Teenagers Quinn, a quiet book nerd living in a tough situation and Jules, a hot popular model cheerleader with every opportunity at her fingertips, are living completely different lives in the same town when they end up experiencing life altering traumas on the same night, May 1 1992.
May 1 is also the night of the May Day Killer who seemingly only comes out for violence on this same day every year.
Imagine taking the book ONE DAY and making it into a thriller. Each chapter gives the POV and experiences of Quinn and Jules on May 1 for the years thereafter their trauma.
Alternative POV was exceptionally done. The mention of real-life events like JonBenet Ramsey and Star Magazine and the launch of the internet assisted in how realistic Quinn and Jules' felt.
For the characters, this book was super good.
I loved where the story was going and what was building, but it lost me in the last bit.
The first 90% of the book felt well paced, captivating and engrossing and made me feel like I was reading about two people I looked forward to hanging out with. I was emotional over the characters and loved the way we only got 1 day of Quinn and Jules' life each year. I loved that there was so much we didn't see but we felt the consequences from through their eyes and their pain.
But the last 10% felt rushed and I felt slightly cheated with the ending. I definitely felt let down by the tail end of the book.
For me, the characters and their lives are what truly made this book/story unforgettable. Quinn felt so real and Jules surprisingly grew on me. I was rooting for Quinn from the first page.
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(3.5/5 stars)