I really liked it.

In my opinion, it was a quick read as I couldn't stop reading it from the moment I started until I finished it.

It left me very sad and made me reflect on how sometimes we can cause more harm by not acting than by acting.

This story made me realize that inaction can have serious consequences.

We often think that not doing anything is the safe option, but in reality, it can lead to missed opportunities and negative outcomes.

It also made me think about how important it is to be brave and take action when faced with difficult situations.

Overall, this was a very thought-provoking and emotional read that I would highly recommend to others.

I didn't have a great liking for this book, not for the typical reasons mentioned in most reviews. "Sexy" is indeed an interesting read, yet that isn't always a positive aspect.

To begin with, I do appreciate the examination of accusations and how, even if false, they can have a devastating impact on a person. The entire discussion around pedophilia and homosexuality was disturbing, but in my view, it should be addressed. Asserting that all gay people are pedophiles seems extremely outdated and strange to me, yet I'm certain there are many who hold such beliefs. Another element I liked was when Darren feigns ignorance despite actually knowing. Although I have issues with its portrayal, the general theme of groupthink does enhance the story.

However, there's almost everything else that didn't work for me. I'm around the same age as Darren, and he seems like a foreign entity. In fact, every single character, perhaps with the exception of Mr Tracy due to his limited appearances, felt incredibly unrealistic to me. Maybe it's because I'm not in the US, but even the basic psychologies of everyone seem at best contrived.

Moreover, those excellent topics are undermined, especially by the ending. Certainly, I like the "find your own meaning" type of conclusions as much as anyone, but if you leave the possibility that Mr Tracy was a pedophile, it implies that everything Kevin and his group did was actually justified. The ending should have either provided a proper resolution or left the reader with more questions. Instead, I got neither. It was a crash landing where the questions were answered just enough to be unsatisfactory and also led you to assume one explanation, leaving you without any curiosity, all while simultaneously undermining its own message. The平淡无奇、过于陈词滥调的 premise doesn't help either.

In conclusion, I think I would enjoy Oates' other books, but this one was too contrived, (unintentionally) unfinished, and simply too confused with itself for me to like it. Nevertheless, I do like its topics of homosexuality and youth mentality, even if they are spoiled by the rest of the book and, in my opinion, not explored enough.

In many cases, an idea gives rise to creating a story. Here, I would say that a story was crafted in order to generate ideas and stances.

The synopsis promises something; the story creates a different narrative, and the ending is completely far from the previous. While the synopsis might seem to talk about a dark story towards the main character, the story focuses on something that reminds one of "13 Reasons Why". At the end, it goes with an extremely long chapter (I think the longest in history) that tells something not much related to what was previously narrated.

However, that ending tells us about another type of "harassment", another way of looking at the "sexy" and suffering the consequences of this. It seems that we condemn those who are different, we long for things to be good by themselves, and we need to live in lies. We prefer to point out the extremely lurking, while the ending tells us how the life of some is determined by money, by the physical, and by talent.

I liked the story. I loved the character of the professor who appears and how the story deviates from what the synopsis promises. But some things seemed to me too moralistic or inclined to dodge stances to generate opinions. In itself, I would have liked the story to have followed a different path.

I also identified a bit with the protagonist; with how sometimes we sabotage our own wings for the sake of mental health, of a deserved intimacy. As the novel says, people marry what they want to see and do not accept what they have in front of them.