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Stones To Abbigale
This book is made up of events that occurred in my own life mixed with fiction from the made-up life of James. James is essentially a better version of myself. His home, his school & his life all resemble my own at his age. The people James analyzes and is surrounded by are not so unlike those I’ve known as well. I have experienced much of the loss James has however his happier moments are more often than not also mine. I want to share my story without it being purely non-fiction. I simply felt this approach would make for a far better book. At points I cried while writing this, at others I laughed.Stones To Abbigale is not just a book I wrote; it is a piece of who I am.
182 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 29, 2015
43 people are currently reading
568 people want to read
About the author
Onision
7 books71 followersGregory Jackson (Born November 11, 1985) known on YouTube as Onision is a YouTube personality that has made 3,000+ videos ranging from music videos to comedy sketches. Onision is known primarily for his comedy sketches in which he plays all of the characters himself, though in most videos his friends will make appearances.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 181 reviews
February 5, 2018
THE BEST BOOK YOU WILL EVER PICK UP. DEFINITELY AN HOUR WELL SPENT.
I freakin' loved this book. I loved how not once in the entire story does James mention what Abbigale look like. Seriously. Not even once. All I know is that she has hair and eyes and two arms and two legs. Just like me!
Davis is not creepy at all. He does not exist solely to tell James how great he is, and how much he loves him. That's not creepy, that's you know. Love. We definitely (do not) learn about Davis in a setting other than the bus that James goes on every day. I also know that Davis has hair and eyes. Not sure about the arms and legs though.
James is 17 and he likes Abbigale because she is pretty. He also magically gains superpowers when he needs to protect his girlfriend from mean people because she can't fend for herself.
Basically, they are living in a strange world called Dreamwork andShrek James likes to stay by himself. He has a best friend named Donkey Davis and we know that he is his best friend because Davis has no other personality except for kissing James's arse. James falls in love with a beautiful princess Fiona Abbigale, and together, they defeat Farquaad jocks and meanies who don't want them to be together. The jock (who will stay un-named due to privacy reasons) wants to date Abbigale but Shrek James got to her first.
Whew... There are so many characters to keep straight.
Oh yeah, there might have been a school shooting or something, frankly, I don't remember because it wasn't really interesting.
I freakin' loved this book. I loved how not once in the entire story does James mention what Abbigale look like. Seriously. Not even once. All I know is that she has hair and eyes and two arms and two legs. Just like me!
Davis is not creepy at all. He does not exist solely to tell James how great he is, and how much he loves him. That's not creepy, that's you know. Love. We definitely (do not) learn about Davis in a setting other than the bus that James goes on every day. I also know that Davis has hair and eyes. Not sure about the arms and legs though.
James is 17 and he likes Abbigale because she is pretty. He also magically gains superpowers when he needs to protect his girlfriend from mean people because she can't fend for herself.
Basically, they are living in a strange world called Dreamwork and
Whew... There are so many characters to keep straight.
Oh yeah, there might have been a school shooting or something, frankly, I don't remember because it wasn't really interesting.
November 13, 2015
Surprisingly, a 30-year old man who made an entire career out of mocking and exploiting vulnerable people has no understanding of another's pain other than to boost his own ego. That much is clear when all of his ex- and current girlfriends were abused at one point, allowing Onision the role of the savior. So this leads to the broken bird Abbi, whose only role is to prove protagonist James's godhood. James, as Onision reiterates ad nauseam, is a teenage Onision who's somehow better. Granted, that's a very low standard. Onision unintentionally proves that by making James a judgmental creep who treats everyone other than Abbi as useless "creatures" on autopilot and completely irrelevant to his sole purpose - getting Abbi. He doesn't care if people around him were killed, if his family were happy, as long as he gets some from his girlfriend. He loves her, despite her lack of personality, and spends every single moment of the book thinking obsessively about her (which, coming from a "writer" who hasn't read a book in 14 years, ends up reading like drafting deep Tumblr posts). Surprisingly, Onision realizes he can't mock her here - or maybe that's just his teenage savior complex preventing him from seeing Abbi as the actual person (who he based her on, nonetheless).
Obviously, a man who cannot even use commas correctly in a sentence will not sell on merit. That might explain why the blurb is entirely Onision insisting that IT'S ONISION writing an AUTOBIOGRAPHY, and much of his focus is on how he feels about his/James's past rather than actual events. With a novel, originality and skill determines its success and the author's fame. With autobiographies, Gregory Jackson is free to shamelessly promote it on every page he owns and his fanbase of 11-14 year old girls whose entire knowledge of life is second-hand from Taylor Swift choruses will eat it up.
However, that still doesn't excuse directly responding angrily to reviews (especially making up conversations between him and reviewers): See his Tumblr.
Let's look at the actual book. "I walked quickly down the hall towards my art class, which was awkwardly placed in a trailer outside my clearly poorly funded high school." That's 4 adverbs in one sentence. "Walked quickly" could be replaced with "hurried" or any variation thereof. The rest of the sentence isn't directly related to what James is doing, so it should be either short or a separate sentence.
You could literally set your watch to whenever one of Onision's phrases pop up. "Literally" is just the tip of the iceberg; he addresses "most everyone" "on a daily basis" "in a ____ tone" and doing what he thinks is "dorky."
Onision also does not split his paragraphs or sentences correctly. "On my way to the class a fight had already broken out between two jocks who, no doubt, both had controlling, iron-fisted fathers who brainwashed them into believing conflicts between men are best resolved with the bloodying of the fists." Most of the sentence is unnecessary and non-descriptive, with very little supporting evidence (which is kind of the point of a story). The sentence runs on from a very brief description to a trite attempt at stream-of-consciousness which Onision does not manage well and ends up making James look like a prick. Much like Onision himself.
He fails one cardinal rule of paragraphs in fiction; one paragraph for each character. If James talks, the teacher's response should be in a different paragraph. With an opening chapter already rife with errors and so bland, it's not inexcusable that many readers would stop reading.
There are some terrible metaphors. He compares his mind to "neon walls" (?????) and visualizes his crush's face "like a projector." In the hands of a competent writer, the metaphor of James's mind as a theater may work well; instead it is clunky and completely fails at the purpose of a metaphor. Metaphors should reveal something about the character's personality, a theme, or simply set the atmosphere/allow the readers to visualize a certain scene. Also, they should not be pointing out something blindingly obvious (like that a plush toy bear doesn't give off the smell of real blood, which sounds almost like Onision's vegan tracts).
Onision takes enough pages out of c. 2007 "teen fiction" to make Stones To Abbigail accumulate more biomass than the entire teenage population of the United States. The result is some kind of monstrosity where jocks who say "Dude I think John's done bro!" are thrown together with the stereotypical developmentally delayed kid with disgusting behavior, the teacher who expresses absolutely no concern over said student, and a terrible guidance counselor (sadly, this is a bit closer to the truth than the rest of Onision's book). There's also James's best friend Davis whose only purpose is to worship and cater to his whims, such as standing up "to give [James] the window seat." The poor verb usage is compounded with the complete absence of personality of Davis. (I amused myself by imagining a scaled down version of Davis Aurini as Onision's best friend)
As for the plot, literally nothing happens. James has a dream where the girl he likes is screaming so he emails a love letter to her, talking about how he alone can heal all of her scars (exact same letter Onision wrote to a girl also named Abbi in high school). She rightfully chews him out for unwarranted white-knighting, then suddenly confides in him. There's a school shooting by Abbi's abusive ex Seth after she breaks up with him, and she has no reaction to the deaths of 52 students other than physical contact with James. 52 students, shot in the head. Just for perspective, the highest death toll of a school shooting by a single perpetrator is 32 students (Seung Hui Cho at Virginia Tech). Onision gets nearly everything wrong about school shootings; first of all, so many shootings and other things happen that there's no way the President would visit every school where a shooting occurs. Secondly, the symptoms of shock are wrong (crying while escaping isn't a symptom). Finally, none of the characters are shown to react at all.
Onision needs to proofread, read some books (apparently his own book was the first he read in 14 years, explaining why so much of it seemed to come out of Tumblr posts), and also learn empathy and deflate his ego.
Obviously, a man who cannot even use commas correctly in a sentence will not sell on merit. That might explain why the blurb is entirely Onision insisting that IT'S ONISION writing an AUTOBIOGRAPHY, and much of his focus is on how he feels about his/James's past rather than actual events. With a novel, originality and skill determines its success and the author's fame. With autobiographies, Gregory Jackson is free to shamelessly promote it on every page he owns and his fanbase of 11-14 year old girls whose entire knowledge of life is second-hand from Taylor Swift choruses will eat it up.
However, that still doesn't excuse directly responding angrily to reviews (especially making up conversations between him and reviewers): See his Tumblr.
Let's look at the actual book. "I walked quickly down the hall towards my art class, which was awkwardly placed in a trailer outside my clearly poorly funded high school." That's 4 adverbs in one sentence. "Walked quickly" could be replaced with "hurried" or any variation thereof. The rest of the sentence isn't directly related to what James is doing, so it should be either short or a separate sentence.
You could literally set your watch to whenever one of Onision's phrases pop up. "Literally" is just the tip of the iceberg; he addresses "most everyone" "on a daily basis" "in a ____ tone" and doing what he thinks is "dorky."
Onision also does not split his paragraphs or sentences correctly. "On my way to the class a fight had already broken out between two jocks who, no doubt, both had controlling, iron-fisted fathers who brainwashed them into believing conflicts between men are best resolved with the bloodying of the fists." Most of the sentence is unnecessary and non-descriptive, with very little supporting evidence (which is kind of the point of a story). The sentence runs on from a very brief description to a trite attempt at stream-of-consciousness which Onision does not manage well and ends up making James look like a prick. Much like Onision himself.
He fails one cardinal rule of paragraphs in fiction; one paragraph for each character. If James talks, the teacher's response should be in a different paragraph. With an opening chapter already rife with errors and so bland, it's not inexcusable that many readers would stop reading.
There are some terrible metaphors. He compares his mind to "neon walls" (?????) and visualizes his crush's face "like a projector." In the hands of a competent writer, the metaphor of James's mind as a theater may work well; instead it is clunky and completely fails at the purpose of a metaphor. Metaphors should reveal something about the character's personality, a theme, or simply set the atmosphere/allow the readers to visualize a certain scene. Also, they should not be pointing out something blindingly obvious (like that a plush toy bear doesn't give off the smell of real blood, which sounds almost like Onision's vegan tracts).
Onision takes enough pages out of c. 2007 "teen fiction" to make Stones To Abbigail accumulate more biomass than the entire teenage population of the United States. The result is some kind of monstrosity where jocks who say "Dude I think John's done bro!" are thrown together with the stereotypical developmentally delayed kid with disgusting behavior, the teacher who expresses absolutely no concern over said student, and a terrible guidance counselor (sadly, this is a bit closer to the truth than the rest of Onision's book). There's also James's best friend Davis whose only purpose is to worship and cater to his whims, such as standing up "to give [James] the window seat." The poor verb usage is compounded with the complete absence of personality of Davis. (I amused myself by imagining a scaled down version of Davis Aurini as Onision's best friend)
As for the plot, literally nothing happens. James has a dream where the girl he likes is screaming so he emails a love letter to her, talking about how he alone can heal all of her scars (exact same letter Onision wrote to a girl also named Abbi in high school). She rightfully chews him out for unwarranted white-knighting, then suddenly confides in him. There's a school shooting by Abbi's abusive ex Seth after she breaks up with him, and she has no reaction to the deaths of 52 students other than physical contact with James. 52 students, shot in the head. Just for perspective, the highest death toll of a school shooting by a single perpetrator is 32 students (Seung Hui Cho at Virginia Tech). Onision gets nearly everything wrong about school shootings; first of all, so many shootings and other things happen that there's no way the President would visit every school where a shooting occurs. Secondly, the symptoms of shock are wrong (crying while escaping isn't a symptom). Finally, none of the characters are shown to react at all.
Onision needs to proofread, read some books (apparently his own book was the first he read in 14 years, explaining why so much of it seemed to come out of Tumblr posts), and also learn empathy and deflate his ego.
April 2, 2015
James our lovely protagonist of this book is a 17 year old JR in high school. He has some sort of god complex, he studies his classmates at hates everyone (except for Abbigale, a girl he is obsessed with and his friend Davis who worships him). This could because A. hes a judgmental jerk or B. hes actually an alien sent here to study human teenagers and fall in love. If you read the book through this lens, it becomes more interesting.
Abbigale, the love interest of the main character is a typical damsel in distress. She has no real personality besides the trauma she has gone through. James has to constantly save her. He saves her from her ex, who shoots up their school, her father who is an abusive alcoholic, a jock who grabs her ass and a the crazy school counselor who later decides to burn down the school for some reason. Besides all this, Abbi never develops a personality. Abbi doesn't really do anything besides cry and take showers at James' house.
Then there is Davis, the weird kid that is supposed to be funny who says things like "How can I turn that frown upside down? Poopy poo poop?" (that's a direct quote, I'm not kidding.) Davis' hobbies include: riding the school bus, cheering up James, organizing his legos by color, and worshiping James.
Then there is the school shooting. No one we know dies. Nor does it really further the plot. Sure, James saves Abbi while shuffling through the school in his socks, but there is no real reason for it to happen, in fact nothing in the plot changes the main characters in anyway. It's just stuff that happens.
Despite the hardship Abbi and James go through, they don't really change at all. They witness a school shooting, a man committing suicide and Jame's best friend getting hit by a car trying to save the man who committed suicide. Then their school burns down. Abbi says this about the trauma she's endured "I feel like, at this point most bad things that happen wont really hurt us unless we let them."
So, everyone, if you experience horrible trauma like miscarriage, a school shooting or witness your best friend getting hit by a car, don't let it hurt you and you'll be fine.
July 29, 2015
This is by far the worst book I have ever read.
The protagonist James is a total psychopath and hates everyone but a girl in his artclass.
I would describe their looks but the author never ever describes how any of the characters look.
A lot of life changing things happen to them but nobody ever changes, the dialogues are terribly written, the characters have no development or characteristics whatsoever and it's hard to empathize with any of them.
There is no red line through the story, just things happen and awkward talking and everyone praising the protagonist and end.
There is no moral, no good feeling the reader is left with and I assure you that you will never think of the characters again (you will most likely have forgotten their names instantly anyways) or pick up the book for a second read.
Even as a first novel, this is just horrible and shameful.
The protagonist James is a total psychopath and hates everyone but a girl in his artclass.
I would describe their looks but the author never ever describes how any of the characters look.
A lot of life changing things happen to them but nobody ever changes, the dialogues are terribly written, the characters have no development or characteristics whatsoever and it's hard to empathize with any of them.
There is no red line through the story, just things happen and awkward talking and everyone praising the protagonist and end.
There is no moral, no good feeling the reader is left with and I assure you that you will never think of the characters again (you will most likely have forgotten their names instantly anyways) or pick up the book for a second read.
Even as a first novel, this is just horrible and shameful.
January 5, 2021
I'm not reviewing this thing, so you can stop asking, I read it for purely academic purposes. The one positive I can say is that it feels... earnest. Like Onision thought he was saying something profound with it. He didn't, but he tried.
April 3, 2015
Not even adequate as a debut. The characters are as shallow as the authors internet presence and as unrealistic as his alleged online following which consists of 11-16 year old kids who worship him with their medication in one hand and razor blade in the other.
It figures the author would write about a self inflated and misunderstood teenage boy who is meant to come off as wise for his years and yet only comes off as a clear depiction of an egocentric legend in his own mind.
I kept waiting for aliens to land next, I mean I understand that action is required in a book, things have to occur to move plot but there is just so much going on here it is totally unrealistic. If just one thing was chosen such as the fire or one character helping another through a trying time or the school shooting or the best friend dying before his eyes...(sheesh) it might have been better. It seems that perhaps the author thought he could make up for the shallowness of his characters and his inability to write in an engaging way by piling one catastrophic event on top of another. Unfortunately, it didn't work. It's difficult to even care about the characters and the events meant to move the plot forward don't even move it slightly to the side. As mentioned, one of the myriad of events that happen in the story had it been done well could have made an excellent book, instead you get a book that has about everything that could happen to a teenager happening and it's a challenge to care.
This book will find an audience though, Onision's minions will eat it up, the 11-16 year old set gripping their razor blades and wallowing in a mass of their own imaginary problems will clamor for their copy. And this brings me to the message it seems that Onision is attempting in his mentally crippled way to get across, if you experience trauma you just have to let it go. As the leading poster child for therapy he wants this age old message to come off as profound when it really isn't. Even old school lessons can be presented to people in an inspiring way though, if the story is good, and this one wasn't. It's easy to say "Let it go" but Onision doesn't have the fortitude or wisdom to point out that in order to let go of a thing one must first pick it up.
I recommend waiting for this one to come out at your public library if you insist on reading it, that way you won't waste money, just time, and that, like everything, is a choice, right? Just return it on time, it isn't even worth the quarter you'll pay for the late charge.
It figures the author would write about a self inflated and misunderstood teenage boy who is meant to come off as wise for his years and yet only comes off as a clear depiction of an egocentric legend in his own mind.
I kept waiting for aliens to land next, I mean I understand that action is required in a book, things have to occur to move plot but there is just so much going on here it is totally unrealistic. If just one thing was chosen such as the fire or one character helping another through a trying time or the school shooting or the best friend dying before his eyes...(sheesh) it might have been better. It seems that perhaps the author thought he could make up for the shallowness of his characters and his inability to write in an engaging way by piling one catastrophic event on top of another. Unfortunately, it didn't work. It's difficult to even care about the characters and the events meant to move the plot forward don't even move it slightly to the side. As mentioned, one of the myriad of events that happen in the story had it been done well could have made an excellent book, instead you get a book that has about everything that could happen to a teenager happening and it's a challenge to care.
This book will find an audience though, Onision's minions will eat it up, the 11-16 year old set gripping their razor blades and wallowing in a mass of their own imaginary problems will clamor for their copy. And this brings me to the message it seems that Onision is attempting in his mentally crippled way to get across, if you experience trauma you just have to let it go. As the leading poster child for therapy he wants this age old message to come off as profound when it really isn't. Even old school lessons can be presented to people in an inspiring way though, if the story is good, and this one wasn't. It's easy to say "Let it go" but Onision doesn't have the fortitude or wisdom to point out that in order to let go of a thing one must first pick it up.
I recommend waiting for this one to come out at your public library if you insist on reading it, that way you won't waste money, just time, and that, like everything, is a choice, right? Just return it on time, it isn't even worth the quarter you'll pay for the late charge.
June 15, 2015
-This rant will contain spoilers.-
I actually read this entire book.
Why did I read this book???
I'm not going to get into a big detailed review or anything (maybe more of a rant), because I really don't want to relive this experience. But honestly, the entire time I was reading this book, I kept forgetting it was written by a grown man in his thirties. It reads EXACTLY like fan fiction written by a middle schooler. Actually, scratch that. I was probably writing better Harry Potter fan fiction when I was thirteen.
There is not a single likable character in this book. James is a self absorbed asshole. Abbi has the personality of a cardboard box. Jason and Chris were almost indistinguishable from each other. The teachers were all such incompetent assholes that it is completely unbelievable that these people would have jobs at all. I don't even want to get started on Davis honestly. All I can say is, my hatred for him reached the level of my disdain for Tiny in John Green and David Levithan's Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which says a hell of a lot. He was the epitome of the 'zomg so random!!11!' phase we all wish we could forget. Throughout the entire book I was convinced he was actually 5 years old, since, as far as I can remember, it was never stated how old he was.
There is really no conflict in this book. Sure, there's drama, but most of it lasts less than one chapter and is never mentioned again. You could argue that the shooting is mentioned throughout the book, but there are hardly any repercussions. No one we know dies, the students never seem to suffer any kind of emotional trauma after 52 STUDENTS ARE KILLED.
I also cannot get past how everything in this book revolves around James. Davis is unreasonably obsessed with him, and talks about nothing else. James is the only possible candidate for school president, even though he makes absolutely 0 good choices. Davis' mother talks about James more than she does about her own son in his eulogy. And I don't even want to talk about how terrible of a person James actually is. He is not phased in the slightest bit by such a staggering amount of classmates dying. He says himself that the only person he cares about in the world is Abbi. Their """""relationship""""" is more dangerous and unhealthy than Twilight and 50 Shades put together.
Anyway. I've ranted enough. I'll leave you with some choice quotes from everyone's favorite undeveloped character, Davis.
"How can I turn that frown upside poopy poo poop?"
“Hi ho silver lady mammy poppy sickle!”
I actually read this entire book.
Why did I read this book???
I'm not going to get into a big detailed review or anything (maybe more of a rant), because I really don't want to relive this experience. But honestly, the entire time I was reading this book, I kept forgetting it was written by a grown man in his thirties. It reads EXACTLY like fan fiction written by a middle schooler. Actually, scratch that. I was probably writing better Harry Potter fan fiction when I was thirteen.
There is not a single likable character in this book. James is a self absorbed asshole. Abbi has the personality of a cardboard box. Jason and Chris were almost indistinguishable from each other. The teachers were all such incompetent assholes that it is completely unbelievable that these people would have jobs at all. I don't even want to get started on Davis honestly. All I can say is, my hatred for him reached the level of my disdain for Tiny in John Green and David Levithan's Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which says a hell of a lot. He was the epitome of the 'zomg so random!!11!' phase we all wish we could forget. Throughout the entire book I was convinced he was actually 5 years old, since, as far as I can remember, it was never stated how old he was.
There is really no conflict in this book. Sure, there's drama, but most of it lasts less than one chapter and is never mentioned again. You could argue that the shooting is mentioned throughout the book, but there are hardly any repercussions. No one we know dies, the students never seem to suffer any kind of emotional trauma after 52 STUDENTS ARE KILLED.
I also cannot get past how everything in this book revolves around James. Davis is unreasonably obsessed with him, and talks about nothing else. James is the only possible candidate for school president, even though he makes absolutely 0 good choices. Davis' mother talks about James more than she does about her own son in his eulogy. And I don't even want to talk about how terrible of a person James actually is. He is not phased in the slightest bit by such a staggering amount of classmates dying. He says himself that the only person he cares about in the world is Abbi. Their """""relationship""""" is more dangerous and unhealthy than Twilight and 50 Shades put together.
Anyway. I've ranted enough. I'll leave you with some choice quotes from everyone's favorite undeveloped character, Davis.
"How can I turn that frown upside poopy poo poop?"
“Hi ho silver lady mammy poppy sickle!”
September 6, 2020
For those on a leisurely scroll through, you may not know that I have edited this review. After stumbling across my hate-fulled, furious ramblings, I realised that I didn't make a whole lot of sense. Therefore, I'm rewriting it in a more coherent manner that will deliver in possibly more snark and sass than its predecessor because, despite spending two years trying to push this from my mind, my hatred for this book has only grown. It festers. Every time I think I've considered every aspect of this book that was poorly done, something else springs to mind. It is a tragedy that I am burdened by a character limit now.
I'm also amending an earlier statement that has since been rendered incorrect. After reading this shit show, I dug into Onision as a person and internet personality. Oh my fucking God. I've concluded from my research that he is, indeed, a narcissistic, arrogant, ignorant fuckwit with no talents whatsoever. This is important to highlight because it's tangential to his writing; all of his protagonists are narcissistic, arrogant, ignorant fuckwits who have so-called 'talents'. That is, saving 'broken girls' and having the impressive ability to get on every single one of my fucking nerves.
It should also be noted I was promptly suspended off of Twitter within a week of getting it because I replied to some of Greg's tweets. Some would call it cyber-bullying, I'd call it clowning an egocentric abuser who uses BDSM as a cover for his repulsive behaviour. A greasy Christian Grey without the good looks or the money, if you will.
Evidently, you have probably guessed that I don't think all that highly of this book. A fair assessment. Two years ago, I didn't have a system when it came to reviews, and I also was far more critical than nowadays. I was THAT kid. Even so, in this book, there's so much wrong with it that there's too much to wade through.
I'll start with the beginning. We've all heard to start your story with a gripping opening, something that grabs the reader and builds anticipation. You should take that first chapter to introduce yourprotagonist, the world, maybe even a glimpse at the plot. Onision does none of this. Instead, he chooses to wax philosophically to the reader about love and its purpose in our lives. Condescendingly explaining how the heart is a lock that needs the right key to open it. How it 'enlightens' us. All I got from this is that Greg is pretentious and so is his self-insert, James.
This little prick is one of the most irritating, bland, arrogant bastards I've ever had the displeasure of following in a novel. Ever. Aspiring writers, never replicate this shitstain for your protagonist, someone who talks down to the reader, all the while being a judgemental, unintelligent wet wipe of a human being, will never work out in your favour.
James believes he's the best thing to ever walk this earth. A true reflection of the author, who has some fantasy of being every edgy girl's wet dream. Throughout this book, James makes fake deep commentary wherever he can and comes off with edgy bullshit that had me rolling my eyes so hard, I nearly knocked myself out. He has a saviour complex that only fuelled my hatred for this book, and this is where I became truly disgusted with it.
His love interest, Abbigale, is a girl who suffers abuse throughout the novel. Upon his first descriptions of this chick, the first words that came to mind were trauma porn. I was going to be stuck reading trauma porn written by a thirty-something year old man. Great. I totally wasn't creeped out at the notion that a grown man was writing explicity about teenagers having sex after sharing their damage. Not. At. All.
What made this worse was that the story and romance reminded me of every edgy fanfic ever written by twelve year old girls on Wattpad, and that's being generous. The quality of this novel is so horrific that I could barely make out what was being said. Normally, I'll let self-published works get a pass on grammar mistakes here and there, but my dude was really taking the piss. There's whole sentences that aren't complete thoughts, and I was so lost.
The romance, as I said, is incredibly juvenile and very disconnected from reality. Abbigale self harms because she's depressed and severely abused by her boyfriend and drunkard father, which is awful on its own, but it doesn't GO anywhere. The most that happens is that her ex-boyfriend shoots up the school, and she's blamed for a chapter at most, way after the event happened. Don't worry, I'll be talking more on that later.
Her whole character is so boring, Greg clearly thought stuffing emotional baggage onto her would make her mysterious and desirable, or even interesting. Turns out, my desensitised ass took three weeks to slug through this book because I was so bored. She has no life to her, she's a walking mess of trauma with a vagina attached. It's incredibly misogynistic.
There's a scene where she shows him her scars, in one of the most uncomfortable reveals I've ever read. He says something like she's perfectly imperfect and kisses them, and I gagged. This kid, this little fucker is out here pretending like this girl's serious mental health issues can be soothed by his affections. As I said, a truly disgusting saviour complex. The truth is, a teenager won't know how to really help someone that emotionally damaged, and the right thing to do would be to encourage them to get help. It is not James' responsibility to 'fix' her. It isn't anybody's responsibility to play caretaker at that age. Just because you love someone doesn't mean you can solve their problems.
The plot twist of her character is, you guessed it, more trauma! Turns out she was raped multiple times, she fell pregnant and confided in the school counselor, who scorned her for wanting an abortion. Her abusive boyfriend punched her until she miscarried and the school counselor is pro-life so she hates Abbi now because she thinks it was a conspiracy between the couple so they didn't have to have the kid.
Of course, James finds this super hot because they're both so broken and lonely, you know? They get each other. In reality, James attaches himself to this emotionally damaged, vulnerable girl and uses her insecurities to loop her further into the emotionally manipulative relationship, making her submissive and adoring of him because he's her so-called hero. She lives only to please him.
"Make up is just make up, skin is just skin, it is what it is." The context being James says this after seeing Abbi's bruises beneath her make-up when it smudges in the rain ... I don't think I need to comment on that.
I can't say there really is an antagonist in this book, the closest would be Seth and the batshit crazy counselor. Seth is the abusive boyfriend who shoots up the school, and my God he couldn't have made this asshole anymore obvious that he's a bad guy. Just short of literally saying, "I'm the bad guy." Him shooting up the school was mostly inconsequential. James isn't even the one to stop him, it was the jock he'd fought earlier in the book. So he's not even active in his own story.
Oh yeah, James rollerskated into the shooting. Yep, you don't need to read it again, I said what I said. This whole book is so bonkers and out of touch that the whole experience felt like a fever dream. I was expecting Obama to show up and drop some actual philosophical wisdom about unresolved issues or some shit.
Davis. Fuck this character. Greg deflected criticism by saying Davis was based off of a real life friend of his who died. I really couldn't care less. If I were him I'd be haunting Greg's ass because this portrayal is character assassination. Davis is a childish, immature idiot whose sole purpose is to make James look smart and good despite the fact the boy's a shithead. He's supposed to be comic relief but he isn't fucking funny. He reveres his best friend, and he's just such a good buddy, you know? Either Greg doesn't know what a healthy friendship looks like, or he intentionally wrote Davis to be gay. No straight man says, "'I wish you were my boyfriend!" so out of the blue. This was not an established joke between them, this wasn't even really played off as a joke. Not to mention it's implied that he's annoyed about James and Abbi's relationship. Our man James is like, 'he's such a good friend.'
...
Pal, that guy wants to suck your dick.
I digress, he dies later in the novel in one of the most confusing and senseless deaths I've ever read about in fiction. He jumps out of the car in the middle of the motorway to try and stop a guy from committing suicide, in turn getting hit by a truck. I mean, I don't understand the thinking behind that. The way his death was talked about was so... clinical and cold. There was no emotion behind it. There was no lasting effect on Abbi or James. Nothing in this book has any consequence.
Because nothing in this book can be centered around anything else but James, even Davis' funeral features his mother getting up and talking about how great of a friend James was to Davis. It was so incredibly disrespectful. A mother would never get up to remember her son and then bang on about one of his mates. There's just no way.
However, the worst part of this book were the sex scenes. The teenage sex scenes that were written by a thirty-something year old man featuring two incredibly broken people who are attracted to each other because fuck you, trauma is hot, ok!?
Listen, I've read Sarah J. Maas, okay? I'm used to ridiculous sex scenes that make no sense and are laughable, but Stones to Abbigale made me genuinely uncomfortable. This chick can read out a round of the dirtiest cards in Cards Against Humanity with a straight face, and this book had me visibly repulsed.
There's a line that makes my skin wish to peel back from my bones, 'our bodies sliding together'...
I have been converted. I am now abstinent. I will cart myself off to a fucking nunnery because, my dude, this scarred me for fucking life.
And when he kissed her in the classroom? I lost my will to live.
I never want to experience a revulsion like that again, and so I will NOT be re-reading Stones to Abbigale in the near, or far future, thank you very fucking much.
Now how could he improve this mess?
The writing needs a fucking glow-up and fast. Take writing classes. Practice. Just don't fucking publish another book until you at least learn new speaker, new line.
Also, emotion. A big part of the problem was lazy descriptions and pitiless sentences, I don't even know what the characters look like so... fix it. Everything that should've been tragic lost its impact due to piss poor writing.
The plot is non-existent, and this story is so overdone there really is no saving it. Shift the focus elsewhere. It could be centered around Abbi's father's trial, which would make it far more interesting and unique, making it a story about James and Abbi bonding over this traumatic event and the upcoming court date.
You could draw parallels in the families by having Abbi's mum still be there, but complicit, much like James' mum. This could be a character arc where both mothers learn how to step up and take charge. Abbi's mother gets over her fear of her husband, and testifies against him. James' mother becomes less of a pushover, putting the foot down where her kids are concerned.
The school shooting could happen still, but add more conflict between James and Seth instead of there only being one showdown between the two. More arguments, more threats, make Davis relevant by him actually standing up for James and Abbi, even helping to take Seth down at the peak of the novel.
Drop the whole thing with Abbi being potentially responsible, as well as the guidance counselor, she was so fucking boring to read about.
Unless you're making Jason a friend or foe, drop the fights entirely, they do jackshit for the novel.
Include James actually being a friend to Davis, you know, making intelligent, witty jokes that build relationships and actually give the impression of genuine friendship?
The same with Abbi and James, drop the whole obsession thing, it was fucking creepy. I liked the letters thing, but it was wasted potential, it was used for exposition, which was lazy story telling. I'll use the example of Feyre and Rhys from ACOTAR, in the second book they use notes for flirting, which builds character and depth to their relationship, thus creating emotional investment from the reader and a more likeable dynamic that the reader can support because it was funny and cute to watch these two characters fall in love. There's a severe lack of chemistry between Abbi and James that even a lab can't fix this relationship.
Therefore, get rid of the manipulation. After the school shooting, let it be enough that James and Abbi seek out proper help. Abbi shouldn't be used to inflate and fulfill a saviour fantasy. Remember children, You don't love them if you don't look out for them; that means telling them to get help when necessary, not playing happy families and ignoring the problem.
Overall, this book was shit and I would never recommend. I was in the middle of exam week, and I managed to read Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo before I finished this novel. I disliked both books strongly. Despite being so short, it was a slug to get through because I physically couldn't force myself to read this.
I'm also amending an earlier statement that has since been rendered incorrect. After reading this shit show, I dug into Onision as a person and internet personality. Oh my fucking God. I've concluded from my research that he is, indeed, a narcissistic, arrogant, ignorant fuckwit with no talents whatsoever. This is important to highlight because it's tangential to his writing; all of his protagonists are narcissistic, arrogant, ignorant fuckwits who have so-called 'talents'. That is, saving 'broken girls' and having the impressive ability to get on every single one of my fucking nerves.
It should also be noted I was promptly suspended off of Twitter within a week of getting it because I replied to some of Greg's tweets. Some would call it cyber-bullying, I'd call it clowning an egocentric abuser who uses BDSM as a cover for his repulsive behaviour. A greasy Christian Grey without the good looks or the money, if you will.
Evidently, you have probably guessed that I don't think all that highly of this book. A fair assessment. Two years ago, I didn't have a system when it came to reviews, and I also was far more critical than nowadays. I was THAT kid. Even so, in this book, there's so much wrong with it that there's too much to wade through.
I'll start with the beginning. We've all heard to start your story with a gripping opening, something that grabs the reader and builds anticipation. You should take that first chapter to introduce yourprotagonist, the world, maybe even a glimpse at the plot. Onision does none of this. Instead, he chooses to wax philosophically to the reader about love and its purpose in our lives. Condescendingly explaining how the heart is a lock that needs the right key to open it. How it 'enlightens' us. All I got from this is that Greg is pretentious and so is his self-insert, James.
This little prick is one of the most irritating, bland, arrogant bastards I've ever had the displeasure of following in a novel. Ever. Aspiring writers, never replicate this shitstain for your protagonist, someone who talks down to the reader, all the while being a judgemental, unintelligent wet wipe of a human being, will never work out in your favour.
James believes he's the best thing to ever walk this earth. A true reflection of the author, who has some fantasy of being every edgy girl's wet dream. Throughout this book, James makes fake deep commentary wherever he can and comes off with edgy bullshit that had me rolling my eyes so hard, I nearly knocked myself out. He has a saviour complex that only fuelled my hatred for this book, and this is where I became truly disgusted with it.
His love interest, Abbigale, is a girl who suffers abuse throughout the novel. Upon his first descriptions of this chick, the first words that came to mind were trauma porn. I was going to be stuck reading trauma porn written by a thirty-something year old man. Great. I totally wasn't creeped out at the notion that a grown man was writing explicity about teenagers having sex after sharing their damage. Not. At. All.
What made this worse was that the story and romance reminded me of every edgy fanfic ever written by twelve year old girls on Wattpad, and that's being generous. The quality of this novel is so horrific that I could barely make out what was being said. Normally, I'll let self-published works get a pass on grammar mistakes here and there, but my dude was really taking the piss. There's whole sentences that aren't complete thoughts, and I was so lost.
The romance, as I said, is incredibly juvenile and very disconnected from reality. Abbigale self harms because she's depressed and severely abused by her boyfriend and drunkard father, which is awful on its own, but it doesn't GO anywhere. The most that happens is that her ex-boyfriend shoots up the school, and she's blamed for a chapter at most, way after the event happened. Don't worry, I'll be talking more on that later.
Her whole character is so boring, Greg clearly thought stuffing emotional baggage onto her would make her mysterious and desirable, or even interesting. Turns out, my desensitised ass took three weeks to slug through this book because I was so bored. She has no life to her, she's a walking mess of trauma with a vagina attached. It's incredibly misogynistic.
There's a scene where she shows him her scars, in one of the most uncomfortable reveals I've ever read. He says something like she's perfectly imperfect and kisses them, and I gagged. This kid, this little fucker is out here pretending like this girl's serious mental health issues can be soothed by his affections. As I said, a truly disgusting saviour complex. The truth is, a teenager won't know how to really help someone that emotionally damaged, and the right thing to do would be to encourage them to get help. It is not James' responsibility to 'fix' her. It isn't anybody's responsibility to play caretaker at that age. Just because you love someone doesn't mean you can solve their problems.
The plot twist of her character is, you guessed it, more trauma! Turns out she was raped multiple times, she fell pregnant and confided in the school counselor, who scorned her for wanting an abortion. Her abusive boyfriend punched her until she miscarried and the school counselor is pro-life so she hates Abbi now because she thinks it was a conspiracy between the couple so they didn't have to have the kid.
Of course, James finds this super hot because they're both so broken and lonely, you know? They get each other. In reality, James attaches himself to this emotionally damaged, vulnerable girl and uses her insecurities to loop her further into the emotionally manipulative relationship, making her submissive and adoring of him because he's her so-called hero. She lives only to please him.
"Make up is just make up, skin is just skin, it is what it is." The context being James says this after seeing Abbi's bruises beneath her make-up when it smudges in the rain ... I don't think I need to comment on that.
I can't say there really is an antagonist in this book, the closest would be Seth and the batshit crazy counselor. Seth is the abusive boyfriend who shoots up the school, and my God he couldn't have made this asshole anymore obvious that he's a bad guy. Just short of literally saying, "I'm the bad guy." Him shooting up the school was mostly inconsequential. James isn't even the one to stop him, it was the jock he'd fought earlier in the book. So he's not even active in his own story.
Oh yeah, James rollerskated into the shooting. Yep, you don't need to read it again, I said what I said. This whole book is so bonkers and out of touch that the whole experience felt like a fever dream. I was expecting Obama to show up and drop some actual philosophical wisdom about unresolved issues or some shit.
Davis. Fuck this character. Greg deflected criticism by saying Davis was based off of a real life friend of his who died. I really couldn't care less. If I were him I'd be haunting Greg's ass because this portrayal is character assassination. Davis is a childish, immature idiot whose sole purpose is to make James look smart and good despite the fact the boy's a shithead. He's supposed to be comic relief but he isn't fucking funny. He reveres his best friend, and he's just such a good buddy, you know? Either Greg doesn't know what a healthy friendship looks like, or he intentionally wrote Davis to be gay. No straight man says, "'I wish you were my boyfriend!" so out of the blue. This was not an established joke between them, this wasn't even really played off as a joke. Not to mention it's implied that he's annoyed about James and Abbi's relationship. Our man James is like, 'he's such a good friend.'
...
Pal, that guy wants to suck your dick.
I digress, he dies later in the novel in one of the most confusing and senseless deaths I've ever read about in fiction. He jumps out of the car in the middle of the motorway to try and stop a guy from committing suicide, in turn getting hit by a truck. I mean, I don't understand the thinking behind that. The way his death was talked about was so... clinical and cold. There was no emotion behind it. There was no lasting effect on Abbi or James. Nothing in this book has any consequence.
Because nothing in this book can be centered around anything else but James, even Davis' funeral features his mother getting up and talking about how great of a friend James was to Davis. It was so incredibly disrespectful. A mother would never get up to remember her son and then bang on about one of his mates. There's just no way.
However, the worst part of this book were the sex scenes. The teenage sex scenes that were written by a thirty-something year old man featuring two incredibly broken people who are attracted to each other because fuck you, trauma is hot, ok!?
Listen, I've read Sarah J. Maas, okay? I'm used to ridiculous sex scenes that make no sense and are laughable, but Stones to Abbigale made me genuinely uncomfortable. This chick can read out a round of the dirtiest cards in Cards Against Humanity with a straight face, and this book had me visibly repulsed.
There's a line that makes my skin wish to peel back from my bones, 'our bodies sliding together'...
I have been converted. I am now abstinent. I will cart myself off to a fucking nunnery because, my dude, this scarred me for fucking life.
And when he kissed her in the classroom? I lost my will to live.
I never want to experience a revulsion like that again, and so I will NOT be re-reading Stones to Abbigale in the near, or far future, thank you very fucking much.
Now how could he improve this mess?
The writing needs a fucking glow-up and fast. Take writing classes. Practice. Just don't fucking publish another book until you at least learn new speaker, new line.
Also, emotion. A big part of the problem was lazy descriptions and pitiless sentences, I don't even know what the characters look like so... fix it. Everything that should've been tragic lost its impact due to piss poor writing.
The plot is non-existent, and this story is so overdone there really is no saving it. Shift the focus elsewhere. It could be centered around Abbi's father's trial, which would make it far more interesting and unique, making it a story about James and Abbi bonding over this traumatic event and the upcoming court date.
You could draw parallels in the families by having Abbi's mum still be there, but complicit, much like James' mum. This could be a character arc where both mothers learn how to step up and take charge. Abbi's mother gets over her fear of her husband, and testifies against him. James' mother becomes less of a pushover, putting the foot down where her kids are concerned.
The school shooting could happen still, but add more conflict between James and Seth instead of there only being one showdown between the two. More arguments, more threats, make Davis relevant by him actually standing up for James and Abbi, even helping to take Seth down at the peak of the novel.
Drop the whole thing with Abbi being potentially responsible, as well as the guidance counselor, she was so fucking boring to read about.
Unless you're making Jason a friend or foe, drop the fights entirely, they do jackshit for the novel.
Include James actually being a friend to Davis, you know, making intelligent, witty jokes that build relationships and actually give the impression of genuine friendship?
The same with Abbi and James, drop the whole obsession thing, it was fucking creepy. I liked the letters thing, but it was wasted potential, it was used for exposition, which was lazy story telling. I'll use the example of Feyre and Rhys from ACOTAR, in the second book they use notes for flirting, which builds character and depth to their relationship, thus creating emotional investment from the reader and a more likeable dynamic that the reader can support because it was funny and cute to watch these two characters fall in love. There's a severe lack of chemistry between Abbi and James that even a lab can't fix this relationship.
Therefore, get rid of the manipulation. After the school shooting, let it be enough that James and Abbi seek out proper help. Abbi shouldn't be used to inflate and fulfill a saviour fantasy. Remember children, You don't love them if you don't look out for them; that means telling them to get help when necessary, not playing happy families and ignoring the problem.
Overall, this book was shit and I would never recommend. I was in the middle of exam week, and I managed to read Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo before I finished this novel. I disliked both books strongly. Despite being so short, it was a slug to get through because I physically couldn't force myself to read this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 23, 2017
To start it off and simply; this book is trash. There is absolutely nothing good about this book. Like, at all. If I could rate it any lower, then I would.
The characters have 0 personality for starters, except for the protagonist James, who is judgemental, narcissistic and obsessive. He manipulates the girl he loves, Abbi, and takes advantage of her weakened emotional state. For Pete's sake, he sent her a love letter that tell her that only HE can heal her scars. Keep in mind, James sends Abbi this letter a mere 2 days after he talks to her for the first time. 2 DAYS! Not to mention, Abbi had just gotten out of an abusive relationship.
Of course, this book is riddled with numerous grammar and spelling errors. You can tell that the author hadn't picked up a book in 14 years. A 30 year old man does not know how to use a comma. They teach basic grammar in elementary school! An eighth grader knows how to use grammar better than this 'author'. I use the term author very generously.
THE PLOT IS ALSO TRASH. The problems are introduced in the beginning of the chapter and then immediately solved by either the end of the chapter or the beginning of the next. The plot is just so contrived.
There's nothing salvageable about this book. In order for it to be at least a decent novel, it would have to be entirely reworked. It's over filled will crappy metaphors and reads more like a bad fanfiction rather than an actual published book. It's so obvious that this book was self published because no publishing company in their right mind would publish this tripe.
The characters have 0 personality for starters, except for the protagonist James, who is judgemental, narcissistic and obsessive. He manipulates the girl he loves, Abbi, and takes advantage of her weakened emotional state. For Pete's sake, he sent her a love letter that tell her that only HE can heal her scars. Keep in mind, James sends Abbi this letter a mere 2 days after he talks to her for the first time. 2 DAYS! Not to mention, Abbi had just gotten out of an abusive relationship.
Of course, this book is riddled with numerous grammar and spelling errors. You can tell that the author hadn't picked up a book in 14 years. A 30 year old man does not know how to use a comma. They teach basic grammar in elementary school! An eighth grader knows how to use grammar better than this 'author'. I use the term author very generously.
THE PLOT IS ALSO TRASH. The problems are introduced in the beginning of the chapter and then immediately solved by either the end of the chapter or the beginning of the next. The plot is just so contrived.
There's nothing salvageable about this book. In order for it to be at least a decent novel, it would have to be entirely reworked. It's over filled will crappy metaphors and reads more like a bad fanfiction rather than an actual published book. It's so obvious that this book was self published because no publishing company in their right mind would publish this tripe.
will-never-read
July 29, 2016I'd rather Blaire White write a book.
December 6, 2015
I "read" this in the sense that I listened to someone read through it... Oh lord. I'm going to try to talk about my interpretation of this book without being offensive. I'm also going to go ahead and say that this review will be rife with spoilers.
SPOILERS BELOW. MANY OF THEM.
SERIOUSLY. LOTS OF SPOILERS.
TURN BACK NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED.
What stood out to me the most is that the emotions the main character experiences, specifically in response to traumatic events, are not accurate to what most people would experience under those circumstances. Someone who steps in their fellow students' blood would not feel absolutely nothing about going back to the school where those students were killed, nor would they feel as though everything was okay because there were some students who hadn't lost someone close to them. Someone who sees their friend get hit by a car would not immediately descend into an existential spiral of self-hatred. They might feel some degree of survivor's guilt, sure, but for him to watch his friend die and IMMEDIATELY think that if they hadn't been friends, the friend would still be alive... no.
Everyone responds to traumatic events in different ways, but a school shooting that kills FIFTY-TWO PEOPLE leaves nobody at that school untouched. James' distaste for the general student body doesn't make him an exception to this. His life is put in immediate danger by virtue of being present on the campus during an active shooter situation. His life is put in even more immediate danger when he confronts the killer face-to-face. That kind of thing leaves marks. He might have nightmares about Seth in his bloodied trenchcoat pointing a gun at him, or about having been too late to save Abbi, or about the students he stepped over calling to him for help. He might become clingy or desperately afraid for Abbi's safety. He might have a flashback or a panic attack upon walking through the halls again once the school reopened. He would almost definitely require grief counseling, and the narrative could discuss his struggles with that. None of this happens, though. The shooting happens, everyone is sad and spouts empty "encouraging" rhetoric for a day or two, and then they carry on as normal.
And then the loss of his supposed best friend reads like... well, not like that at all. Onision skips any immediate reactions that James could have, such as desperation to get help for Davis or denial about the fact that his best friend has just been fatally wounded, and goes straight for a chain of thoughts that would be more appropriate for someone who has already recovered from the immediate shock of the event. It's very jarring and strange, and it comes across as Onision either not knowing how to write grief or never having experienced grief firsthand. Grief is deeper than sadness, and it's deeper than the angsty, self-pitying string of thoughts that go through James' mind. Again, I understand that not everyone is going to have my exact experiences with grief or traumatic events, and I don't expect them to. What I do expect, though, is for a character who is clearly supposed to be relatable to actually BE RELATABLE.
Here's where I'm edging into potentially offensive territory, and I apologize in advance: I could understand a little bit better if this was an exploration into the mind of a person with some kind of psychological or emotional disorder. If it were discussed in the story, if the main character had been canonically diagnosed with some kind of condition and the narrative was about him going through his life and coping with that condition, I could understand why the reactions to various events were something I would consider unusual or out of touch. I don't have a psychological condition that prevents me from feeling empathy or interferes with the ways I experience grief, so again, I am very sorry if I'm completely out of line here, and I'll be happy to be told so. I also just want to say that I don't believe that this narrative is a definitive guide to (or an even remotely accurate depiction of) emotional disorders. Not in the slightest. I think if this was something that Onision was trying to pull off (and I'm almost certain it wasn't something that even crossed his mind), he did it incredibly, incredibly poorly, and he did it in a way that discourages rather than encourages sympathy and understanding. This is just an alternate way of writing James' story that I believe could be of actual literary merit if done well -- which it wouldn't have been if Onision had done it, given what he seems to think of mentally ill people.
If you're going to experience this book, I recommend that you listen to people reading this book rather than read it yourself. The commentary is almost bound to be golden.
SPOILERS BELOW. MANY OF THEM.
SERIOUSLY. LOTS OF SPOILERS.
TURN BACK NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED.
What stood out to me the most is that the emotions the main character experiences, specifically in response to traumatic events, are not accurate to what most people would experience under those circumstances. Someone who steps in their fellow students' blood would not feel absolutely nothing about going back to the school where those students were killed, nor would they feel as though everything was okay because there were some students who hadn't lost someone close to them. Someone who sees their friend get hit by a car would not immediately descend into an existential spiral of self-hatred. They might feel some degree of survivor's guilt, sure, but for him to watch his friend die and IMMEDIATELY think that if they hadn't been friends, the friend would still be alive... no.
Everyone responds to traumatic events in different ways, but a school shooting that kills FIFTY-TWO PEOPLE leaves nobody at that school untouched. James' distaste for the general student body doesn't make him an exception to this. His life is put in immediate danger by virtue of being present on the campus during an active shooter situation. His life is put in even more immediate danger when he confronts the killer face-to-face. That kind of thing leaves marks. He might have nightmares about Seth in his bloodied trenchcoat pointing a gun at him, or about having been too late to save Abbi, or about the students he stepped over calling to him for help. He might become clingy or desperately afraid for Abbi's safety. He might have a flashback or a panic attack upon walking through the halls again once the school reopened. He would almost definitely require grief counseling, and the narrative could discuss his struggles with that. None of this happens, though. The shooting happens, everyone is sad and spouts empty "encouraging" rhetoric for a day or two, and then they carry on as normal.
And then the loss of his supposed best friend reads like... well, not like that at all. Onision skips any immediate reactions that James could have, such as desperation to get help for Davis or denial about the fact that his best friend has just been fatally wounded, and goes straight for a chain of thoughts that would be more appropriate for someone who has already recovered from the immediate shock of the event. It's very jarring and strange, and it comes across as Onision either not knowing how to write grief or never having experienced grief firsthand. Grief is deeper than sadness, and it's deeper than the angsty, self-pitying string of thoughts that go through James' mind. Again, I understand that not everyone is going to have my exact experiences with grief or traumatic events, and I don't expect them to. What I do expect, though, is for a character who is clearly supposed to be relatable to actually BE RELATABLE.
Here's where I'm edging into potentially offensive territory, and I apologize in advance: I could understand a little bit better if this was an exploration into the mind of a person with some kind of psychological or emotional disorder. If it were discussed in the story, if the main character had been canonically diagnosed with some kind of condition and the narrative was about him going through his life and coping with that condition, I could understand why the reactions to various events were something I would consider unusual or out of touch. I don't have a psychological condition that prevents me from feeling empathy or interferes with the ways I experience grief, so again, I am very sorry if I'm completely out of line here, and I'll be happy to be told so. I also just want to say that I don't believe that this narrative is a definitive guide to (or an even remotely accurate depiction of) emotional disorders. Not in the slightest. I think if this was something that Onision was trying to pull off (and I'm almost certain it wasn't something that even crossed his mind), he did it incredibly, incredibly poorly, and he did it in a way that discourages rather than encourages sympathy and understanding. This is just an alternate way of writing James' story that I believe could be of actual literary merit if done well -- which it wouldn't have been if Onision had done it, given what he seems to think of mentally ill people.
If you're going to experience this book, I recommend that you listen to people reading this book rather than read it yourself. The commentary is almost bound to be golden.
November 25, 2018
I read most of this because I thought it would be funny, but now I'm significantly dumber for having read it. I don't know what I was expecting. I award Onision no points, and may God have mercy on his soul.
April 17, 2015
Surprisingly bad debut. Okay for a first draft, but certainly not finished. Lots of errors (grammar, spelling, punctuation, expressions...) make it extremely difficult to read, Characters are underdeveloped and inspite of several life changing events throughout the story nothing much changes for the one dimensional characters about whom the reader never gets to know a lot to begin with.
May 5, 2019
I would like to say beforehand that I had come across this book by my cousin, who very much likes this book and recommended it to me. Just a PSA, you should never listen to an eleven-year-old who watches Singaporean dramas daily. I learned that lesson the hard way.
First of all, the author, Onision, is a YouTuber. I should have seen the red flags the second I found out about this. I was in the midst of this book when I did. So after I finished, I did some researching. Apparently, when writing this book, he refused any professional help and genuinely believed he could self publish a book all by himself. He is not a good writer. The sentences are boring. The entire novel is just the same thing. Again and again and again. There is even an entire repeated paragraph; editing is non-existent. The grammar is appalling. There is no description of anything. Hell, I didn’t even know how old they were until I was halfway through the book.
I have an English exam in two days and I’m scared that I might fail. I have indubitably become dumber after reading this book.
And it’s so unrealistic like I can’t.
There are just too many cliches in this story. It is practically a Wattpad book. James, the protagonist, is unhealthily obsessed with Abbigale and believes that no one in the world can understand them but each other. That is the only thing that is given to us readers to understand. Other than that, there is no character development nor depth. Also, Physical contact seems to be of a rarity in the world that this book is portrayed in; a hug out of nowhere? Arm brushes against arm? James is so into it it is disgusting. It’s like they are nine… EXCEPT THEY ARE SEVENTEEN.
First, we must discuss the matter that is James. The main character is a narcissistic ass. I am informed that the author of this book has created the protagonist to be like him — going through the same things and claiming that the book isn’t necessarily 'fiction'. He says its 'part fiction'. The blurb even says he’s experienced this before and everything (the author). I’m so terrified if this is actually how the author experiences the world or if he is dramatizing it.
I think that the author has a really large ego. All the characters in this book just seem to love James. They constantly praise him even though there is nothing to praise about. There even is an entire character just to compliment James. The character — named Davis — is like a groupie to him. It’s so, so, weird. There is a line in the book that goes something like 'James I love you and I wish you were my boyfriend!'
No. Just, no.
Then there is Abbigale. Abbigale is this goth girl with an alcoholic father and an abusive ex-boyfriend. Now, where have we heard that from? She has a dark history and starts to form a relationship with James. When the plot is non-existent, The book is just James and Abbigale together. James is a manipulative and horrible person and takes advantage of Abbigale’s vulnerable state (which is the entire book). She’s nothing but the damsel in distress and all James does is use it to his own gain and narrative. It makes me want to puke.
'Omg James you’re so quirky.'
'I'm going to marry you someday so might as well call you HUBBY.'
'Aww, you wrote me a disgusting love letter telling me my suffering is obsolete and implausible? I think I’m in love with you.'
I cannot I cannot.
Then the plot starts to come in…. The mother of the protagonist has fallen in love with a random high-flyer that lives in the mountains and wants to move in together! James and Abbigale can’t be together! What a sophisticated plot! Oh no! But to top all that off, right as James arrives at school that very morning, there is a school shooting.
Abbigale’s abusive ex apparently had gone off the rails and decided to shoot up the school.
(James ran around the school barefoot and stepped on glass because he had rollerblades on and took them off…. DO NOT GET ME STARTED — HE JUST DECIDED THAT A SCHOOL SHOOTING WAS THE PERFECT OCCASION FOR ROLLERBLADES).
And then President of the United States comes to visit them and declare James as a hero. And then Abbigale’s father gets arrested by the police after smashing a bottle over James’ head. And then Davis gets hit on the freeway. And then during his funeral, his mother declares James a hero (again) for getting his body. And then the guidance counsellor blames Abbigale for inspiring the school shooting. And then the guidance counsellor burns down the school.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
I absolutely despise this plot. Not only does the storyline come out of nowhere, but they come at you and punch you in the face.
This book, even worse, glorifies trauma victims and school shootings. I’m pretty sure the author has some fetish with these things. The way that school shootings are portrayed in this book is outrageous. It just serves as a way for James to be a hero and rescue Abbigale and allow them to bond through the trauma of it. It romanticizes the horrid act and honestly makes me so mad. Furthermore, the book just creates a new stereotype altogether about how abuse victims are so ‘captivating to the human eye to manipulate’. It’s. So. Bad. I cannot FATHOM it. After the school shooting, Abbigale stays at James’ place because her father isn’t answering any of her calls. So, basically, the entire school shooting, in which 50 people died in, was only written into the book so these two characters that I don't care about can end up in a bed together.
In conclusion, this book was so trash that just giving it a one-star review wasn't enough. Long story short, it's the book version of 'The Room' by Tommy Wiseau.
First of all, the author, Onision, is a YouTuber. I should have seen the red flags the second I found out about this. I was in the midst of this book when I did. So after I finished, I did some researching. Apparently, when writing this book, he refused any professional help and genuinely believed he could self publish a book all by himself. He is not a good writer. The sentences are boring. The entire novel is just the same thing. Again and again and again. There is even an entire repeated paragraph; editing is non-existent. The grammar is appalling. There is no description of anything. Hell, I didn’t even know how old they were until I was halfway through the book.
I have an English exam in two days and I’m scared that I might fail. I have indubitably become dumber after reading this book.
And it’s so unrealistic like I can’t.
There are just too many cliches in this story. It is practically a Wattpad book. James, the protagonist, is unhealthily obsessed with Abbigale and believes that no one in the world can understand them but each other. That is the only thing that is given to us readers to understand. Other than that, there is no character development nor depth. Also, Physical contact seems to be of a rarity in the world that this book is portrayed in; a hug out of nowhere? Arm brushes against arm? James is so into it it is disgusting. It’s like they are nine… EXCEPT THEY ARE SEVENTEEN.
First, we must discuss the matter that is James. The main character is a narcissistic ass. I am informed that the author of this book has created the protagonist to be like him — going through the same things and claiming that the book isn’t necessarily 'fiction'. He says its 'part fiction'. The blurb even says he’s experienced this before and everything (the author). I’m so terrified if this is actually how the author experiences the world or if he is dramatizing it.
I think that the author has a really large ego. All the characters in this book just seem to love James. They constantly praise him even though there is nothing to praise about. There even is an entire character just to compliment James. The character — named Davis — is like a groupie to him. It’s so, so, weird. There is a line in the book that goes something like 'James I love you and I wish you were my boyfriend!'
No. Just, no.
Then there is Abbigale. Abbigale is this goth girl with an alcoholic father and an abusive ex-boyfriend. Now, where have we heard that from? She has a dark history and starts to form a relationship with James. When the plot is non-existent, The book is just James and Abbigale together. James is a manipulative and horrible person and takes advantage of Abbigale’s vulnerable state (which is the entire book). She’s nothing but the damsel in distress and all James does is use it to his own gain and narrative. It makes me want to puke.
'Omg James you’re so quirky.'
'I'm going to marry you someday so might as well call you HUBBY.'
'Aww, you wrote me a disgusting love letter telling me my suffering is obsolete and implausible? I think I’m in love with you.'
I cannot I cannot.
Then the plot starts to come in…. The mother of the protagonist has fallen in love with a random high-flyer that lives in the mountains and wants to move in together! James and Abbigale can’t be together! What a sophisticated plot! Oh no! But to top all that off, right as James arrives at school that very morning, there is a school shooting.
Abbigale’s abusive ex apparently had gone off the rails and decided to shoot up the school.
(James ran around the school barefoot and stepped on glass because he had rollerblades on and took them off…. DO NOT GET ME STARTED — HE JUST DECIDED THAT A SCHOOL SHOOTING WAS THE PERFECT OCCASION FOR ROLLERBLADES).
And then President of the United States comes to visit them and declare James as a hero. And then Abbigale’s father gets arrested by the police after smashing a bottle over James’ head. And then Davis gets hit on the freeway. And then during his funeral, his mother declares James a hero (again) for getting his body. And then the guidance counsellor blames Abbigale for inspiring the school shooting. And then the guidance counsellor burns down the school.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
I absolutely despise this plot. Not only does the storyline come out of nowhere, but they come at you and punch you in the face.
This book, even worse, glorifies trauma victims and school shootings. I’m pretty sure the author has some fetish with these things. The way that school shootings are portrayed in this book is outrageous. It just serves as a way for James to be a hero and rescue Abbigale and allow them to bond through the trauma of it. It romanticizes the horrid act and honestly makes me so mad. Furthermore, the book just creates a new stereotype altogether about how abuse victims are so ‘captivating to the human eye to manipulate’. It’s. So. Bad. I cannot FATHOM it. After the school shooting, Abbigale stays at James’ place because her father isn’t answering any of her calls. So, basically, the entire school shooting, in which 50 people died in, was only written into the book so these two characters that I don't care about can end up in a bed together.
In conclusion, this book was so trash that just giving it a one-star review wasn't enough. Long story short, it's the book version of 'The Room' by Tommy Wiseau.
April 12, 2021
Edit 2021: I read this book as a dumbass teen back in 2015 when I was going through an 'edgy' phase and fancied myself to be far smarter than I actually was. I don't remember what the plot was at all anymore. There is zero reason for me to touch this book ever again to update this hot mess of a 'review,' especially considering who the author is. I'd delete this if I knew how. You can stop wasting your time leaving shitty comments now.
Unlike many of the reviewers here, I'm not rating this book based on my opinion of the author as a person. I'm rating the book based on the book itself.
When I first picked up this book, I had little idea of what to expect besides grammar errors, of which there were a significant amount. It is my understanding that the author preferred to leave most of them as is for whatever reason he chose, and even though I'm a bit of a grammar-nazi, I didn't mind them very much. How could I mind them when I became so absorbed in the story itself? Much of the language was borderline elegant, and the plot, while feeling a tad dramatic and rushed, was quite gripping. It's a short read that didn't take much of my time, but it was one of the better books I've read in a long while.
My fifty-year-old mother, an avid reader who reads as much as she can in her spare time, also read the book. She knew nothing of Onision except for what I told her after she'd finished reading. With her opinion completely unclouded by an opinion on the author, she said that although there were grammar errors, she loved it, and wondered if there were any more by the same author that she could read.
Hats off to you, Onision, for successfully writing an intriguing story that kept my short attention span for the entire time I read it.
Unlike many of the reviewers here, I'm not rating this book based on my opinion of the author as a person. I'm rating the book based on the book itself.
When I first picked up this book, I had little idea of what to expect besides grammar errors, of which there were a significant amount. It is my understanding that the author preferred to leave most of them as is for whatever reason he chose, and even though I'm a bit of a grammar-nazi, I didn't mind them very much. How could I mind them when I became so absorbed in the story itself? Much of the language was borderline elegant, and the plot, while feeling a tad dramatic and rushed, was quite gripping. It's a short read that didn't take much of my time, but it was one of the better books I've read in a long while.
My fifty-year-old mother, an avid reader who reads as much as she can in her spare time, also read the book. She knew nothing of Onision except for what I told her after she'd finished reading. With her opinion completely unclouded by an opinion on the author, she said that although there were grammar errors, she loved it, and wondered if there were any more by the same author that she could read.
Hats off to you, Onision, for successfully writing an intriguing story that kept my short attention span for the entire time I read it.
June 27, 2015
honestly, i went in thinking this could've been good, but close to half way through, its cringeworthy self indulgence. This story is based on the author's life. Onision crafts a world of loathing and self pity and lives in it through james, our angsty protagonist. James has fallen for Abbigale, a girl in his class, and spends the novel trying to pander to her. My primary criticism is how unreadable this feels. The pages just drag on and on concerning useless details and pretentious word choice. (i'd also like to add the book is full of typos and mistakes like not making a new paragraph for speakers in a dialogue. but that's more of a nitpicky thing) There is little redeemable about any character as they're all just plain awful. I've never read a book that is a trifecta of bad characters, bad writing, and Self indulgence. Its like "The Room" but in book form. Avoid at all costs.
August 5, 2016
On Amazon, Onision writes that he hasn't read a book in 14 years. I have to say, it seriously shows. Greg knows nothing about how to develop characters (none of the characters are physically described, for example) or even basic sentence structure. His biggest problem is writing dialogue, which is constantly wrong. Listen Greg, please. You put the punctuation INSIDE the quotation marks. Ex. "Like this," NOT "Like this",
August 5, 2015
BASICALLY A COPY OF JURASSIC PARK BUT JURASSIC PARK IS THE FUCKING BEST SO THIS BOOK IS THE FUCKING BEST.
March 31, 2019
This is NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) in a book.
February 1, 2016
This book is the epitome of the word awful. Considering how short it is, it's quite astounding how it manages to be problematic in almost every way.
The narrator, James, is a self-obsessed, sanctimonious misogynist who is essentially a predator. The fact the narrator is supposed to be "a better version" of the author says a lot about Onision/Greg. Every other character in the book is empty. Abbigale is flat and emotionless, which just makes his obsession with her seem even creepier, plus the narrator's supposed best friend serves only as an ego boost to James.
To make it worse, it is also one of the most poorly constructed novels I've ever read. The grammar is an absolute mess for a start - missing words, added words, made up words, misuse of punctuation, pretty much every mistake which could be made can be found somewhere in Stones to Abbigale.
There is literally no plot. It is a stream of random events smashed together with no purpose other than to further the misery of James and Abbigale. This entire book is essentially one massive, and poorly written, pity party.
Don't waste your money or your time.
The narrator, James, is a self-obsessed, sanctimonious misogynist who is essentially a predator. The fact the narrator is supposed to be "a better version" of the author says a lot about Onision/Greg. Every other character in the book is empty. Abbigale is flat and emotionless, which just makes his obsession with her seem even creepier, plus the narrator's supposed best friend serves only as an ego boost to James.
To make it worse, it is also one of the most poorly constructed novels I've ever read. The grammar is an absolute mess for a start - missing words, added words, made up words, misuse of punctuation, pretty much every mistake which could be made can be found somewhere in Stones to Abbigale.
There is literally no plot. It is a stream of random events smashed together with no purpose other than to further the misery of James and Abbigale. This entire book is essentially one massive, and poorly written, pity party.
Don't waste your money or your time.
July 10, 2016
Only two words are needed to describe this book: Piss poor.
The main 'protagonist' (if you can even call him that) is a clear projection of the author, Gregory Jackson, and a terrible one at that.
Based solely on the writing quality, (or lack thereof) I gave this book two stars. The author could have at least done the reader the service of proofreading this before daring to publish it, for it is ridden with errors and run on sentences.
The filler is terrible, the characters are featureless and cliche and the plot is a complete mess.
Take a writing class, Greg.
The main 'protagonist' (if you can even call him that) is a clear projection of the author, Gregory Jackson, and a terrible one at that.
Based solely on the writing quality, (or lack thereof) I gave this book two stars. The author could have at least done the reader the service of proofreading this before daring to publish it, for it is ridden with errors and run on sentences.
The filler is terrible, the characters are featureless and cliche and the plot is a complete mess.
Take a writing class, Greg.
November 10, 2021
Huh. Well. This was a nightmare. Maybe it's because I forced myself to read most of this in one sitting, or maybe it's because I'm tired, or maybe it's because every little aspect of this book was made to piss me off specifically, I really, really did not like this.
So, before the actual review, some explanation on the author: he's kind of a garbage person. I am absolutely not going to feel bad about tearing apart his book. Short version, this dude 1) is a YouTube personality that has used his fame to manipulate multiple women, 2) has repeatedly and excessively harassed other YouTube personalities, and 3) asked his followers, many of whom are underage girls, to send him photos so he can "rate" them, and proceeded to judge underage girls' appearances on his channel in photos where many were not fully clothed. So yeah, pretty bad.
But let's move onto the book, shall we?
This book was trash. Now, the author admitted to not having read a book in many years, and also did not have an official editor. Any author that has any sort of skill knows that you have to read, or at the very least practice writing a lot. It is clear that the author has not done this.
The writing is by far the most egregious aspect (well, maybe second most) of the entire book. It is very clear that the author has not looked in the general direction of a book in his life. There are grammar mistakes on every page. Dialogue is not broken up into different paragraphs. Ampersands and "etc" are used in both narration and dialogue. I don't think a single comma was placed correctly. The style is horrendous and there is no emotion in any part of the book. So, yeah, bad.
The plot was also offensively bad. There was no direction anywhere. Events just kind of happened. Scenes went from one to the next with no significance to anything. There were maybe three to four major plot events, but even then they were done in a chapter or two. The ending was rushed and the development was meaningless. There was no clear antagonist or any clear protagonist motivation. Nothing really happened. It's just awful event after awful event and no meaning to any of it.
The characters were... oooooh man. Now, the relationship was the main aspect of the book, but it was so incredibly badly written that it's hard to see it as the base of the whole thing. It's extremely rushed and undeveloped. Every interaction seems forced. The love interest confesses her deepest, darkest secrets to the protagonist in like their third conversation ever. Their relationship doesn't really change or progress throughout the book either, there's no highs or lows, it just stays static.
The characters themselves were also very bad. The main character, James, has virtually no personality aside from being a narrator. His personality changes drastically between scenes. He's also overpowered, which is hard to do in a contemporary book, but he beats four tough kids in a fight even though he is physically weaker and has no training. Despite this, the entire book revolves around him. The love interest, Abbi, is reduced to exactly that, no regard given to her actual status as a character. She has one (1) character trait, and it's that she's sad and traumatized. The villains, if they can be called that, are cardboard and cheap. The main side character, Davis, is... something. The way he's talked about makes it seem like the other characters barely tolerate him, though he's made out to be James's best friend. He's sidelined and ignored until it's his time to shine to bring Angst to the plot.
Now, to address the elephant in the room. This book has two elements in it which it addresses awfully: school shootings and rape.
There is a school shooting that happens around thirty percent through the book. The way it is portrayed is absolutely terrible and revolting to read, and not in the way it's supposed to be. The shooter is in all of two scenes before the incident itself happens. There is no buildup and no respect. The main character rollerblades (yes. Rollerblades) into the school to save his girlfriend. It turns out later that it's the deadliest school shooting in all of American history. It is framed in the least respectful way possible. It's used as a plot device in order to get Abbi and James closer, and for James to be praised by the narrative for absolutely no reason.
The second bad thing this book does is the way it depicts a sexual assault and the aftermath. Abbi was violently raped in her past and it causes her trauma throughout the book. However, this isn't a thing for her, it's for James. It's only there to make Abbi a tortured, broken soul for James to help heal. The way it is portrayed is completely offensive and trivializes a serious topic. This very personal and very traumatic event isn't put in the book so that we can see its effect on her character and see her grow and move past it and strengthen herself, it's used as a stepping stone for a romance.
Both of these are extremely serious topics, and if portrayed correctly with forethought and respect, they would be meaningful and well done. But this book has neither forethought nor respect. It disregards the real people that are victims of these things and boils their experiences down to being a sad thing that spurs on a romance. It's disgusting.
So. This book is bad. Not really much else to say.
So, before the actual review, some explanation on the author: he's kind of a garbage person. I am absolutely not going to feel bad about tearing apart his book. Short version, this dude 1) is a YouTube personality that has used his fame to manipulate multiple women, 2) has repeatedly and excessively harassed other YouTube personalities, and 3) asked his followers, many of whom are underage girls, to send him photos so he can "rate" them, and proceeded to judge underage girls' appearances on his channel in photos where many were not fully clothed. So yeah, pretty bad.
But let's move onto the book, shall we?
This book was trash. Now, the author admitted to not having read a book in many years, and also did not have an official editor. Any author that has any sort of skill knows that you have to read, or at the very least practice writing a lot. It is clear that the author has not done this.
The writing is by far the most egregious aspect (well, maybe second most) of the entire book. It is very clear that the author has not looked in the general direction of a book in his life. There are grammar mistakes on every page. Dialogue is not broken up into different paragraphs. Ampersands and "etc" are used in both narration and dialogue. I don't think a single comma was placed correctly. The style is horrendous and there is no emotion in any part of the book. So, yeah, bad.
The plot was also offensively bad. There was no direction anywhere. Events just kind of happened. Scenes went from one to the next with no significance to anything. There were maybe three to four major plot events, but even then they were done in a chapter or two. The ending was rushed and the development was meaningless. There was no clear antagonist or any clear protagonist motivation. Nothing really happened. It's just awful event after awful event and no meaning to any of it.
The characters were... oooooh man. Now, the relationship was the main aspect of the book, but it was so incredibly badly written that it's hard to see it as the base of the whole thing. It's extremely rushed and undeveloped. Every interaction seems forced. The love interest confesses her deepest, darkest secrets to the protagonist in like their third conversation ever. Their relationship doesn't really change or progress throughout the book either, there's no highs or lows, it just stays static.
The characters themselves were also very bad. The main character, James, has virtually no personality aside from being a narrator. His personality changes drastically between scenes. He's also overpowered, which is hard to do in a contemporary book, but he beats four tough kids in a fight even though he is physically weaker and has no training. Despite this, the entire book revolves around him. The love interest, Abbi, is reduced to exactly that, no regard given to her actual status as a character. She has one (1) character trait, and it's that she's sad and traumatized. The villains, if they can be called that, are cardboard and cheap. The main side character, Davis, is... something. The way he's talked about makes it seem like the other characters barely tolerate him, though he's made out to be James's best friend. He's sidelined and ignored until it's his time to shine to bring Angst to the plot.
Now, to address the elephant in the room. This book has two elements in it which it addresses awfully: school shootings and rape.
There is a school shooting that happens around thirty percent through the book. The way it is portrayed is absolutely terrible and revolting to read, and not in the way it's supposed to be. The shooter is in all of two scenes before the incident itself happens. There is no buildup and no respect. The main character rollerblades (yes. Rollerblades) into the school to save his girlfriend. It turns out later that it's the deadliest school shooting in all of American history. It is framed in the least respectful way possible. It's used as a plot device in order to get Abbi and James closer, and for James to be praised by the narrative for absolutely no reason.
The second bad thing this book does is the way it depicts a sexual assault and the aftermath. Abbi was violently raped in her past and it causes her trauma throughout the book. However, this isn't a thing for her, it's for James. It's only there to make Abbi a tortured, broken soul for James to help heal. The way it is portrayed is completely offensive and trivializes a serious topic. This very personal and very traumatic event isn't put in the book so that we can see its effect on her character and see her grow and move past it and strengthen herself, it's used as a stepping stone for a romance.
Both of these are extremely serious topics, and if portrayed correctly with forethought and respect, they would be meaningful and well done. But this book has neither forethought nor respect. It disregards the real people that are victims of these things and boils their experiences down to being a sad thing that spurs on a romance. It's disgusting.
So. This book is bad. Not really much else to say.
January 1, 2024
There's a lot to unpack here, and I think we all know the kind of energy this book radiates.
Self-insert fiction with some very grossly approached topics, badly written, generally an awful time. It's quite horrible to see some situations be written in /just/ so the self-insert protagonist can look like a hero and a "good guy". Not to mention, he's not like other boys. He's a nice guy.
The way some of these plot points are brought up and handled is vile. This book sucks shite. Don't read this book.
Self-insert fiction with some very grossly approached topics, badly written, generally an awful time. It's quite horrible to see some situations be written in /just/ so the self-insert protagonist can look like a hero and a "good guy". Not to mention, he's not like other boys. He's a nice guy.
The way some of these plot points are brought up and handled is vile. This book sucks shite. Don't read this book.
December 16, 2018
I tried. I tried to keep an open mind and think, “hey, even though the author is a terrible person, the book might be good!” Boy, did that not work.
What I noticed straight away was that the grammar was atrocious. Absolutely horrific. Comma splice errors, run on sentences, complete words missing from a sentence (I had to decipher the meaning with words omitted - eg: “The next school day I walked hand in hand with into the school building...”).
Other than terrible grammar, which could have been easily fixed if Greg bothered to read over his writing even once or, god forbid, hire an editor, there’s other big issues with the book as well. Firstly, James is very obviously a self-insert character. And he’s portrayed just like any other self insert character - exactly how the author wants himself to be like. James is apparently so much different from the rest of humanity and spends his days psychoanalyzing them. Alright. Did I forget to mention that James is apparently really amazing at reading other people’s characters and studying their brains??
Besides the shitty self insert, the other characters were bland as fuck as well. Abbigale is Greg’s version of a Mary Sue (i.e. messed up through trauma) and Jason is that bully jock stereotype that somehow still exists in 21st century literature? If you can call this dumpster fire literature, that is. Oh, and let’s not forget Davis. Oh Davis! How you worship at Gr- er, I mean James’s feet! You think he’s the most perfect person on earth! Because that is totally realistic!
Besides the characters being horribly developed, the plot and events happening in the story are just... so unbelievable. I cannot comprehend how these events occurred to the same people in the same school over this period of time.
Overall, this book was absolute garbage, and I would give it zero stars if I could.
What I noticed straight away was that the grammar was atrocious. Absolutely horrific. Comma splice errors, run on sentences, complete words missing from a sentence (I had to decipher the meaning with words omitted - eg: “The next school day I walked hand in hand with into the school building...”).
Other than terrible grammar, which could have been easily fixed if Greg bothered to read over his writing even once or, god forbid, hire an editor, there’s other big issues with the book as well. Firstly, James is very obviously a self-insert character. And he’s portrayed just like any other self insert character - exactly how the author wants himself to be like. James is apparently so much different from the rest of humanity and spends his days psychoanalyzing them. Alright. Did I forget to mention that James is apparently really amazing at reading other people’s characters and studying their brains??
Besides the shitty self insert, the other characters were bland as fuck as well. Abbigale is Greg’s version of a Mary Sue (i.e. messed up through trauma) and Jason is that bully jock stereotype that somehow still exists in 21st century literature? If you can call this dumpster fire literature, that is. Oh, and let’s not forget Davis. Oh Davis! How you worship at Gr- er, I mean James’s feet! You think he’s the most perfect person on earth! Because that is totally realistic!
Besides the characters being horribly developed, the plot and events happening in the story are just... so unbelievable. I cannot comprehend how these events occurred to the same people in the same school over this period of time.
Overall, this book was absolute garbage, and I would give it zero stars if I could.
February 21, 2020
Three stars.
I know, right?
But hear me out.
Was this book bad?
Yes.
Was it so bad it was good?
Fuck yeah, man! This is a glorious train wreck, one of the most glorious I have seen in a long time. And I will be reading more of this guy’s shit in the future.
So what was bad/good about it?
The dialog lacks a lot of description, so it feels like almost everything is delivered deadpan. I want to say it reminds me of a Wes Anderson film, but his films are charmingly awkward. The interactions between folks in this book are just awkward. It is almost like the dialog was taken from a series of private messages, quote marks were put around it, and it was tossed in the books.
There were times where it felt like chunks of the dialog were missing entirely too. At one point the protagonist asks Abbi why her dad didn’t get a hamster for her. She replies, “hopefully you can find something that will work for that.” Then he is crushed.
What?
What just happened?
Next up: the characters.
They are all there to fawn over the protagonist. The extent of their depth is maybe a quirk for each of them. There’s damaged girl. Best friend who worships protagonist. Mean jock who begrudgingly respects protagonist. Teachers who range from pricky to also worshipping the protagonist . . .
The story itself jumps a bit as well. It is a love story. Then it is a school shooting story (the entire school shooting in novels has become a cliche trope at this point). Then it just kind of levels out and is peppered with drama to keep people going.
But you know what? I never felt bored reading this. I never once thought about giving up and putting it down for good. I couldn’t wait to see what would come next. Would it be the awkward friend going “beep boop beep boop pee poop,” and everyone around him just LOVING the humor that no reader could ever comprehend? Will it be another awkward interaction between the protagonist and Abbi where they declare their superficial love for one another or repeat cliches to one another? Will some shit literally explode everywhere? Will the plot unravel further?
Man, this shit was a wild ride. If the Trump presidency was a book, this would be the fucking book right here. But you know what? This book won’t grab you by the pussy. This book won’t threaten to undermine democracy and fill government with corporate plants. This books is all the disaster that is current American politics, without any of the stakes. And that, my friends, is pretty fucking spectacular.
I know, right?
But hear me out.
Was this book bad?
Yes.
Was it so bad it was good?
Fuck yeah, man! This is a glorious train wreck, one of the most glorious I have seen in a long time. And I will be reading more of this guy’s shit in the future.
So what was bad/good about it?
The dialog lacks a lot of description, so it feels like almost everything is delivered deadpan. I want to say it reminds me of a Wes Anderson film, but his films are charmingly awkward. The interactions between folks in this book are just awkward. It is almost like the dialog was taken from a series of private messages, quote marks were put around it, and it was tossed in the books.
There were times where it felt like chunks of the dialog were missing entirely too. At one point the protagonist asks Abbi why her dad didn’t get a hamster for her. She replies, “hopefully you can find something that will work for that.” Then he is crushed.
What?
What just happened?
Next up: the characters.
They are all there to fawn over the protagonist. The extent of their depth is maybe a quirk for each of them. There’s damaged girl. Best friend who worships protagonist. Mean jock who begrudgingly respects protagonist. Teachers who range from pricky to also worshipping the protagonist . . .
The story itself jumps a bit as well. It is a love story. Then it is a school shooting story (the entire school shooting in novels has become a cliche trope at this point). Then it just kind of levels out and is peppered with drama to keep people going.
But you know what? I never felt bored reading this. I never once thought about giving up and putting it down for good. I couldn’t wait to see what would come next. Would it be the awkward friend going “beep boop beep boop pee poop,” and everyone around him just LOVING the humor that no reader could ever comprehend? Will it be another awkward interaction between the protagonist and Abbi where they declare their superficial love for one another or repeat cliches to one another? Will some shit literally explode everywhere? Will the plot unravel further?
Man, this shit was a wild ride. If the Trump presidency was a book, this would be the fucking book right here. But you know what? This book won’t grab you by the pussy. This book won’t threaten to undermine democracy and fill government with corporate plants. This books is all the disaster that is current American politics, without any of the stakes. And that, my friends, is pretty fucking spectacular.
December 5, 2018
this is perhaps the worst book i’ve ever read. the grammar is poor, all of the characters speak the same, and james is such a terrible protagonist. there is no reason to root for him. his girlfriend has zero personality and is essentially just a tragic backstory. the way she reacts to the abuse is completely ridiculous and unrealistic. as for davis, he’s essentially just there to worship james. this character is so unbelievably cringy. additionally all of the adults in the story are the most idiotic, unrealistic, unprofessional i’ve ever had the displeasure to read about. i regret ever laying my eyes on this book and i implore you to stay far far far away.
January 17, 2019
Oh... Onion boy...
I did an audiobook of this for the clout. Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzySp...
Now onto the review.
Dear Onion man,
I'm sure you've gotten countless negative reviews about the sh*thead person you are (rating underage girls, manipulating relationships, mocking self-harm victims, etc. (and trust me there's a lot of etc.)) but from here on out, I will remove this personal bias from my review and pertain solely to the text.
Yeah man your book is toxic.
Somewhat well-written, with 'decent' development in the plot, but good lord, the thematic implications are dangerous to promote.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT (you won't miss much I promise)
Your protagonist, James (aka the "idyllic-anime-version" of yourself), finds joy in 'fixing' this broken girl by assaulting the jocks and kissing her self-harm scars. You glamorize these events.
Stop it.
The school-shooting that you portrayed seemed like it could be coming from a heartfelt standpoint to address a real social problem, but all of that is stripped away when you exaggerate the hell out of it, causing the scene to be triggering to real victims of shootings and unbelievable to other readers. So please don't make Seth, the school shooter, parallel to some cartoon villain.
Finally, your depiction of Abbi's father couldn't be more one-dimensional, which is harmful to deliver to a younger audience that goes through more complex cases of domestic violence. Abbi's father got 2-3 pages of presence in the book's entire plot, yet he's the catalyst for nearly all of her psychological torment. so please, stop this.
Love,
JB
There's a lot more shit about this book, but I'm done talking here. If you want to hurt yourself by listening to my audiobook, go for it. I encourage nobody to give this individual your money (or even time).
D-
I did an audiobook of this for the clout. Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzySp...
Now onto the review.
Dear Onion man,
I'm sure you've gotten countless negative reviews about the sh*thead person you are (rating underage girls, manipulating relationships, mocking self-harm victims, etc. (and trust me there's a lot of etc.)) but from here on out, I will remove this personal bias from my review and pertain solely to the text.
Yeah man your book is toxic.
Somewhat well-written, with 'decent' development in the plot, but good lord, the thematic implications are dangerous to promote.
SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT (you won't miss much I promise)
Your protagonist, James (aka the "idyllic-anime-version" of yourself), finds joy in 'fixing' this broken girl by assaulting the jocks and kissing her self-harm scars. You glamorize these events.
Stop it.
The school-shooting that you portrayed seemed like it could be coming from a heartfelt standpoint to address a real social problem, but all of that is stripped away when you exaggerate the hell out of it, causing the scene to be triggering to real victims of shootings and unbelievable to other readers. So please don't make Seth, the school shooter, parallel to some cartoon villain.
Finally, your depiction of Abbi's father couldn't be more one-dimensional, which is harmful to deliver to a younger audience that goes through more complex cases of domestic violence. Abbi's father got 2-3 pages of presence in the book's entire plot, yet he's the catalyst for nearly all of her psychological torment. so please, stop this.
Love,
JB
There's a lot more shit about this book, but I'm done talking here. If you want to hurt yourself by listening to my audiobook, go for it. I encourage nobody to give this individual your money (or even time).
D-
November 16, 2018
I wish I could give no stars. I wish I could put a mini tazer in every book to warn people away as they go to pick this drivel up. I wish I never picked this book up myself. I was simply curious, but now I'm very aware that this deranged author has no idea how humans interact. Please people don't read this, the book will waste some very valuable time you can spend volunteering in soup kitchens, caring for the elderly, and /or cuddling aids babies in their last moments on this planet. This book adds absolutely nothing of value to your life or to society. I've never had a reaction such as this to a book. Absolute garbage.
December 31, 2019
Shoutout to Onision for making a bunch of fake accounts to give his own book 5 stars.
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