This book was a head spinner – if you can’t agree with anything, you gotta agree with that. 
    I mean, I’m still so ‘WOW’ about the whole thing. 
    First off, let’s get this out of the way. The length. This book is long and honestly, unnecessarily long. I think most of my comments come from the sheer length of it. Why did it have to be so long? Why did we have to know in-depth about each of the friends?

In the end they were really just support characters and the background was unnecessary. It was never explained how they related to each other and why they were all so obsessed with Jude. What made Jude so special that the friends wanted to be life long friends? A person that doesn’t tell you anything about themselves somehow convinced these 3 other guys to be best friends. It doesn’t make sense.
     Then why didn’t any social issues effect them? I mean, the book covers a large block of time. Eventually the friends must have spoken about 9/11. Gay marriage. Aids. SOMETHING. Yet, it’s never mentioned. It doesn’t bring the friends closer together, they don’t deal with these IMPORTANT social issues that would completely change their lives. I’m not even sure what year it was in the story.  Maybe it doesn’t matter, but the lack of social issues effecting the friends DOES. 

There is a lot of repetitiveness and specially a lot of repeating of the abuse. I understand the author is trying to make a statement, but the constant reading of the abuse isn’t pleasant. I know I sound silly saying that as the book really is, at the core, about the abuse and how it totally controlled Jude’s life, but the length of the book combined with the abuse – it was a lot to handle mentally.
      Then you can dive into how this book doesn’t have a happy moment. Ever. For even when there are happy moments Jude cannot feel the happiness. So the reader sits in Jude’s head being sad. Or they sit in another’s character’s head still being sad or worrying about Jude. 
      And finally, diving into this book should not be taken lightly. If you are in a bad headspace, I would strongly encourage you NOT to read this book. I am not one for dramatics but this book is another level. Every time I paused reading, it would take me a few minutes to come back to my world. I felt heavy reading this book. I was sad. It shook me to the core. 

With that said, I would say I would never recommend this book to anyone. It is slightly damaging in the effects it has. It really gives nothing to the reader other than proving that the reader can overcome some daunting feelings. If you are up for a challenge and in a good headspace in your real life, give this book a try. Otherwise – stay far away and go be happy somewhere else. This has to the the saddest book, in a depressing/disturbing way, that I have ever read.
    I personally only picked up this book after a curiosity after watching a fellow reader react to the harshness of the book via BookTube (aka YouTube) – I talk about it on my video review here. Let me know what you think in the comments – love to hear your perspective.