My rating: 3 of 5 stars
☆☆☆
I received ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Through the Layers is a new adult, coming of age, contemporary novel that follows the story of Veronica, a college student struggling through body issues, and Micah, her artsy, ambitious, much HOTTER classmate.
It's a sweet read that takes its slow time burning through, with a mostly steady pace where no severe drama actually takes place until near the end of it, but the book mostly deals with everyday issues like Veronica's insecurities and Micah's relationship with his stalkerish ex. Sometimes a few scenes were added that I didn't think were really necessary and could just be taken out to shorten the book (because it is one lengthy novel, so lengthy I has to skim through some of the chapters to get it over with), but overall, it was very well written, the description was nice and the pages flew by, which is something that only happens rarely, so that's a plus.
What irked me the most during this book was Veronica's unhealthy relationship with her best friend, Cindy, who was so provocative and a pushover and just plain rude. On more than one occasion she embarrasses Veronica to no end with one of her irresponsible, ridiculous acts, not to mention how she constantly keeps reminding Veronica that she's 'fine the way she is', discouraging her from any attempts to follow a healthy lifestyle that would benefit her more than restrict her appetite. She keeps pushing her to have sex, even to the point where she makes up that thing called Plan V (and V here stands for virginity, not Veronica), when she should be looking back on her own toxic relationships first. I just really, really disliked Cindy, and think she's sending a terrible message to all the young girls going through body issues as well.
View all my reviews