[Review] Sad Girls by Lang Leav

Sad Girls by Lang Leav

Rating: 1 star

Published: May 30th 2017

Goodreads Synopsis:

Your first love isn’t the first person you give your heart to—it’s the first one who breaks it.
School is almost out for Audrey, but the panic attacks are just beginning. Because Audrey told a lie and now her classmate, Ana, is dead. Just as her world begins to spin out of control, Audrey meets the enigmatic Rad—the boy who could turn it all around. But will their ill-timed romance drive her closer to the edge?

TW: discussion of suicide, self-harm

Sad Girls, as the name suggests, is supposed to be about several sad girls. Boy was I wrong. I'm also extremely angry with this book, so I'm about to pull another one of my sassy reviews.

Audrey loses a classmate, Ana, to suicide, because of a secret Audrey spread. Honestly, you'd think that the majority of the book would be spent with Audrey coping with her guilt for this secret, but nope it was her spending time pining after Rad, Ana's boyfriend, and causing drama and havoc along the way.


Before I go on, I will say the one positive of this book, was the poetic writing.

"Grief is such a potent thing...It's like a hot iron; you can barely stand to hold it. But you don't have a choice. The only way you can set it down, even if it's temporary, is to refocus the energy elsewhere." - p. 140

However this writing also functions as a double edged sword, because sometimes it was beautifully written, without saying a whole lot of anything. For instance, we start the book with Audrey telling us she told a lie that dealt a hand in Ana's death. She says this, in different forms, for FOUR PAGES.

My recollection of the night I told that lie is just as vivid as if it were yesterday. I remember how the words tumbled from my mouth, my mind unsure of how the story was being formed, like a spider that spins its first web without any comprehension of where the ability was acquired. - p.7 

Really the only character that was a decent sort was Lucy and her boyfriend (whose name escapes me), who were only really nice and supportive to Audrey and Candela and co. There were also Audrey's coworkers I suppose...

But the main cast, although really Audrey takes center stage here (the rest of the characters were background fodder), consisted of a bunch of terrible people. Duck was possessive and jealous (and also has some anger issues). Candela is making all the terrible decisions, going down a super dark path, and is unchecked by her family and her friends (enabling, checked off). Audrey's mom projected her own cheating onto Audrey with Rad, and there's just a bunch of toxicity in that family in general. Rad and Audrey increasingly grow more and more selfish with their actions, only caring about their 'true love' for each other, that they refuse to acknowledge how destructive their behavior is. Audrey has her outbursts and continues on, unchecked. She legit throws plates when her mother invites her ex over for Christmas lunch!

I couldn't with any of them. No growth or development whatsoever, never mind what Audrey's therapist had been saying.

And, I'm remembering in a critique done by Cinemasins on Fifty Shades of Gray, they're in awe over the unrealistic nature of the circumstances that occur in the plot. I can apply this here. For instance, Audrey is hired straight out of high school as an editor (not even completing those college exams) and is promoted to senior editor soon enough. Even the staff there notes the untypical nature of her hiring.

"I know most publications only hire kids with degrees. But I'm a bit of a maverick, and it's worked well for me so far. When I'm hiring, I always look for something very particular. It's hard to explain. I suppose, in a way, it's instinctive. I have a knack for knowing whether a writer is capable or not." - p. 114

Everything just seems to fall in Audrey's lap. She's somehow able to make enough money to quit her job after a feud with Rad, and move all the way to Colorado (FROM AUSTRALIA NO LESS), and be super independent. (Does no one monitor this girl at all?) I don't think things are that different in Australia... Does inflation not exist? How is this possible?

The plot itself... Really you could cut out Ana from this story entirely because she's barely brought up. You could replace Ana with any other person or character, and the story would be the same. Which is a shame because Ana should be the pivotal character for the story. I should feel for the poor girl's death. But all we were given were Rad and Audrey, so desperate to be together. It could have just been about them going behind their SOs' backs and being terrible people.

Also Rad is just a bad love interest because women are not vessels for you to place 'your' babies in.

"I should get back on the pill," I said absentmindedly.
"Don't. Get pregnant."
"Shut up." I broke into laughter.
"I'm serious," he said playfully. "Have my baby." - p. 222

Ana only becomes important in the end, and that's where I just gave up with attempting to give this three stars (and straight to one star, I suppose). I could compare this to the plot of Gone Girl, in a way. Gone Girl has a whodunnit that's laid out, carefully plotted and inserted with hints and backstory as we lead up to the finisher, the grand reveal. Who killed Amy? We all want to know, and we get a satisfying answer.

Sad Girls does none of that, because everything is laid bare in the end (to come off as clever, perhaps?) This was not a clever reveal. It came out of left field. Let's use Stranger Things as an example. Eleven was so fixated on finding out about her mother, but now she decides instead to go all the way to California (as opposed towards her mother), that wouldn't make sense at all. It has no basis in the plot!

I'm not even going to come off as preachy and ponder the need for there to be any repercussions for Audrey and Rad's actions. I'm not going to even try to understand why Audrey remains with someone who turned Ana's death into a suicide. I'm going to give up on understanding this book, for the sake of this review turning into an tangential rant.

I'm mad because a few years ago I really wanted to read Lang Leav's poems and maybe if I started reading those first I would be less mad. But having started with this has just disappointed me beyond belief.