Layoverland by Gabby Noone

This was book #2/20 that I read for my 20 for 2020 Challenge. My discussion will be spoiler free.

I did not really like this book at all. There weren't really any moments that I liked. It just annoyed me.

The main character was so utterly unlikable. It was classic "cool girl" trope. She has cool come backs, doesn't care about prom, and doesn't care what the popular girls think of her. Look she's not like other girls (which makes her better). A lot of the inner dialogue felt like the author trying to lecture me through Bea's words. We learned such life lessons in this story like teen pregnancy is bad, texting and driving is bad, drunk driving is bad. Bea would just say all these witty lines about how she's better than everyone else because at least she's not going out and getting pregnant at her age. It was just so obvious and "Don't Do Drugs, kids" to me. Bea is so mean to Caleb, jumps to conclusions and makes everything about her all the time.

Not much happens in the story at all. And the bits that did happen were extremely predictable. I recognize that I am not the correct demographic for this, but even young adults don't feel like the right demographic. Even though the book features YA themes, this feels like a kids book written for a fifth-sixth grade demographic.

The concept of purgatory in an airport isn't an extremely inventive concept. Some aspects of the world would be over-explained as if this is the first time this has ever been mentioned. Like when they're discussing how languages work there. Other things in the world seemed to be quirky and weird for that reason alone. Why was the food in jello? That was never explained.

Caleb's character is just all over the place, or rather Bea's thoughts and portrayal of him is. One minute Caleb is a total nerd, one minute he's a player, one minute he's lame, one minute he's a star track athlete. And it goes back and forth like this throughout the whole thing. It was pretty confusing to have to sit through.

It's extremely undeveloped in terms of character development. Does she learn anything about herself? Barely. She pretty much learns nothing about herself in the end. Is there any kind of closure between her and her family left on earth? No, absolutely not. In fact, she barely even thinks of them. The side characters are also extremely undeveloped and one note.

When it wasn't infuriating to read, it was boring. There was no climax, no attachment to the developing relationships, no excitement to continue reading. It was extremely insta-lovey and predictable.

TLDR; The main character was extremely annoying. The story was uninventive and boring and there is absolutely no character development or progression. There was no profound message, theme or purpose to the story. I would give this a 2/10. I feel like it was a complete waste of my time to read this and would not recommend others to read it.