Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I really wanted to like this book - there were so many positive reviews posted, and I love fluffy page-turners. I slowly felt alienated from the story. Some of the writing was actually pretty bad (I think describing someones eyes "like Werther's Originals" is one of the most cringe-inducing comparisons I have ever read in a published novel), but the story's pace moved well, and I was intrigued by the developing mystery. I actually felt offended by some of the passages that Ms Hansen wrote. I can suspend reality, but when one is writing about mental illness and suicide, a less hysterical viewpoint is needed. The story got more and more unbelievable until the very pat ending. Whatever lasting impact the writer had been hoping for was met with a giant eye-roll, glad that it was over. This feels like it was written by a man in his 60s who has a distaste for liberal arts and women. All of the women's studies students are described as angry, hysterical and bitter, and, without giving away the completely unbelievable twist, the feminist theory professor is both mocked for being a lesbian and is written to be an insane man-hater who wants to literally castrate for revenge. Rush Limbaugh couldn't have written it better. There was also a rather bizarre current of "gay panic" to the writing, with a tacked-on anti-abortion message at the end. There was nothing plausible about ANY of the plot points, and all of the characters were stereotypes. Has Ms Hansen spoken to a woman in her 20s since the 1980s? Has she ever known anyone who struggled with mental illness? Has suicide ever affected her or someone in her life? Has she actually even read - or understood - the works that she claims have inspired this novel? Trite, idiotic and offensive.