Tuesday Reviews: The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles

Title: The edge of Everything (#1)

Author: Jeff Giles

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's

Release Date: January 31, 2017

Format Read: ARC

Rating: Two Stars

Description from Goodreads: For the perfect love, what would you be willing to lose?

It's been a shattering year for seventeen-year-old Zoe, who's still reeling from her father's shockingly sudden death in a caving accident and her neighbors' mysterious disappearance from their own home. Then on a terrifying sub-zero, blizzardy night in Montana, she and her brother are brutally attacked in a cabin in the woods-- only to be rescued by a mysterious bounty hunter they call X.

X is no ordinary bounty hunter. He is from a hell called the Lowlands, sent to claim the soul of Zoe's evil attacker and others like him. X is forbidden from revealing himself to anyone other than his prey, but he casts aside the Lowlands' rules for Zoe. As they learn more about their colliding worlds, they begin to question the past, their fate, and their future. 

I've started to see this everywhere. It's been all over my insta feed (beautiful pictures, you bookstagrammers, you), and I had my copy of it, so  decided I'd see what all the hullabaloo was about.

To be frank, I still don't know.

I mean, the concept was FANTASTIC. I loved the idea of the Lowland bounty hunters, and I love (some of) the characters. Banger, Ripper, Regent, Dallas, JONAH. But the two main characters were kind of lost on me. I feel like I didn't have a good enough grasp of who they were, and though I read from cover to cover, I just didn't really like either of them.

Normally, insta-love doesn't bother me (Hello, Twihard central over here), but in EDGE OF EVERYTHING, it definitely did. I think it's because, with insta-love, sure they may like each other from the very beginning, but they generally aren't smooching and cuddling within like three days. Especially when they know nothing about each other. Especially when one of them just saw the other try to kill someone.

The plot was great, but I didn't enjoy the execution of it. Nothing happened that really made me root for the characters. In fact, the only reason I was even remotely okay with not DNFing this book is because of the secondary characters that made pop ups. Banger, Ripper, Regent, Dallas, JONAH. It was them that I liked, even if they only got a few pages total of spotlight.

And what's sad is that this story had some REAL potential. Like, the synopsis and the blurbs made me so hyped to read it, but I was disappointed at what I found. It's sad when you read a book and can't get invested in the main characters, can't cheer them on, can't enjoy it. And sadly, that's where I was at.

I also feel like the world building of the Lowlands needed a lot more whipped cream. I finished the book, and I still know very little about what it's like there, or how the rules work, or who runs the place, and I have so many questions about it. 

As for the ending? It didn't make me go OMG I DIDN'T LOVE THIS BOOK BUT I'LL READ BOOK 2 SO I CAN FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS. It made me sigh because I was glad it was over.

I give THE EDGE OF EVERYTHING a single star review, and that star is for the secondary characters that shine like gold.

(Un)Happily,
Stephanie