I have very mixed feelings about this one.

For once, I discovered who the bad guy was from the very beginning, so the mystery side of it wasn’t, well, mysterious. On the other hand, the plot had a potential that wasn’t exploited because the characters on which the core plot hinges were de-centred from the story.

Sarah, Luc and Heather are the reason the plot could be a thing; their complicated relationship, Heather’s ugly personality, Luc’s general assholery and Sarah’s ill hero complex and generational pressure to be head girl are what makes this book interesting… but we only get to know them after roughly the 87% mark. And it just sucks. I’m not saying that Iyanu, Kitan, the Villars and Navin were uninteresting (not adding Oliver here since he was uninteresting), but they undeniably were just tangentially related to the main plot —by virtue of being collateral damage in the wider scheme of Sarah’s retaliation and whatnot— and only were important in relation to subplots (eg. Iyanu and her WeCreate article).

I don’t want to take away from the wealth of good the book does when it comes to shedding light on issues that plague black people, bi people and people whose identities relate to both blackness and bisexuality. My critique is in no way aimed towards that aspect of the book: it’s aimed towards the lacklustre, poorly-approached (and I’m going to say it: mediocre, since at the end of the day it boils down to rich brats’ high school drama) main plot. 

I’ll finish this by saying I wish Omotomi would’ve been brave enough to make her characters messier and more in-the-thick of it all, since they actually ended looking like onlookers.

With the privileged position she’s in in respect to Heather-Luc-Sarah, Kitan could’ve been a way better character, come on!