Allison is just trying to get through college interacting with the fewest number of people possible. She’s about to start her junior year and to the disappointment of her adoptive father, Simon, has been mostly successful at that goal. Allison grew up in the foster care system and has a hard time trusting that people are going to stick around. She knows that she needs to work through some of her issues, but it’s a lot easier to stay in her dorm room and live vicariously through her best friend, Steffi. When Allison gets roped into participating in a social experiment, her whole world changes in just 180 seconds.
I’m going to start off by saying that even though NetGalley classified this book as YA, I would say it fits a lot better in the NA category if only because our main characters are in college. But also, it just feels like an NA book. But anyway, I really appreciated the amount of diversity in this book because it was present without hitting the reader over the head with it. Characters had subtle diverse traits that actually effected who they were as a developed character. I also enjoyed that this book tackled some important topics without trying to take on EVERY important topic (I’m looking at you The Names They Gave Us).
But back to the characters…I absolutely LOVED Allison. My heart really went out to her. I can’t say that I had any of the same experiences in college that she did, but I’ve had my fair share of social anxiety. Obviously what Allison is going through is much bigger than just social anxiety, but I still felt like I could relate to her on some level. Secondary characters were fantastic and had just enough depth in my opinion. My only critique on the character front is that maybe Esben seemed a little too…perfect. There was never any real friction in his and Allison’s relationship and he was super understanding about everything. It’s nice for the story, but I don’t know that it’s necessarily realistic–especially in a boy who’s in his early 20’s. My experience with that age group is that they’re just not that mature.
The plot was great–I loved learning about some of Esben’s social experiments. I liked seeing Allison and even Simon getting involved. However, I’m not totally sure how I feel about the plot twist at the end. Was it necessary? Or not? I’m still on the fence. In the end, though, I feel like even though the plot wasn’t really the focus of the story, it did a good job helping each of the characters to grow and develop.
Overall, I thought this book was another great showing for Jessica Park. I loved Flat-Out Love and this book has definitely convinced me to read everything she writes.
A trigger warning: this book does deal with rape though it isn’t the main focus of the book.
Overall Rating: 5
Language: Mild
Violence: Moderate
Smoking/Drinking: Moderate
Sexual Content: Moderate. They’re in college, they talk about it and do some stuff but nothing is really explicitly described.
Note: I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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