The earlier chapters were page turners; with twist after twist sucking me in. However, it took a sharp downhill turn from there. I really like the mysteries the author set up, but he did not resolve them well from there.
The author's idea of character development and working through trauma is to have the characters guilt trip and apologize again and again. The characters become too one-dimensional, and it's difficult to be invested in their character interactions when there's more moping than actual conversation.
In the latter half, his idea of a plot twist is more about what would be more shocking and less about what would make for a thrilling read. Gore and sexual violence certain has its place in horror, except much of it seemed to be there because the author was running out of ideas. While it's true very few readers would have guessed the twist that the black haired girl secretly became a pedophile teacher's sex slave in order to save her friends, that's because it's nonsense and not because it's a well planned twist. Maybe the author realized he had no ability to finish the story well, so he figured if he plopped down some rape it would distract the reader from his incompetence. Disgusting.
