June 27, 2025
Ash, an angsty 16-year-old, has decided that tonight is the night. Tonight is the night she’s going to kill herself and she’s got it all planned out - the perfect soundtrack, outfit, and method - until all her plans are ruined by a protection-charmed knife, rendering Ash immortal.
Now, she has to track down the witch, another 16-year-old girl, who got her into this situation so she can finally die, all while trying to unpack what’s going on with her mom’s new boyfriend and a weird new anti-depressant with some concerning side effects.
This was cute but not much to write home about. It all felt fairly surface level and each plot point occurs and wraps up so quickly and easily.
The dialogue was hit or miss. It’s definitely trying to feel very timely and “hip” but a lot of that falls flat. Though I did think one gag (involving BeReal) was kinda funny - perhaps because it was more a visual gag than a verbal joke. (Though it also already feels dated, a year after publishing - do people still do BeReal?)
I liked the girls as characters - I thought they were both really adorable (the art is the real standout here), though relatively flat. Unfortunately their relationship isn’t really delved into. It works okay, because it feels like pretty much every other teen relationship that we’ve seen before so you can kind of fill in the gaps on your own, but that just means there’s nothing much new here, either.
The mental health aspect felt so surface level. I’m not saying I necessarily needed a super-realistic and grim exploration of depression and suicidality but it almost feels like Ash’s depression doesn’t really exist within the narrative. She says she wants to die but it doesn’t feel like it. It’s all too flippant.
And I would argue, we never really see Ash actually make the decision to stay alive. If I cared more about this story or these characters it would probably bother me that Ash suddenly wants to stay alive because she got a cute girlfriend and that always fixes everything! But I also don’t really expect anything more complex from this book.
What you see is what you get with this one, and not much more. It’s shiny, and pretty, and aesthetic, but shallow. Not much depth, at all.
If you’re interested, I’d suggest checking it out at your library, if you can. It’s worth flipping through for the art (shout out Lisa Sterle!) and it isn’t the worst way to spend an afternoon, but there just isn’t much to recommend it.
