![]() However, the rest of the book fell flat for me in its attempt to go above and beyond the typical wild domestic thriller plots.I was lucky enough to stumble upon a Facebook post the other day, which led me to this Never Have I Ever game. I loved that the major plot point wasn’t saved for the end of the book, that it took place literally within the first 50 pages. I will agree with the majority on one thing, that Joshilyn Jackson does have a very distinctive voice with her prose and that she has a flair for writing. Overall, I think this book could have been done better by moving some things around, taking some scenes out, adding better scenes in. Her homosexuality was used as a plot point to merely highlight Roux’s villainy – quite tokenistic if you ask me. The final part of that scene that I didn’t really appreciate was this huge secret that Panda was gay, yet married to a man. I didn’t see it coming because it wasn’t necessarily a trait that fits with Roux’s character at all. Another part that didn’t fit with the tone of the book was Roux being a paedophile/groomer. ![]() Either way, it didn’t fit with the tone of the scene. I don’t really know what the purpose of that scene was, if it was atmospheric or just meant to be humorous. That part just felt so strange and could have been left out. Adjacent to that plot, Amy ends up with a used condom on her shoulder while she’s hiding under the bed. There were some cliche moments, like hiding under the bed and hearing entire phone conversations that were meant to reveal huge secrets. There were also some scenes that either added nothing to the overarching story or didn’t fit with the vibe of the book. So how does that fit in with her knowing all along that Char was Lolly? It didn’t make sense to me, perhaps a plot hole that they didn’t really fix before publication. As in, she actually believed she could be. But then there’s this whole segment where Amy explains she knew all along, so why was she so shocked that Char was Lolly? And when she first met Roux, she was terrified when Roux told her she was Lolly Shipley. When it’s revealed that Char is Lolly Shipley, both Roux and Amy are so shocked by the announcement. The Lolly Shipley storyline didn’t make much sense to me either. Jackson tried to give her an emotional storyline, but it didn’t really make much sense. I needed just a bit more information about who her husband was and why she needed like half a million to escape everything. Half the time she was talking about her husband being abusive, and then she was talking about Luca’s dad being abusive: it was really hard to tell where one relationship began and the other one ended. There was something about an abusive relationship in there, but the whole concept of Luca being her ‘son’ really messed that whole storyline up. I also don’t really understand what Roux’s motive was behind trying to take everyone’s money. We got Amy, Char, and Roux, but I wish we had more about Tate since she was still a pretty big character in the whole overarching plot. I would have liked more on other characters’ perspectives. But she was just there for one small purpose and I can’t even remember what that purpose was. Like, there was someone called Lavonda? I think that was her name, anyway. Usually, I can get over those but it was pretty much eye-roll-worthy in Never Have I Ever. A lot of the characters were named and then forgotten. However, I don’t know if I can say that it got much better from then on.Ī lot of moments in the book were predictable cliches. ![]() As I said, the start of the book really did give me high hopes. Usually, the protagonists in this type of novel are snobby, stay-at-home ladies of leisure, so this was a nice change from the norm. The element of scuba diving being Amy’s speciality was a small detail that I really did appreciate. The book started off quite well: the writing style was very intriguing from the beginning, the characters were set out and unravelled quite well. Once it arrived, it just stared at me from my bookshelf every time I went to pick a new book up, so I read it pretty quickly! For the most part, I enjoyed it, although there were some parts that I will go into more depth about which didn’t really make sense to me, and therefore brought my overall rating down. First off, a huge thank you to Raven Books for sending me a copy of Never Have I Ever. This was one of those books that I had seen floating around Bookstagram, that I really liked the sound of.
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