3.5 Stars

CW: Description of person falling off cliff edge, murder, dealing with guilt over death of father, drugs and alcohol, bury your gays

Well that was a pretty exciting survival story!

Okay, the writing was a bit clunky, the POV felt weirdly done, and the author's notes that told us bad stuff was about to happen were a bit odd. Ignore that all and just enjoy the thrill of the chase and fight for life. Really glad to have this one on order for the library. ( )

Okay let's list all the reasons why i didn't like this book.

The writing was so detached. I never felt connected with Dawn.

The endings of each chapter were cringey. I suppose they were trying to be mysterious and keep you interested, but it ended being more of a "pls keep reading."

The author's notes in the middle were unnecessary, and sometimes the POV would shift from the first person narrator to third person Dawn, which was confusing.

The plot was predictable from the beginning, evening without the author's hints. Wardan was unrealistic, too much of a mindless monster to make him interesting ( )

So… I chose this because it’s a White Pine nominee and I like to see what’s getting nominated. I really wasn’t liking this much and I was close to bailing on it. I didn’t like the POV and I didn’t like the author throwing in an “authors note” periodically. It felt like I was reading a school creative writing piece from a twelve year old. And I didn’t even particularly like the main character, Dawn.
But, since I rarely bail on a book, I decided to give it two more chapters and then a bunch of stuff happens really quickly and the second half of the book just FLIES in a hold your breathe headlong plunge of pure OMGness … and my brain was screaming, What else can possibly happen?!?!
So… ya. The book definitely got better and I ended up adjusting to the style and liking it much more than I expected to. :-)
Warning: Does contain profanity for those of you who are sensitive to those things. ( )