Thank you Tablo Publishing & Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DISCLAIMER: I was absolutely gutted that this novel didn't work for me, absolutely gutted I say. The excerpt was incredibly compelling, but the end product was just not it.

I'm going to be honest and say that I skimmed through a substantial part of this book, because the parts that I did read thoroughly were straight up excruciating to sit through—not the contents, but the cover. And by that, I mean, the writing was unconventional and distracting. It hampered the narrative of a suspenseful build-up (is what I gathered from how much ever I read properly) and made for a terrible reading experience. There were several proofing errors in just the 20% that I read with full attention, so, I can only wager how many errors the rest of the 80% would have.

I'll leave you all to decide:

1. Too many exclamation marks littered throughout the text, worse so, they were abundantly used in dialgoues, which constitutes a cardinal sin in fiction writing (and rightly so); guys, please avoid exclamation in dialogues, unless you want to give the impression that your characters are SCREAMING at each other or the readers. Examples: "'There should be enough food to last us until we get to the camp tomorrow. Please eat - you boys have had a long day!'", "'Wow, learning other languages should be fun!'", "'Come on, Amad - let's go!'" (see also, pt. 3), "'I will be your teacher,' he said. 'You have to call me Teacher!'. Amad already realized how difficult this would be!", "This was such an amazing experience for him!", "He took a deep breath and started to cough!", "He didn't know what caused her death. The coroner had been baffled as well!"

2. Proofing errors: Examples, "He wanted to make a difference in the world—A difference for himself", "Dr. Wandi really hated to be the one to contact the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga,...", the indentation of paragraphs in alternating pages were off, which broke the flow of continuity.

3. Awkward phrasings: Examples, "Yes - we will be there soon" --> (ALTERNATIVES) "Yes, we will be there soon" OR "Yes. We will be there soon."; "'Come on, Amad - let's go!'" --> (ALTERNATIVES) "Come on, Amad, let's go." (honestly, just avoid exclamation, are your characters are SCREAMING at each other or the readers?!); "Cause of death on the death certificate had been listed as "cause of death unknown"." --> (ALTERNATIVES) "Cause of death on the death certificate had been listed as "Unknown"."

The above points are not meant to malign the author's efforts at penning down a debut novel, however, I do hope that Ms. Ganger is able to take away constructive criticisms from these negative reviews and returns with a power-packed second novel. I look forward to reading more of her works in future, because her vision seems unique to me.

An interesting premise and the writer did a good job of bringing the main character into full effect. The pace wa patchy but this may have been intentional to show the mental health journey. The writing style was a bit over the top at times, for my taste, but an interesting idea and plot.

BOGUS
by Jill Ganger
Started off slow, but after a few chapters, it was a good read. I just didn't feel all the beginning had to drag on .

Thought provoking, well written, absolutely fascinating. This book kept me turning the pages late into the night & I don’t regret it one bit! This is a very impressive debut & I cannot wait to see what Jill Ganger comes up with next!

Thank you Tablo Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. IYKYK, my reviews are always honest.

Tbh, I read the first 20% and skimmed the rest. The writing was unbearable. The story had ample of potential; it was relevant and interesting. However, the writing blew up any chance of this being a winner. I mean, she's literally using exclamation marks outside of dialogue.... NAH.

I am VERY finicky about writing quality—this alone can make or break a book. If the writing quality is horrible, then the pacing, intrigue, action, SOMETHING has to be out of the park for me to get through it. But all I got was amateur sentences, overuse of exclamation marks (literally should be illegal if not used in dialogue), and mundane, unnecessary descriptions of every single move.

I even read the excerpt available on Amazon before requesting this, and once again I got played by a strong/interesting prologue. Sigh.