Payback is paradise in this start to a trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian.
Postcard-perfect Jar Island is home to charming tourist shops, pristine beaches, amazing oceanfront homes—and three girls secretly plotting revenge.
KAT is sick and tired of being bullied by her former best friend.
LILLIA has always looked out for her little sister, so when she discovers that one of her guy friends has been secretly hooking up with her, she’s going to put a stop to it.
MARY is perpetually haunted by a traumatic event from years past, and the boy who’s responsible has yet to get what’s coming to him.
None of the girls can act on their revenge fantasies alone without being suspected. But together…anything is possible.
With an alliance in place, there will be no more “I wish I’d said…” or “If I could go back and do things differently...” These girls will show Jar Island that revenge is a dish best enjoyed together.
Though this book was about three supposedly different girls, I could barely distinguish the characters from one another and found it hard to get invested.
Lillia, Kat, and Mary each have very different backstories of inclusion and exclusion and as such, I expected them to have very different voices as the book was told in first person from their various points of view. However, I constantly found that the second I looked up from the book and back down, I had no idea who was narrating. They all sounded the same.
The other characters also felt rather two-dimensional, or at least extremely shallow. They barely seemed to notice Mary and Kat's return to Jar Island, or anything much more than football. I felt like they could have at least had a tad more depth to them, or some interest or passion.
Lillia was the only character who occasionally felt real. Her and Alex's relationship was the only thing I was interested to see develop. I enjoyed how protective she was over her sister, and how at the same time they bickered and she sometimes wasn't very kind. These were the real moments in the book.
This book killed time, but I won't be reading any further.
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