Okay so the start was a bit bumpy, definitely took a second. I forgot it was going to be YA and had the audacity to be confused when that's exactly what I got, but that bit is a personal problem lol.

The main bumpiness is coming from the fact that the POV/voice is definitely a bit peculiar, and I'm only finally settling into it now. My apologies because I don't have the technical terms to identify it. Best I can describe it is as a stream of consciousness from a highly melodramatic teenage girl. Or like we are reading her diary, maybe, because she's kind of talking to the reader? For example, from the first chapter:

"And one day you learn: it's not that you're not like other girls. It's just that you've never met a girl like you."

Like it's very much giving main character which is a bit cringey, and the issue at hand was that for the first few pages I couldn't really tell if the "feels like it was written by a teenage girl" effect was good intentional writing or if it was unfortunately simply the quality of the writing, unintentionally. Jury is still a bit out as it's still early days, but my mind is adjusting to the flow of it and I'm settling in which makes me sincerely hope it's the former.

Also, now that the plot is going and giving me the first taste of a sapphic crushing I am absolutely kicking my feet and feel my inner teenage babygay girl totally reactivated and every bit as dramatic as Coley becauseeeee

"Her dark eyes—bottomless, endless, fearless eyes—meet mine, and it’s like almost getting hit all over. A cataclysm to the senses. I can’t zoom out. I can’t get perspective. She is the only thing I can see."

Like SORRY that is kind of iconically immediately down bad and I get it and I'm on board LMAO. It's just all so 2000s movie too like I feel nostalgic