I am back with another book review, Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher.
This was one of those books that I heard about years ago and had sitting on my TBR ever since. I thought the premise was interesting, but I always found another book to read. In the end, I was just sort of meh about it, so I don't really regret putting it off.
The story follows Zoe, a girl who like the Death Row inmate she is writing letters to, has killed someone. Except, she didn't get caught and she won't turn herself in - even with the guilt. After falling for two boys, Zoe has to choose, and that choice has deadly consequences for one of them.
I thought the premise of this book was really interesting. I was expecting a thriller or at least a bit of a mystery, but I pretty much figured out roughly what happened and who died fairly early on.
The narration was a bit off for me, it's told in Zoe's letters - she retells events that happened leading up to the killing. I think it got a bit tedious after a while and I felt like we didn't really need it in the form of letters or at least individual ones. The book would have worked just as well as one long letter because there was no return from the inmate she was writing to.
I also felt like I didn't really get a good grasp on Zoe's age in this writing style. For a long time, I thought she was 13-14 years old, but I'm assuming she would be closer to 16-17. Her letter writing felt too childish to fit her supposed age. I think this was part of the reason why I didn't really love her as a character. She was kind of annoying and while she had her problems, I didn't find myself caring about them.
I think that some of the personal problems she and her family were going through were not really needed for the story. In the end, they didn't really serve a purpose. Some of the time they were so monotonous that they became less interesting and charming and more filler. Let's be real here, this story, the murder at least, could have been told in 10-15 pages. Almost everything else was random information to fill the pages.
Also, just to be warned, there is a bit of sexual coercion and discussion on consent in this book. There's a party, some pictures taken without consent, etc., etc. I would say it's a fairly important plot point but if you are sensitive to those types of things, please be careful.
Overall, I had higher hopes for this book.