Review: Perfectly Preventable Deaths

Perfectly Preventable Deaths by Deirdre Sullivan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I honestly have no fking clue what the hell just happened.

Alright, look.

I wasn't really sure what this book was about, going into it, and I'm not entirely sure I know much better on the other side of it.

Here's what the blurb says: Sixteen-year-old sisters Maddy and Catlin have just moved to the isolated Irish town of Ballyfrann. Normally close, they find their paths diverging, as Catlin falls in love and Maddy falls ... into powers?

My run down would be similar, but I would expand on Maddy's powers being rather witchy (the fact that every chapter is a plant/herb/flower and its medicinal use is a bit of a hint) and also isolated Ballyfrann being a fkn WEIRD place.

To be perfectly honest, I was pretty bored for the first 200-odd pages, and did a fair bit of skimming. There's a lot of info about how close the sisters (twins, btw) are and how they're having a hard time fitting in, although Maddy is the weird one and Catlin is the popular one. There's a lot of random boring school stuff (which actually doesn't seem to involve any kind of classes), and the older boy that Catlin is interested in hangs out at the school so much that I was trying to figure out if I'd accidentally skipped over the explanation of why this older kid is still a student there (he's not, he's just a creeper who hangs out at the school). There are conversations between the kids that I really didn't care about, and the relationships are so watery and pale and lifeless that I just didn't care anything about them.

As for the characters, I just couldn't really get a read on any of them, except for Lon who was just a creep from the beginning. Did not like him a single bit. Maddy is quirky but she spends so much time focusing on boring things that reading from her POV is super dull. Catlin is the typical 'popular sister' who cares more about boys than her sister even though she professes this to be false. Oona was ehhhh and aside from being French didn't really have much of a personality at all, and Mamo is clearly batsh*t insane and could have been a lot of fun but was basically wasted on Maddy's ramblings. I don't think any of them were really described particularly well, so I never got a feel for who they were or what was driving them. It was a bit disappointing because I feel like there was a lot of potential that was wasted.

So here's me reading this totally boring tween story about fitting in and then there's suddenly random dead animals? Just lying on the side of the road? With no explanation? This is not a spoiler, this happens like on Day 1, and it's just so chill that it's a non-event? That confused me so much.

Here's the deal - most of this book is entirely dull and lifeless but then you get all these random super dark moments and it's like you're reading an entirely different story. I freaking LOVED the dark stuff but it was so jarring and awkward!

There was just so much wasted potential with this story, and the way it ended it felt like it'd just been setting the whole scene for an epic series of witchy adventures but ... it's a standalone? If I'm wrong about that someone please correct me, because the only way this book makes sense is if it's setting up for a series. On it's own its just ... a mess.

Spoiler thoughts:
(view spoiler)[
-Turns out the whole town is full of 'weird' people. Eg. The Collinses are shape-shifters. Why make a town full of strange creatures and then not use any of them?! What a waste!
-Mamo turned out to be kind of a villain at the end? Yet the whole way through, Maddy constantly turns to her for help/advice. The relationship between the two is just super confusing.
-The whole deal with their mum and dad. The whole, secret witchy past. Why not give us the details? This is one of the things that had me mystified about it being a standalone. So many unanswered questions! And what the heck did that ending even mean?!
-What Lon did to Catlin was PROPER PSYCHO. Yet I am confused. We never really find out what he was, why he did what he did, what the deal was with the other girls, and exactly why he was able to get away with everything for so long? YOU HAVE SHAPESHIFTERS IN YOUR TOWN. Surely there should be someone who could hunt this mofo down??
-Catlin's praying and Mary obsession? I am confused. What was the point?
-The entire castle has lots of secret passageways etc but, again, we never get to explore them. What's the point??
-Goddamn when Maddy grabbed that kitten, I was bloody nearly having kittens myself! Finally some super dark, macabre action! But jeezuz that was a dark moment. I did not see it coming at all! That single moment scored the bonus star for this book.
-How long was that ending? It was drawn out for so many extra, pointless chapters. EUGH, the POINTLESSNESS of it all.
(hide spoiler)]

Everything about the way this ended had me convinced it was setting up for a series. I didn't even like this book all that much and I want a sequel. Without a sequel, this whole thing was just pointless.

So in summary it was kinda boring and pointless but it did have some super dark and bizarre moments that kept me entertained, even if I was scratching my head a lot by the end of it. If there's no sequel to this mess, however, it was basically just 352 pages of wasted potential.

If I am wrong, though, and there is a sequel, I WANT IT.

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