Unfortunately, this one just wasn't for me. While the writing is gorgeous, the story didn't work for me. Sorry for the inconvenience.

This book to me felt like wasted potential. I thought it would be really interesting and new but I found I couldn't connect to the main character to the extent that she actually annoyed me more than anything.

I found myself skim reading a lot of it and when the revelation came towards the end I had really lost interest and didn't care. A shame as the writing is actually very beautiful and it's obvious Lydia knows how to write a bloody good sentence.

I was so excited to read this book, I requested it from netgalley because of one of the postcards that came in the May Illumicrate box. It was blue and the writing on it said "What happened to you Lux Langley to make your nightmares turn red?" and the text fades from a bluer colour to red. ( A+ PR work!!) I thought it would be some kind of sci-fi book, but it's not, it's contemporary. I still read it though and it was quite interesting.

This is a contemporary story about a young woman who can't remember what happened in the summer or why she now dreams in red. She's a different person to who she was before and she knows she needs to get back to being that person but the only way she can see that happening is if she remembers what happened. She finds it hard enough to get through each day right now though.

This book mentions Synesthesia - the second I've picked up recently. From what I understand, it's where you can taste colours and see sounds etc, it's a perceptual condition that I've not come across before.

I found it sad that she kept trying to 'reset' herself, almost like a computer and I found it as hard to understand her as she did!
I'm trying very hard not to give anything away because I found that it was a very simple plot in the end and I never know what to write about this kind of book.

I found the first half of the book really slow, luckily I felt in picked up around 50%, if a book hasn't caught me by then, I don't continue with it.
This book is split into 2 parts and I wasn't sure what part 2 was there for at first but I realised it's there because this is not a story about the summer she forgot, it was a story about her making it out the other side.

I thought that Mei and Olivia were fantastic friends! I was a little worried they'd get fed up with her, she may have felt that way too and while they must have been frustrated at the least, they stuck around for her.
I wasn't expecting the reveal at all, though I thought it was something in the same vein after her reaction at Halloween!
I really liked Cal, he was an interesting character I'd liked to have explored more. His involvement was interesting. He helped a LOT with out knowing it and I hope she tells him. I also wish she'd been a little more honest with him earlier on, but I guess it's not her fault.

Not my usual book at all, but I don't regret reading it.
Still going to pretend the postcard is about an epic Sci-Fi though...

This book surprised me. I spent the first half of the book assuming that the main character was overreacting to a drunken pass out. The reveal of the events that led to her losing her memory took me aback and explained the previous events.

The characters are crafted well and the reveal is executed perfectly.

Read this on the back of high praise from Louise O Neill. Can very much understand why.

This is the story of Lux, a student at a prestigious but liberal free thinking art college in London. It deals with her life both pre ( precocious and entitled) and post trauma dealing with severe psychological damage. Lux cannot remember the events that have totally damaged her life... and this is not revealed till much later in the book. Until this point we are left guessing for quite some time... at times I felt it dragged... but the story is worth it. It is worth getting past this point.

Not fo ruin fer teens... but an important voice in modern YA

I ADORED this book and cannot recommend it highly enough. It was sensitive, lyrical and beautiful yet effortlessly maintained a sense of urgency and pace. I felt compelled to find out what had happened to Lux and was surprised by the answer when it came. I was also mesmerised by Lydia's portrait of Richdeane, a school like no other. I cannot wait to read Lydia's next book. As a publishing professional I read a lot of ARCs and of everything I have read on netgalley in 2017 - this is the standout book!

I initially found this book hard to get into. I found the 'old' Lux unpalatable. I had empathy for the damaged Lux and wanted to know what had caused her symptoms without any idea of the enormity of what I had changed her life. I felt for her friends and family who were trying to work alongside the professionals to help her remember. The book was both shocking and touching to read. A book I will recommend to my more mature pupils as the issues it deals with are hard to explore.

An author I will keep my eye out for.