Very well written. I was into the story right away. I thought Maya did an excellent job developing the characters. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars.

While I think the message is extremely important the execution felt off for me.

There wasn't really any depth to the issues. Everything was very surface level and felt very flat which made the emotional impact pretty minimal. Everything felt overly dramatized while also underwhelming at the same time. I felt like the main issues were being more shoved in my face than told to me in a story.

I do greatly appreciate the message of the book and I think it's something more people should be aware of. People tend to think about these things in the abstract and not as a real problem because it doesn't happen to them.

This book was really good! I really enjoyed the glimpse into what life is like for teen parents, and it was a super interesting story. It was very well written, and I would definitely recommend!

This is a difficult book for me to read. While this covered some pretty heavy topics, I felt like the writing was too simple to truly grasp the severity...if that makes sense? As a teacher and new-ish mom myself, my heart breaks for Ashley - I can't imagine what she was facing, especially with so much stacked against her. I liked her as a character, but wanted to learn more about her and her backstory...I felt the same way with some of the other plot points. More depth and development would have really brought this one to life and given it the stronger voice it deserved. That being said, I could see this writing style being useful in spreading awareness and understanding to those who might not otherwise know. Thanks so much for this ARC in exchange for my review!

When I first started reading this book, I was pretty confused with regards to the writing style - it was choppy and simple, but still easy to read. I did a little research and it turns out this is a Hi-Lo book (I'm pretty sure?) which are intended for people with a high age level in terms of interest but a low age level in reading capacity. Knowing this made the book much more palatable to me, as a lot of my issues with it were its simplicity and surface-level depth of characters and situations. Knowing the intention of the book itself eased my concerns (like being annoyed that there is magic in an autobiographical novel, and then everything making sense when you realise it was a mislabelled fantasy!).

Some things were brought up in this book that I didn't know existed, and that I truly think need more awareness - especially Act 292, which was horrifying to read about and even more horrifying when I realised that it is a very real, current thing.

I did think there was a little excessive misrepresentation in terms of drug use, but I admit the possibility of a thorough examination of such things might be difficult in a Hi-Lo book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this arc, in exchange for an honest review! This was a quick and easy read and overall I enjoyed it! I thought that despite it being a fast paced book, both the plot and characters were well written. I would love to know what happens next to Ashley and her baby.