This book brings up ideas about how the justice system is complicated and racist, prisons are inhumane, misogyny is rampant, and getting groomed and harassed is bad, etc. and it’s like… yeah, I agree/already know that, but now what do you want me to do? The book kind of brings up the state of the world and doesn’t say anything else other than “things are pretty bad.” I guess the message could be that bad things do happen, but the people who survive can be strong enough to get through it. But I can’t tell if it has anything new to say or if it’s capable of dissecting the things it brings up. The book doesn’t seem to have any deeper commentary on complicated topics, and yet it uses them constantly.

I think the main character Bodie (and, in a sense, the author) have a strong understanding of the internet, social media, how people react to news post-#MeToo and Covid pandemic, the idea of cancel culture, and Gen Z to an extent (at least the more progressive ones), but all of these tend to feel like caricatures and not representations of real things. There’s just a weird feeling I get when I think of how abuse victims and Gen Z kids are written from Bodie’s perspective. They look silly through her eyes sometimes, and they feel dramatic in a way that’s not realistic. I don’t know how to explain it fully. Also it’s hard to take a character seriously if he unironically says he’s getting canceled, and Bodie mostly sides with him, so it makes me wonder how reliable her view and description of the situation is. Something about the cancellation arc of this story feels wrong, like I’m missing the point.

For a long time, it seemed like nothing was happening in the story. It starts with the main character thinking the guy in jail didn’t do it and maybe it was this other guy despite the lack of evidence. Then halfway through, she still thinks the guy in jail didn’t do it and maybe it was this other guy despite the lack of evidence (except she’s more confident about it now!). The actual mystery that should be the focus doesn’t feel like it moves for a majority of the book. We get details about the main character’s life instead that don’t tie into the main plot, and I don’t care about them because I don’t even like Bodie. Then, when they make progress in solving the murder, there’s a time skip to after the discovery, so we completely miss the action. Why did I have to hear about Bodie writing a drunken Twitter thread that makes her sound terrible instead of follow the people who are making the plot move forward?

This should’ve been shorter. It easily could’ve been. It also wasn’t super thrilling despite being a thriller. The mystery wasn’t very satisfying to listen to even though I was invested in finding out what happened. The main character centers herself in a situation that is very much not about her at all, and it’s only sort of addressed but not settled. There are times when people got mad at Bodie and I think it was unfair, but that’s not how it feels all the time. Toward the end of the book, I kept thinking about how she does have empathy for everyone affected, but ultimately, she’s the one shaping the narrative and her opinions get the focus. It’s an interesting idea to tell a story from the point of view of a bystander, but here I don’t think it worked. I think it could’ve been made better by using a different main character or multiple perspectives.

The choice to make Bodie address a particular person the entire book makes sense and was interesting initially, but it didn’t seem like the best option for the narration. Maybe because she’s talking to someone who might not care about other people enough, she lists bad news about female victims and terrible medical treatment in jail like she’s trying to make him feel bad. It feels like she’s trying to prove a point about abuse being so wrong and widespread, but the real audience (me) already knows that, so she’s preaching to the choir. I don’t even know if the character she’s addressing ever hears what she’s sharing.

I wouldn’t say this is bad, but it’s not a very good book either. It honestly feels strange to rate this. I don’t think it’s written poorly, so it doesn’t deserve 2 stars, but I also didn’t really like it, so it’s not getting more than 3. But then there’s books I’ve rated 3 stars that I enjoyed more than this, so it’s just here somewhere. There’s a chance I misread this, and my experience could’ve been different if I read a physical copy instead of the audiobook, but take from this review what you will.

I Have Some Questions for You - Likewise Book Reviews

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