Cover Image: Sing Like No One's Listening

Sing Like No One's Listening

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Nettie Delaney is grieving the loss of her mother, a superstar in the performing arts world, when she's accepted to Duke's , the prestigious London performing arts school that her mother also attended. The problem? Nettie can't get in touch with her voice since her mother's death; she hasn't been able to sing at all since her mother died. She makes it into the school, but the looming figure of director Miss Duke makes things more stressful. Add to that the fact that a ballet teacher has it in for her, and she's the target of two mean girls who want to sabotage her at every turn, and Nettie seems to have the odds stacked against her. She'll need her new friends to lean on as she works to discover her voice and get through her first year at Duke's.

A story of loss and renewal, Sing Like No One's Listening is also a romance. Nettie and second year student, Fletch, have a chemistry neither can deny, but it's a slow burn all the way through the book as the two deal with miscommunication and outside interference. There's a little mystery in here, too, as Nettie rediscovers her voice only when she's alone, and a mysterious piano player in the next room provides a low-stress outlet for her voice. 

Sing Like No One's Listening, originally published in the UK, is perfect for fans of the performing arts and musical theater. Readers will feel like they've got a chance to peek in on a group of talented college students as they dance, shmooze, and romance their way through a year at school. Give this to your romance readers, and consider some of these titles, courtesy of Simon Teen, that are perfect for music lovers, too.

Find an excerpt, author Q&A, and discussion guide at Peachtree Publisher's website.

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This story touched my heart. Nettie Delaney has not been able to sing since she lost her mom. She now finds herself in the same performing acts school her mother went too. She finds she can only sing when she comes across a mystery piano player in the auditorum. If she wants to stay there she will have to find her voice and overcome her grief.

I enjoyed reading this book and if anyone experienced grief they will find that part of the story relatable. There were parts that reminded me of Glee. The teacher who gives her hell about her weight and mother, The girl who is interest in the guy that is paying attention to Nettie and giving her a hard time. So if you enjoyed Glee you might enjoy picking this book up,

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Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the gifted copy. All thoughts are my own

I loved the idea of this book but I honestly couldn't get into it. I found it difficult to connect with the characters. It may be that it just felt a little "young" for me.

2.5 stars

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Sing Like No One's Listening was probably one of the most cliche contemporary YA books in existence. The setting and premise were not that believable or fleshed out, and it was difficult to read.

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Title: Sing Like No One’s Listening
Author: Vanessa Jones
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

Nettie Delaney has just been accepted into a prestigious performing arts school--the very same school her superstar mother attended. With her mother's shadow hanging over her, Nettie has her work cut out for her--and everyone is watching. To make matters worse, Nettie hasn't been able to sing a single note since her mother died. Whenever she tries, she just clams up. But if Nettie's going to survive a demanding first year and keep her place in a highly coveted program, she'll have to work through her grief and deliver a showstopper or face expulsion.

All may not be lost, however, when Nettie stumbles upon a mysterious piano player in an empty studio after class. Masked behind a curtain, can Nettie summon the courage to find her voice? Or will the pressure and anxiety of performing come crashing down?

This was a fun book! I know nothing about professional dancing or singing or performing, so I can’t say if it was accurate there, but if felt accurate. The author did an excellent job of connecting the reader to Nettie’s struggles and investing them in her journey.

The secondary characters were larger-than-life and a lot of fun, and I enjoyed seeing Nettie conquer her fears—all of them, not just the singing—and grow into her own person. A fun, inspiring read.

Vanessa Jones lives in Rome. Sing Like No One’s Listening is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Peachtree Publishing in exchange for an honest review.)

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4.5 stars

This book could not have been more up my alley. As a professional actor and as someone who did a semester abroad in London, I have such a soft spot for the city that made me fall back in love with performing. Getting to delve into this story, written by a West End actor, was an absolute treat (we love to see an abundance of musical theatre inside jokes).

I felt for these characters trying to find their way in the world for the first time at a school where everything seems aimed at reminding you that you are replaceable. Going to school for the performing arts takes guts and I felt that the author really did not shy away from showing the unfortunate reality of what happens in a lot of arts programs. Some of the instances made me cringe a little (pro tip: you should never slap another actor full in the face during a rehearsal), but that is just based on my personal experience and not the author's fault.

In a time where the world needs the arts more than ever, I truly think that this book will remind theatre kids everywhere that they are important and that their voice means something.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and PeachTree Publishing Company for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

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Nettie is an orphan with a nasty grandmother. She is also a singing prodigy who gets admission in one of the most prestigious fine arts school in the country.
All perfect? No! Because since her mother passed, Nettie cannot sing!

I came across this book on Netgalley and I was so attracted by the beautiful cover and the coming of age story description that I requested it immediately. I love music and musicals and this was a musical in book form! What was not to like?

The story was quick and easy to read. YA fiction with romance is a cozy genre I prefer to read when I am overwhelmed with heavy books. Sing Like No One's Listening fit the bill perfectly. The story of Nettie as she sorts her problems and gains her voice is amazing.
Nettie gains great friends at the new institute. I loved Alec with his bad-ass attitude and Fletch was very sweet. The book also addresses important issues like body-shaming, bullying and homophobia.

All said, there were things I didn't like as well. Nettie and Fletch have zero communication and that causes a lot of unnecessary problems. One of the main things, though, was I didn't like being in Nettie's head. Even at the end of the book, we don't know anything about her. All we know is that she is an orphan and a singer who has lost her voice. That's it.
I'd also have liked some stories about why people behaved as they did. Why was Nettie's grandmother so sour? What was the relationship between Nettie's mother and Miss Duke? Why was the dance teacher so angry with Nettie? What did Nettie's mother do to alienate everyone?
So many questions and no answers.

Going with 2.5 stars for a quick read and good side characters.

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Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with this arc in exchange for my honest review. I was honestly so excited to read this being a musical theatre lover myself. Unfortunately, my expectations were off and I ended up not enjoying this book as much as I had wanted.

This is for a few reasons but first I'd just like to say as a positive that most of the first half were pretty good to read and the book as a whole was quick to read.

Now, one of the biggest issues I had with this book was the character Alec, the gay best friend and just how unrealistic and annoying he was as a character. In the books, he's been driven to be seen as perfect and even he believes he's perfect and even when it's seen that he's trying to help Nettie it just doesn't feel real. I would have much preferred the book without Alec in it, or if his character was changed slightly. As a member of the LGBT+ community myself, with friends from all different backgrounds I couldn't even pretend that this was an accurate representation of a person and more an egotistically typical stereotype.

Actually, this is something I noticed with a few of Nettie's friend group, they're more being portrayed as stereotypes of characters rather than representing as an individual more realistic. I understand in musical theatre that there is competition and challenges that everyone face but this just didn't seem like a realistic school at all. With the abuse Nettie received in some scenes I was genuinely just disgusted.

The book is about Nettie finding her voice again, and while doing so it just leads to so much abuse and unnecessary hatred that was not needed.

The second half of the book honestly felt like there were multiple different parts happening at the same time, I was confused and completely overwhelmed having to try to stop myself from being overwhelmed by all the drama being caused at exponential rates in the last 30%.

My last and lesser important annoyances of the book was an arc problem. Any times there was texting scenes involved the font would be out of order and repeating and scrambling lines two to three times making it so confusing to understand what's going on and to feel any sympathy or emotion at all during these scenes.

I am grateful for receiving this arc however I didn't want to lie about my personal experience on reading it. Perhaps some of these issues were resolved (At least the texting one would be anyway) and I could have just read it completely wrong but I genuinely was desperate to try love this book and just couldn't.

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I really enjoyed this book. I loved that it was set at a performing arts school, that's something I haven't read a lot of. As someone who goes to a performing arts school, (nowhere near as cutthroat though) some of the aspects in this book felt familiar. I felt like the very strong focus on music and performing really made this book, because most of the characters weren't very special.

Alec was by far my favorite character. I loved how loud and outgoing he was, and I loved how he pushed Nettie out of her shell. To me, he was really the only one out of Nettie's friends who had real substance, which was a shame, because they all had a lot of potential. Along with Alec, I really liked the way that Nettie was written. Her grief over her mom's death felt real, and so did her journey to regaining her voice. I was so happy that this book didn't just have her voice poof back into existence, it actually took time and work.

I did really struggle with the characterization of one of our characters in this: Ms. Moore. I understand that their school was cutthroat, and super competitive. I might've been able to deal with it if she was only verbally abusive. (not that that isn't a problem, it just would've made more sense that what happened.) The author of this really tried to tell us that despite the teacher literally burning Nettie with a cigarette, she is still allowed to teach?? That is abuse, and it shouldn't be normalized or accepted.

The romance in this was another super weak point for me. I liked Nettie and Fletch together at the beginning of the book, but I got very tired of their constant non-communicativeness.They were constantly avoiding each other because of something, and it got very old, very fast. I hate to admit it, but I was honestly shipping Nettie and Luca, I felt like they worked together better than Nettie and Fletch. Thankfully, this book was about a lot more than the romance, so I was still able to enjoy it.

I did receive this book as an arc, but I feel like I have to mention the bad editing. At several times, text conversations were written, but lines would be jumbled, or repeated twice. I finally just stopped reading the texts because they were impossible to understand. Once again, I did get this prerelease, so the problems will most likely be fixed before publication. If you're looking for a fun romance centering around music, and finding yourself, you'll definitely enjoy this book!

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Let me start with this disclaimer: I really, really wanted to love this book. The description and the plot themes are right up my alley and I was beyond excited that this was my first Netgalley book.
From the get-go, I was cheering for Nettie – I mean, a gifted singer who loses her voice that just so happens to share the same nickname as one of my favorite aunts? What’s there not to cheer for?? Add in the mystery of Nettie’s mother’s past, some hilarious characters, and I am a happy camper.
I adore side characters who steal the spotlight. The best of friends, Alec, Leon, and Kiki, made the entire world come more to life. While some of their development relies on stereotypes (Alec is the typical gay ballet dancer, Kiki is a dancer with body image issues) they provide enough color with their personalities to bring a smile to my face. They pulled me through with their wit and honest friendships.
There are some interesting antagonists, from a jealous classmate to an abusive teacher subplot (which reminded me a lot of Dance Academy's Saskia), and these characters are so well written that I was genuinely disturbed on Nettie’s behalf.
Lettie herself was a bit of a typical high school heroine, and I wanted her to have a bright, shining star moment where all the pieces fall into place. Alas, this was not the case.
My biggest issue is that the story feels completely unfinished. There are so many questions left unanswered, both for Nettie and the reader, that it completely threw me off when the book just...ended. I was left wondering why bother mentioning the mother’s past storyline because there was no resolution, and I wanted to know what happened!
I am also not the biggest fan of Fletch, the love interest. I am not sure if it is because he seems to fall into the "good looking boy with a guitar" trap and is too stereotyped for me, but I was much more interested in Luca, his best friend, as a character. It’s similar to the P.S. I Still Love You storyline, but once again, the boy I root for comes in second place.
I sincerely hope that this is the beginning of a series, and that we have answers to look forward to. I adore Vanessa Jones's writing style and voice, but I was left feeling like I missed something.

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"A moving story of grief and healing - sure to be a pure joy for any musical theater aficionado."
~
I enjoyed this story of a young woman who's dream was to follow in her mother's footsteps. Her mother had passed away the year before she auditioned to attend a prestigious performing arts school. She didn't didn't do well on the audition but still made it in. 

She goes in with a target on her back being attractive and the daughter of a famous performer who had also attended the school!  

I read some other reviews which I shouldn't have done and not having gone to a performing arts school or being in the industry, I did enjoy this book. But I think anyone would. And I read it in a British accent which is how I think it was written. Not every story has all the answers all tied up in a bow and I personally don't need everything answered. Every reader will pull from their personal experience and love or hate anything. 

I was relating to Nettie and her voice block. I lost my Dad 3 years ago and feel like I'm still not quite back so a year later she may need time and she's lucky that she had teachers support her when she wasn't performing. There was another teacher that held a long grudge against her mom and took it out on her and seriously there are nasty people like that. 

I REALLY liked Fletch. I like a guy that doesn't give up easily. Biggest pet peeve is ghosting.  It's hard to ignore chemistry when it's two sided and you don't know what went wrong. I'm a sucker for a romance. 

I loved the relationships amongst the friends she made and how they helped and supported eachother. The mean girls were the worst but there's always those girls. Either jealous or want to be the best so they will bring others down. 

I couldn't put this book down I wanted to find out how things would go for Nettie! Well done! 

This book does talk about eating disorders, abuse, and, homophobia.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Peachtree Publishing for the gifted eARC in exchange for my honest review.

As a former dancer, I Iiked this book. I especially enjoyed the pop culture and musical theatre references throughout the novel. I also liked how the story took place in London and discussed many iconic locations across the city. I rounded up my rating to 4 stars even if I personally think it’s a little closer to 3 since I did get some emotional investment. For me, there were some things that were left unresolved and forgotten. I also found myself wanting the novel to progress faster end get to the end quickly. I felt that there were a lot of up and down moments that was dragging out longer than it needed to be. Overall, it was a fine book that I would recommend to Londoners and dancers even if a lot of what went down in the story seems highly unlikely and there for the drama. I gave it four stars because in the end I wanted to know how the story ended and I found myself rooting for the characters.

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As she attends the same performing arts school that her professional ballerina mother attended, Nettie works through her grief as she learns more about the mother she lost and most importantly, herself. Nettie lives and breathes musical theater, but ever time she tries to sing, her voice completely disappears, except when she finds herself in an empty rehearsal room with a mysterious accompanist.  

Performing arts boarding school? A swoony romance? Grief and drama? Sign me up! Yes, this book was kind of made for me, but that doesn't mean I can't see it’s flaws. I definitely wished it was paced more efficiently The first few weeks progressed pretty slow and then months were going by without any mention. At almost 400 pages, things should have been spread out a little more evenly. Plot lines dropped off a little bit towards end, and I think Nettie's progress with overcoming her issues with trauma in regards to her singing felt very rushed towards the end.  The main antagonist flipped halfway through the book which was kind of strange and as the story went on, actions and conversations started to feel redundant. 

While this should have been a total success on summary alone, fell a little flat for me.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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This was an enjoyable read. I loved all the musical theatre references, the main characters, and the mental health talk, but there are two problems I should point:

-Too many cliches. The gay best friend felt like a hurtful stereotype.
-The mean for the sake of being mean is not a thing I would recommend. People want motivation and villain backstories. Fighting over a guy is not enough reason to be that bad.

I still would recommend this to theatre nerds looking for something light and easy to read. There's something dazzling about the musical theatre world that this book captured well.

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e-ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Nettie Delaney has just been accepted into a prestigious performing arts school--the very same school her superstar mother attended. With her mother's shadow hanging over her, Nettie has her work cut out for her--and everyone is watching. To make matters worse, Nettie hasn't been able to sing a single note since her mother died. Whenever she tries, she just clams up. But if Nettie's going to survive a demanding first year and keep her place in a highly coveted program, she'll have to work through her grief and deliver a showstopper or face expulsion. All may not be lost, however, when Nettie stumbles upon a mysterious piano player in an empty studio after class. Masked behind a curtain, can Nettie summon the courage to find her voice? Or will the pressure and anxiety of performing come crashing down?

I loved the premise of the book and was excited to meet these characters. Unfortunately, the writing style didn't connect for me. A lot of the dialogue felt a little young for the age of the characters, i.e. words like obvs (obviously), emosh (emotional), and vom (vomit). This type of syntax didn't make me like the book any more than I already was but I also thought it was more hurtful to the book instead of adding to it, these kids are going to Duke, I would hope they aren't using this shorthand slang to talk. It also could have been that the characters just needed more time to be fully fleshed out. Nettie herself felt a little like an archetype of a plain Jane character that claimed to have no friends but used the excuse of having lost them after her Duke audition. At this point in the book, I wanted to straight up tell her they weren't her real friends if they abandoned her over some small misstep in the grand scheme of things. I also really really didn't like the storyline of these two girls fighting over a guy, it's 2020 we shouldn' be having these types of petty drama being put in novels to further the story. As a woman and a young adult reading this, I found it to be a very backwards concept that harms how young women will eventually view their relationships with another woman.
Even though I had a lot of issues with this novel I generally liked the musical aspect of it.

Overall, this book was ok, for me. I didn't like the beginning and a lot of things were not developed and thought out deeply enough like the character's but I mean I didn't end up DNF'ing it so I guess that counts for something.

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Content warning: cancer, death of a parent, body image, fatphobia, homophobia, physical abuse, bullying, verbal abuse, disordered eating/body dysmorphia

As a musical theatre aficionado, I was incredibly excited for the opportunity to read this book, especially since it was written by a West End actor. I really loved the premise of this book, and was very interested in Nettie and her storyline. It was really easy to root for Nettie, and my heart ached for her. Something that I really loved was the strong friendship dynamic between Nettie and her friends. However, I felt like most of the characters were reduced to simple tropes or one aspect of their personality, and weren't as fully fleshed out as I would've liked to see.

I think the writing style was aimed towards younger audiences, although I don't think I would heavily recommend this book to younger audiences due to the trigger warnings listed above. In addition, this book normalizes toxic behaviors that I don't necessarily think is necessary. I also think the writing style just wasn't for me, but could be something that others enjoy. For me personally, it felt very much like a combination of Mean Girls and Glee.

I appreciate the opportunity to review this book, but once again it just wasn't for me.

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Before I jump into this review, I'd like to thank NetGalley for providing me an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

However, due to personal preferences, and the overall reading experience, I've decided to DNF this book, and not post my review on Goodreads. I will leave my feedback here on NetGalley for sure. So on to the main point of this feedback.

To put it bluntly, the story was not for me. In another perspective or taste in reading, Sing Like No One's Listening could be for readers into every possible cliche contemporary tropes there is about performing arts and young adult drama. The story revolves around, Nettie, a freshmen college student that got accepted to an elite university for music and the arts. "Duke" yet, Nettie questions consistently why she was even accepted to the university when she had no voice to sing and flunked her audition.

The story goes into her life in college and hoping to earn her place there, and that's about it on what I know. I've decided to DNF the story around 50% because it was just not working for me at all. I like reading contemporary every now and then, but for me, if the characters don't draw my attention or pique my interest, I teeter between continuing the story or not. One of the things that turned me off about the story, firstly was the characters. I found no attachment to any of them at all. I felt like they weren't clicking to me or even remotely interesting, there wasn't enough essence in them to make me care about them entirely. I've reached halfway into the book hoping that there would be something cleared up, or getting more depth on any of the characters, but there were none. I like contemporaries that have unique character-driven plot.

Nettie just felt like a huge mess, trying to keep her head above water in the university her mom studied from, but had no actual solution or motivation to push herself in the school. Another thing that bothered me were the plotholes and unanswered questions. Though since I did DNF it, I might never know the answer and it will remain a mystery, but I had reached the point where sticking around to read the story to resolve these unanswered questions aren't too appealing at all.

I give this story a 2 star rating, the book does have promise, but I truly wished it gave more life into the characters on an overall.

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This was an entertaining and emotional story about a young woman dealing with grief while trying to attend a high pressure college for the performing arts. Nettie Delaney is the daughter of a woman who was a star performer who died of cancer a year earlier. Nettie's mother was a dancer but Nettie's strength is her singing voice. At least it was until her mother died and she lost her voice.

Nettie's audition was a disaster because she got a long-lost voice mail from her mother just before she was set to perform and found that she couldn't sing at all after receiving it. So she was very surprised to find that she had been admitted to the prestigious program despite her awful performance. Once she learns that that head of the school knew her mother, she thought she understood why she had been admitted.

The story is filled with a bunch of characters straight from teen melodramas. Almost the first person she meets is the awesomely talented and gay dancer Alec who decides that they are going to be best friends. And she meets the talented and handsome Fletch who wants to write songs with her. She makes friends with Kiki who is in the dance program and who feels like she always has to lose weight. There are the school Mean Girls in Natasha and Jade. Jade has a massive crush on Fletch, a dad who has bought her way into the school, and absolutely no talent. There is a mean ballet teacher who has taken Nettie in dislike and who belittles her at every opportunity. There are also sympathetic teachers like Michael who knew her mother and Steph who is the advanced vocal coach and determined to help Nettie get her voice back.

There is lots of drama too. Naturally Fletch and Nettie have difficulties with their romance. Between Jade who is constantly trying to attract Fletch's attention to Fletch's confusion about the real-like Nettie and the girl who is singing when he plays piano in the next room - who also happens to be Nettie. Time is spent with Nettie trying to figure out who her mystery accompanist is. She even suspects Jade at one point.

I liked the story and know that fans of musical theater and romance will enjoy it. Lots of the references to musical theater went right over the top of my head though because I'm a very casual fan of the genre. I really liked that Nettie had a strong body image and was confident in her appearance despite other people's attempts to belittle her.

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Content warning: cancer, death, body image, homophobia, abusive teachers.

This book is perfect if you enjoy picking up on musical theatre references, and boy, does this book have a lot of them. Throughout passages there are references and name drops to popular shows, and some not-so popular shows, making it a dream read for any musical theatre fan out there. However, for a book set in a theatre school, I would've liked to have seen more, well, theatre.

This writing in this book was lovely - the imagery was nice and it was a fast read. However, I felt as if it came across as juvenile in places considering the characters are supposed to be at university level. It did a good job in displaying the competitiveness of drama school, and what people will do in order to get accepted. However, it was over dramatised to the point of being unbelievable. No matter how badly they want their place, or how badly they want to keep their place, students should not have turned a blind eye to physical abuse to another student at the hands of a teacher. The treatment of Nettie by the ballet mistress was one of the worst, and hard to read, parts of this book.

As for our characters, we don't get to know much about them. Their personalities are reduced to tropes: grieving main character, dancing side character who doesn't talk about anything else, gay best friend, and mean girl. I wanted to care more about their lives and their dreams beyond theatre school, but that just didn't happen. In fact, I found myself skimming a lot of passages because they just spoke about the same thing over and over again.

Ultimately, I don't think I'm the right audience for this book, but I appreciated it being a quick read to add to my reading list.

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I really wanted to like this book but it wasn't nicely executed in general. The premise sounded like so much fun.
My biggest issue has to be the fact that most characters (I'd go as far as to say even Nettie, our protagonist) aren't that well developed. The worst perpetrators of this are Nettie's friends. Their dialogue is even sort of inappropriate, reaching stereotypical at times. Contemporary is so character driven (at least that's how I read it) so this pulled me away from the story.
Furthermore, most of the plotpoints, the most important ones, are brushed over. I wish they were more explored and that the book had stopped and let the reader experience those moments, because it could've been great. I just couldn't connect that much overall, and I felt like the moments that could've had impact were severely rushed.
Lastly, this could've saved everything and made it much more entertaining, Nettie's voice. It was also not that well developed. It fell flat.
It could be enojoyable, it just needs polishing.2,5 stars

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