Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I don't read a lot of YA that isn't recommended to me by others because I tend to dislike a large amount of the common tropes that seem to be in every YA novel ever. I wish this one had been different. Let me start by saying that the actual prose was solid, it was simple but it wasn't awkward or clunky. I never felt that the narration was talking down to the reader or treating them like they were stupid. I also found myself not hating Kricket, even if I felt like the author betrayed her more often than she helped. I love the idea of tackling the difficulties of being a kid who grew up in the pathetic excuse of a 'foster' system, and having a biracial lead could have been so powerful. Kricket is smart and ferocious, she doesn't like being used and often lets her independence get in the way. She is treated with a bit of special snowflake syndrome - I'm willing to look over it since she had actual faults and most of the 'special' was forced onto her by others (but really platinum blondes aren't really that rare, 5'10" is not short by any average, the college she was looking at offers scholarships and housing for foster kids and I'll get to the most beautiful thing in a bit) - but I felt like she had an honestly solid base character. I don't mind female characters who are tough and self dependent especially when it gets them into trouble when it needs to. That said, for whatever horrible reason the author decided that it was completely okay to oversexualise Kricket to an absurdly creepy point. The only men who weren't interested in her were gay. Everyone else wanted a piece of her because she was just so beautiful they just couldn't help themselves. No one had any difficulty touching her - even after the author stated in lore that touching was something that was not acceptable between casual friends or with strangers. What's worse is when the boys weren't fighting over her bra and panties, they were using magical x-ray glasses to scan for her virginity. I can't even begin to talk about how creepy and wrong it is and how Kricket feels violated but it's instantly dropped and forgotten. I don't even know where to start my rant on this, because this is aimed at TEENAGE GIRLS. Why are we still writing and pretending like there is any way to tell if someone is a virgin or not?? Why are we still acting like it's okay to attach any value to something so pointless, and why do we insist on writing fantasy that is so incredibly sexist? I was beyond disgusted that it was brought up more than once and held over her head, it's beyond gross. On top of this, there is this suffocating romance that should not have even been included. The lead male Trey pulls her around, forces her gaze, continuously reminds her that she's small and weak and female and she needs a man to protect her (a sentiment that is echoed by every other male around her). He is constantly yelling at her and derailing her, invalidating the way she thinks and speaks because it's not 'ladylike'. He kidnaps her and then spends the first half of the book saying he isn't and telling her that the other side were the ones who were going to hold her prisoner. His side was just going to punish her. He gets ridiculously over protective of her almost instantly, and at SEVERAL points he strips her down while she's unconscious. His role in the plot to be a man who protects invalidates Kricket's own characterization at several points and honestly, there is no sense in writing them into a romance. What little plot there was could have been actually interesting, a little typical but it could have been so much more than it was. This book felt like a set up but it did very little world building aside from a few info dumps every few chapters. So much of the plot was interrupted by Kricket being treated like a piece of meat for literally every male character in the book. The universe could have been cool, some cross between Victorian and the ultra modern but it was so heavy in archaic sexism that there was never any time to explore it. I'm too frustrated to even go on at this point. The author did a terrible job at writing what could have been a really amazing book. I am so sick of YA authors falling back on age old tropes that need to die out already, they are overdone and frankly disgusting. I am so sick of seeing fantasy and scifi universes being riddled with sexism, especially with female leads. It's been done to death and frankly I don't see why it's included. Kricket literally has magical hair and powers but women in the universe are just objects to be married. If this book had spent more time on the plot and honest character developments and had fought against typical YA tropes it would have been so much better.