Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Binding 13 takes us through Johnny and Shannon’s teenage romance, both of them journeying through their own struggles while trying to develop their relationship.

This book was loooong. I enjoy a long story but this was repetitive in many places. The poor communication between Johnny and Shannon was frustrating rather than heart wrenching.

Chloe Walsh writes her characters well, they’re fleshed out and well developed. Johnny and Shannon’s friends and family and portrayed in a very realistic way.

This book. There was so much hype on booktok about this book and I’m always really dubious of that kinda thing but oh my god, what a book. I don’t think I’ve read one that has 800+ pages of pure brilliance. The character building was incredible, the writing sophisticated and gripping and just an all round brilliant story

This book has stolen my heart, twisted it, stamped on it, broke it!

I had seen this book ALL THE TIME on TikTok but I alsways thought it would be a bit too young for me, considering I’m so much older, but I was wrong, very very wrong.

Yes the characters are school age, 16/17 but it was so well written it never once felt like a young book.

Honestly I was gripped from the first few pages, I refused to do adult housey things in favour of being glued to Johnny and Shannon’s story.

Simply put I couldn’t get enough and has absolutely made my top 5 books of the year!

As for the cliffhanger ending.. that was harsh! Arghhh haha

Binding 13 revolves around Johnny, a top rugby player and Shannon, the new girl at school who had to change schools due to bullying. The book follows their journey from being strangers to friends before eventually admitting their true feelings to each other.

I thought this book portrayed teenage friendships in a really realistic way and I particularly enjoyed the banter between Johnny and Gibsie. In general I feel that the side characters added a lot to the story and in a lot of cases they had more personality than the two protagonists.

However, I felt this book was way too long at over 800 pages and for most of the book it felt like we were going round in circles with the protagonists being seemingly incapable of vocalizing any thoughts or feelings to each other. I didn't like either protagonist and felt that they both had very little personality beyond Shannon being small and vulnerable and Johnny liking rugby. Shannon was repeatedly described as being tiny and looking almost childlike but was also sexualized throughout the book which made me feel very uncomfortable. There were some very misogynistic undertones to this book such as when Johnny refers to Shannon's pregnant mother as 'the human incubator' on multiple occasions. The ending of this book felt incomplete and slightly abrupt and it seems that you would have to read Keeping 13 to get a proper ending to this story, which is another 800 pages.

Overall, I was so excited to read this book having seen nothing but rave reviews on TikTok and was left extremely disappointed. If you do read this book, make sure to read the trigger warnings at the start of the book as some scenes are quite graphic.

Such a unique book, I loved the plot, and oh my god the characters we're so amazing!! I definitely will be recommending it!!

What to say? A BookTok hit, but for the majority of the book I found myself thinking how much could have been missed out and it still not impacted the book.
Our main character is fifteen year old Shannon Lynch. Bullied mercilessly at her old school, when her brother keeps getting into trouble for trying to defend her the decision is made to send her to a different school. She’s understandably nervous, but on her first day a chance encounter with rugby star Johnny Kavanagh means her time is considerably better than she’d dared hope.
The majority of the book focuses on Shannon and Johnny and their developing relationship. They each have reasons to not pursue this relationship, but they both seem to be incapable of acting unemotionally around one another.
I found myself totally frustrated by the fact that he’s meant to be an Ireland-capped rugby player recovering from surgery and nobody is actually checking on his progress. Her father is beating up his family, and has been for years, but nobody takes action.
There were some funny moments - mainly between Johnny and his best friend - but I kept wondering when we’d actually get the story moving. I appreciate I’m not the target readership, but I just couldn’t see what all the fuss was about.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this.