i mean imagine having so little in all sense of the word. having no one. then you are offered i lifestyle so polar opposite from this horrid one your are living. you get swept up into the family. some place to belong with all the glitz and glamour that this family portrays from the outside now being your world too. how divine right?yeh, not so much.
you get the dread and unease even as a reader. there is this tension that Ric manages to build and tell us without so much as needing to tell us. you know this book is going to draw you in deep and dig into you deep too. there is the relationship dynamics you deffo dont think are ok. and then there are the ones that ground it. that offer that touch of heart and soul that keeps you more rooting and caring for what might come next.
Melody and Jeremy had my whole heart. they were the family, they were the light. Star wasn't on her own anymore. they become more than that going forward, they become the team.
Star was great to follow. how she gets pulled in, lured in to this family then has to become her own hero and find out whats going on or at least how to get out before she becomes the next victim.
this book really takes you into a deep dive swinging right past thriller into something deeper. something more raw and honest to do with power and what control and coercion. and how that is yielded especially onto people that have known hurt or just want to belong so much and then what they might sacrifice to do so.
i love how Star didn't need big fighting skills, she wasn't James Bond, she wasn't superwoman. she was her own self and used her smarts and her great ability to SEE. she catches this clan out simply by pulling apart and working out their secrets.
every character in this book felt like i could see them from their eyes colour to their dress to their mannerisms. i felt a bit like the child in me when i first got hooked into the Phillip Pullman books. this world, this crafted group that goes far deeper. there was that same sense of almost magic about this book and what a world Ric built for us.
i was drawn so much by getting to know the characters i almost felt like i could know these people. and i was rooting for Star and rooting for the take down. surely this group cant be led to continue their acts? surely the family must be bought down. i was full immersed and invested into finding out!

I thought this book was well done if a little disjointed in areas. I loved the protagonist Star and her relationship with Melody. Natalia came off a little "classic cold war" to me but it didn't take away from the story.

I really liked the use of the backstory chapters for the other girls (and Jeremy!) as well as the use of blog posts and journal entires, I think it added a neat dimension to the storytelling and broke up Star's narrative really well.

This was a good debut and I'm eager to see where this author goes from here.