All Eyes on Us by Kit FrickMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
A little light on the drama I was hoping for, but an okay read I suppose.
Amanda was perfectly nasty to start with but Rosalie was dealing with real trauma and I'm gonna be honest, I wasn't ready for it. I was totally expecting some petty teenage drama with a side of rich-people problems. NOT THE CASE.
Here's the deal: Amanda is the typical mean queen B and Carter is her arm candy. He's the typical, 'most popular guy in the school' and he and Amanda are destined to get married, be rich and do lots of important rich-people things together. Only Carter is cheating on Amanda with Rosalie, who in turn is only using Carter to pretend that the conversion therapy she was forced to undergo really worked. (Don't tell anyone she has a secret girlfriend.) But someone knows their secrets and is now threatening them with anonymous texts Pretty Little Liars-style.
So let's start with the princess herself, Amanda:
- Shallow
- Cares more about appearances than feelings
- Secretly just wants her mum to love her
- Doesn't care about Carter's cheating, as long as he stays with her
- Spiteful on the surface but crumbling from the pressure of being perfect
Then we have meek lil Rosalie:
- Is a lesbian
- Is part of a family and religious group who believes this to be a 'sinful choice' that must essentially be tortured out of her
- Is deeply traumatised by the 'conversion therapy' she had to undergo
- Is actually a fkn BADASS despite it all
- But kind of a dick for using Carter without him knowing the truth
And our golden boy himself Carter:
- Cheating douchebag
- Nice to everyone on the surface
- Suffering from the pressure of keeping up appearances
- Secretly devoted to fun-girl (?) Rosalie
- Still a cheating douchebag
There are THEMES here, too, that go deeper than the nasty teen drama I wanted to revel in. Let me spoiler tag them just in case:
(view spoiler)
But let me talk about the big one, and that is Rosalie's horrible, horrible situation.
I find it so tragically sad that there are people in this world who truly believe that someone's inherent nature can be so wrong it justifies torture. And Rosalie isn't just dealing with persecution from the general public, or even the close-knit religious community she's part of - her own parents are so afraid of her being attracted to the same gender that they think it's okay to have her tortured. And that's exactly what conversion therapy is. TORTURE. Inflicting harm on another human being until they do what you want them to do. It just makes me so sick to think people actually do this. The bond between a parent and child should be sacred and full of unconditional love and instead I have to read about Rosalie being mistreated by her own family. It hurt my heart so much.
I picked this up for a light, trashy read and then that. So let me just take a moment to say to all the people reading this review who feel like they are unloved because of characteristics of who they are: YOU DESERVE TO BE LOVED NO MATTER WHAT AND DON'T LET ANYONE EVER TELL YOU OTHERWISE.
Okay so now moving on.
The text from 'Private Number' were so sad and pathetic. Like, please watch a few seasons of Pretty Little Liars and learn how to threaten someone properly. Also prank them properly. This was far too light on with the threats.
Then the side cast of characters didn't get a huge amount of screen time so it all fell a little flat. I wanted more people with secrets and behind-the-back whispering and fights and rumours and just MORE. Alas, this was all pretty tame.
Altogether it was like a bland, washed out attempt at copying PLL. It wasn't quite clever enough, or twisted enough, or deep enough. This needed to contain either more savagery or deeper people to really suck me in. Rosalie's situation made for an interesting angle but overall it wasn't really enough to save the premise of the story.
Still, a quick enough read to keep you entertained for a day or two.
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