into her best friend, Cassie, missing. Along with a mysterious text from said best friend. Now, here is something that absolutely boogles my mind. Wylie suffers from agoraphobia which by definition is a form of anxiety disorder where a person fears certain situations, open or closed spaces, and most often suffer from severe panic attacks in public places. Most often people who know OF agoraphobia associate it with the fear of going outside or leaving the home. In Wylie’s case that is exactly it. After what happened to her mom (along with her extensive history of apparent anxiety issues) she cannot bring herself to leave her home. Including doing therapy sessions via FaceTime and having a home tutor to avoid going to school. ANYWAY, Cassie’s boyfriend, Jasper, shows up at Wylie’s house with an equally mysterious text and these two decide they’re going to drive across state lines to rescue their friend, ALONE. Wylie has MINIMAL anxiety when leaving her home, getting into Jasper’s car, AND driving for hours into states and cities she has never been. If you read my review on TWITW (if not click here), I absolutely love when authors write with accuracy regarding mental health issues. I do not feel that Kimberly McCreight depicted agoraphobia accurately. YES! I am aware that symptoms are displayed differently among different people, however, I PERSONALLY feel that this should have had a little more detail and a little more accuracy. 3. Fast forward a bit and I’m starting to really enjoy the story. I’m thinking, wow, I totally judged this book wrong! UNTIL really crazy, seriously unbelievable things started happening. Suddenly a strange couple is essentially kidnapping Wylie and Jasper, then a crooked cop is trapping them in a cabin, next we find out Cassie has ESP (oh wait, don’t call it ESP or Wylie’s dad will freak), then some weird tech hacktivist group is trying to steal scientific data AND the person with ESP, BUT WAIT! Cassie isn’t the special one, the hacktivist group is not on Wylie’s side, and her dad was sitting on the couch the whole time! LIKE WHAT?! Now, while you’re probably sitting there with your face all scrunched up wondering what in the world I JUST said, this is the first installment to a three-part series. I most likely will be picking up the second book to see if this story gets better. Sometimes a really good series has one or two kind of crappy books, but turns out to be really great overall (or is this just me being optimistic?). Will I be picking up the second book any time soon? HELL NO! I need a break after my brain was doing circles trying to figure out W T F was going on.
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I wasn't tagged to do this, I just stumbled across it on GoodReads and figured it'd be a fun quick post until I have my review (The Outliers) written for this weekend. Enjoy!
Okay so the actual TAG is 25 bookish facts about me, but honestly, I can't think of that many! I wasn't tagged by anyone, but I saw this tag on a few booktube channels so I thought I'd make it a blog post since I'm not super into booktubing. Lets jump into it!
F I F T E E N
I have a variety of dream dictionary books that I religiously use to analyze my dreams. Especailly when they get really...questionable. LOL |
welcome babesHey #bookbabes! #CurrentlyReadingArchives
February 2018
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