“As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were. Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life, and for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special–and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.” -Goodreads Bio

I know that the last book I reviewed was Wild and it too had been made into a movie, and to add to the repetition I hadn’t seen either of the movies when I wrote the reviews. Anyways, the casting for this one is honest to God terrible- they look nothing like should.

I’m one of those people who have problems liking a book if I don’t like the characters. So this one took my by surprise. I hated the characters but I loved the book. I think it’s because there was a logical reason for every characteristic I hated- the reactions are so human and so relatable.

There is a love triangle, which is a pet peeve of mine, mainly because most of them are done really, really poorly, but this ones so two sided that it actually didn’t strike me as one till I finished reading.

The plot line of this book is a little predictable but the structure within the plot is really beautiful. There is a ton to close read in this- especially the systems set up within the boarding school. I think that it’s the details like this that really saved the book for me. It got me thinking- and it got me considering things I hadn’t thought about in the real world.

So all around 3/5 stars. I’d love to know what you think about it if you choose to read it! Or just go and see the movie!