Book Review
Title: A Better Bad Idea
Author: Laurie Devore
Genre: YA/Thriller
Rating: ***
Review: I didn’t know anything about A Better Bad Idea before going into it and honestly that is the best way to experience this book as everything hits you out of nowhere. We follow three main characters, Evelyn Peters, Reid Brewer and Ashton Harper so this book does bounce back and forth between different POV’s a lot which I wasn’t a huge fan of but then I am not a huge fan of multiple POV’s in general. As many of the warnings imply with this book the main trio are an absolutely mess, not just one of them but all of them which was very refreshing to read.
The reading experience of A Better Bad Idea was mixed for me as I devoured the first half of the book in one sitting which isn’t something I commonly do unless I am really invested in the characters and/or story. In addition to the multiple perspective, we also jump back and forth in time as Evelyn’s POV is in the present and Reid’s is between 1 and 2 years in the past. I felt that Evelyn who is supposed the be the central character doesn’t actually get a lot of screen time as that goes to Reid which I understand in a sense but it took a lot of developmental time away from Evelyn and her motivations. At one point a massive motivation for Evelyn was her sister but we actually spend very little time discussing the sister as everything is focused on Ashton and Reid which made Evelyn feel very flat and one dimensional as a character. Despite the few issues I had with this book, I really enjoyed it. The novel opens with Evelyn and Ashton committing arson which didn’t make sense at the time but it does when you learn that the entire books is built around secrets and toxic relationships. For the first part of the book, we only follow Evelyn and this was just as well because she is lacking in the rest of the novel. In her part we get to really understand who Evelyn is as a person and what she wants, I am being vague because almost everything falls into spoiler territory with this book and I don’t want to give away the many twists and turns this book takes.
This book is almost completely character driven so if that isn’t your thing then this might not be the book for you. For me, the characters were the best part of the book despite some issues with development later on. I really loved seeing how the character’s thought processes, and the motivations behind some of their actions. A big part of this novel was Evelyn and Ashton discussing Reid who we learn on the first page of the book is dead and comparing themselves to her because she was a huge part of both of their lives in different ways. The plot was also interesting for me as we learn early on Reid is dead and we want to know why and how especially after we are introduced to her POV in the second act of the book. As we slowly gather the pieces of the puzzle and put them together, we can see how something in the past can continue to affect us in both negative and positive ways even years later. I also like seeing how Ashton and Evelyn reacted to the information that we the readers are also gathering which made the plot really engaging and definitely kept you hooked as you watched the characters evolve throughout the novel and not always for the better.
This book was also really intriguing not just the mystery/thriller aspect but Devore’s writing really added to this. Once the thriller aspects really come into play this book is almost impossible to put down but I did have some serious issues after the ¾ mark. I felt in the final act that there were a lot of the loose plot lines that weren’t handled correctly, they were either just left midway through or not resolved at the end, mainly to insert more dialogue between Ashton and Evelyn which did feel really repetitive at time. Honestly, Reid’s POV was my favourite as she was far more introspective than Ashton or Evelyn and it helped me focus more on her story. As you can probably tell I had a real love/hate relationship with this book. I felt it had some real potential but it didn’t quite live up to it and I honestly felt the knowledge that Reid was already dead should have been made into a reveal much like We Were Liars as that would have really added to the atmosphere and tensions as at times it doesn’t feel like there are any real stakes for the characters. Even days after finishing A Better Bad Idea I still don’t quite know how I feel about it and I will probably have to re-read it in the future just to figure out whether I fall in the love it or hate it camp. Overall, I did feel the experience was worth the effort I put into it but I wasn’t completely satisfied with it.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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