Review: The Cost of All Things by Maggie Lehrman
SYNOPSIS:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets We Were Liars in this thought-provoking and brilliantly written debut that is part love story, part mystery, part high-stakes drama.
What would you pay to cure your heartbreak? Banish your sadness? Transform your looks? The right spell can fix anything…. When Ari’s boyfriend Win dies, she gets a spell to erase all memory of him. But spells come at a cost, and this one sets off a chain of events that reveal the hidden—and sometimes dangerous—connections between Ari, her friends, and the boyfriend she can no longer remember.
Told from four different points of view, this original and affecting novel weaves past and present in a suspenseful narrative that unveils the truth behind a terrible tragedy.
REVIEW:
*Book Received in Exchange for Honest Opinion/Review*
This book has been sitting on my TBR shell for 3 years and now I recall why I could never get into it…this book is filled with the most selfish group of teens I have ever encountered. Honestly, it’s as if they are trying to one-up each other in how self-centered they could be. These characters are truly awful, they show no growth or development, and deserve all the bad things that happen to them, ungrateful brats.
Now I will say, the whole hekamist aspect and spells part intrigued me. Get a spell to fix things, why yes, it sounds interesting but the author never really builds on this. You never learn the history of hekamists or why things are the way they are. And this left me frustrated because this was what interested me to begin with! That and the fact that I am trying to read my way through my pile of old ARCs. Now lets get into each character and why they were the worst!
Win has depression, although the author does an excellent job of never saying that and instead eludes to bad days and good days and I wish she would have just been transparent. Kay, is the definition of crazy with abandonment issues. Honestly, I couldn’t even deal with her level of crazy. Diana attempted to be a light character but she was really just a b*tch. And finally that brings me to Markos, hot-mess express with an even worse family.
Now these characters are all horrid in their own ways and while I did enjoy the little plot twist at the end of the book, it was rough getting there. I was bored and appalled by these characters. They have no regard for money or their friendships. If the world doesn’t revolve around them, then the world is ending. I can’t find anything redeeming to say about this book, the author skirted around what I thought was interesting and in the end I am just glad its over.
LINKS:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble
