We'll Never Be Apart by Emiko Jean Published by Houghton Mifflin (10.6.2015)
Genres: Mystery, Young Adult
Format: eARC, 288 pages
Source: Edelweiss
Murder.
Fire.
Revenge.
That’s all seventeen-year-old Alice Monroe thinks about. Committed to a mental ward at Savage Isle, Alice is haunted by memories of the fire that killed her boyfriend, Jason. A blaze her twin sister Cellie set. But when Chase, a mysterious, charismatic patient, agrees to help her seek vengeance, Alice begins to rethink everything. Writing out the story of her troubled past in a journal, she must confront hidden truths.
Is the one person she trusts only telling her half the story? Nothing is as it seems in this edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller from the debut author Emiko Jean.
My thoughts
Wow, this book is really hard to talk about without giving anything away! I mostly liked it while I was reading, but it didn’t wow me. I did like how twisted it was, though – that was the saving grace for this book.
My main issue with this book is that it was horrendously predictable. View Spoiler »
There were also inconsistencies with the plot. The authority figures were portrayed as rather dumb and useless. Chase and Alice are constantly running around the mental facility, getting into places they don’t belong and sneaking out after stealing ID badges. This must be the most run down and lax mental ward on the face of the planet, because I’ve visited someone in several different mental health facilities over the years and they were all very strict. There’s NO way any of the shenanigans Chase and Alice pulled off would be possible in any place I’ve ever seen. It didn’t seem realistic to me at all, and that took away from the credibility of the story.
Another major issue – fucking cat killing. Excuse my language, but that is my number one biggest pet peeve in literature. I don’t see why authors feel the need to do that shit. Plus, it’s thoroughly predictable in any horror, dystopian, or thriller – as soon as that damn kitten was introduced in this story, I knew it was going to die. I fucking knew it. I was just waiting for it to happen. And I knew exactly what was in that sack as soon as Alice pulled it out of the water. And I was angry. That’s something else that ruined this book for me. The kitten being murdered pissed me off so bad I almost didn’t continue with the story. The only reason I did was because of the mystery aspect stringing me along.
If you don’t see the “twist” coming a mile away (like I did), you don’t mind kittens being murdered, and you don’t pay attention to the plot holes, you’ll probably love this story. Like I said, it’s very twisted and I did like that part of it. I just had too many other issues to enjoy it like I’d hoped. And wow, I just realized after writing this review that I didn’t like this book very much at all O_O
Overall Assessment
Plot: 3/5
Premise: 4/5
Writing style: 2.5/5
Originality: 3.5/5
Characters: 2.5/5
Pace: 4/5
Feels: 1/5
Cover: 4/5
Overall rating: 2.5/5
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