Boom Town by Nic Stone

Boom Town by Nic Stone

I love that Stone is writing for adults, and this is so well done. A lot of YA authors try for adult books but it’s just YA with a 27-year-old protagonist who acts 17… (Looking at you Holly Jackson, sorry). But Stone’s characters feel adult and the story was really compelling. Unfortunately, I feel like it’s a lot of build-up (excellent suspense) just to totally gloss over the critical action and the emotional beat that should have ended the book. I think even 10 extra pages - 5 for the climax and 5 for the emotional ending - would have completely elevated this book.

With that said... I do have a lot of thoughts, but there are spoilers, so click at your own risk:

I found it hard to believe that every woman in the book was incredibly hot AND bisexual/lesbian and also openly into each other. That, plus the way they're described, felt like a man making up the attractive women he sees in his daydreams. Because of course they're all shapely and smooth-skinned and hitting on each other and getting into physical relationships with each other all of the time.

Along with all the women being hot bisexuals or lesbians, the two main characters were too similar. I kept getting their chapters and stories mixed up until almost halfway through the book when there was a pivotal change that helped me tell them apart. Part of that was because the writing kept bouncing between dancer names, real names, full names (including middle), which made it hard to keep up.

The villain/problem was too obvious from the beginning, and it felt a bit blatant that it was the only white man in the story. So while it's compared to Gone Girl, I feel like there was no real twist - there was an obvious villain from the beginning, and the more emotional "twist" became clear about halfway through. And then both of these were totally glossed over in the climax and resolution, so it felt a little... unfinished overall.

And WHY was he the villain? I know in reality you don't always get to know someone's motivations but I wanted to know why this man was picking off Black women left and right... while being married to one. But we don't get that, so it's hard to care - even though one major talking point of this book is about missing Black girls being forgotten/overlooked/ignored. Plus basically all the men in the book were evil so it felt a bit lazy to not give readers a reason for one's motives - he just blended right in with all the rest... like the women blended into each other.

That said, the writing was great and fully pulled me in. I read it in just a few hours because I wanted to know what happened.