Imme van Gorp's Reviews > Keeping 13

|| 1.0 star ||

This book genuinely gave me the biggest headache. It was so slow and so repetitive and so long. Not to mention, the non-stop drama and angst was really getting on my nerves, especially since it never actually led anywhere. Nothing actually ever happened; every relationship, every character, every situation, they all pretty much stayed the exact same from beginning to end.

This whole book honestly felt like a big trauma dump without anything else happening. These characters are literally nothing more than the heroine HAVING trauma and the hero OBSESSING over her trauma. It got old very quickly.
Johnny no longer seemed to care about any of his own future plans or passions and only spent his time worrying about Shannon, while she did nothing other than shiver at the big, bad world and needing constant reassurance about the most basic things. Which, admittedly, makes sense for a girl who went through as much trauma as she did, but she never grew from it. She stayed the same fragile and scared girl with no personality and no brain from start to finish.

Furthermore, how is it possible that there have been so many pages about this couple, and I still felt like there was NO DEPTH to their relationship?? There was no development whatsoever and all of their interactions were beyond dramatic or just about sex. There was no lightness, no romance, no true feelings. It was just non-stop intensity about her being a fragile mess and him wanting to bulldozer all over everything to save her. It was cute the first few times, but almost 2000 pages into their relationship, and I can safely say it became boring and annoying as hell. I just got the ick over her acting like a child 24/7 and him treating her like she was made out of glass all the time. It was definitely not a normal relationship dynamic; it was trauma bonding for Shannon and a savior complex for Johnny.
Also, their dialogue was literally the exact same every single time; all of their scenes together were pretty much identical. I kid you not. It was insufferable and so badly written.

I’m actually convinced every other relationship in this book was better written and developed than the main couple. I actually especially liked Gibsie. His friendship with Johnny was probably the best, and his potential romance with Claire was also full of life and banter. Shannon’s brothers had a few heartbreaking scenes with Johnny’s family as well. Ollie was a sweetheart, but Sean? Oh my, that sweet little baby broke my heart. The way Johnny took care of him was the sweetest thing.

I also just want to say one last quick thing: The whole Bella storyline never made sense to me and just pissed me off beyond compare. The fact that nobody ever put this horrible girl in her place was just insane. You’re telling me the most popular guys in school can’t ruin a slutty, jealous girl who’s behaving like a deranged stalker? No way. I’m not buying it. She should have been at the bottom of the food chain at that school in minutes, but somehow it never happened? Insane.

Anyway, long story short, this was just a very very bad book. The whole thing literally read like Wattpad to me and this author desperately needed an editor to skim the hell out of these million pages about absolutely nothing.


'Boys of Tommen' series:
1. Binding 13 - 3.0 stars
2. Keeping 13 - 1.0 star
5. Taming 7 - 2.0 stars