ARC Review: The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

The Female of the Species

by Mindy McGinnis

Source: eARC provided by Publisher.

My Rating: 4 stars.

GoodReads/ Amazon/ TBD

Summary:

Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it. When her older sister, Anna, was murdered three years ago and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best. The language of violence.

While her crime goes unpunished, Alex knows she can’t be trusted among other people, even in her small hometown. She relegates herself to the shadows, a girl who goes unseen in plain sight, unremarkable in the high school hallways.

But Jack Fisher sees her. He’s the guy all other guys want to be: the star athlete gunning for valedictorian with the prom queen on his arm. Guilt over the role he played the night Anna’s body was discovered hasn’t let him forget Alex over the years, and now her green eyes amid a constellation of freckles have his attention. He doesn’t want to only see Alex Craft; he wants to know her.

So does Peekay, the preacher’s kid, a girl whose identity is entangled with her dad’s job, though that does not stop her from knowing the taste of beer or missing the touch of her ex-boyfriend. When Peekay and Alex start working together at the animal shelter, a friendship forms and Alex’s protective nature extends to more than just the dogs and cats they care for.

Circumstances bring Alex, Jack, and Peekay together as their senior year unfolds. While partying one night, Alex’s darker nature breaks out, setting the teens on a collision course that will change their lives forever.

****

This book was so much darker that I expected, but it’s the first Mindy McGinnins book I can finish and I’m glad for that. I struggled a little because for me Mindy’s characters are hard to connect with in the beginning (I DNF A Madness so Discreet), they are too neat and… I don’t know; it’s like they feel too much and end up looking empty.

The Female of the Species is unlike every book I read before. Alex is psychopath? Sociopath? She doesn’t know how to call herself and I don’t have an idea either. The thing is... she feels so much anger. And she’s revengeful. She’s a killer and she doesn’t feel guilty about it.

Since this book is indeed different, I don’t know what to say about it. This book is about abuse. This book is about silence. This book is about female power.

The message of this book is very important. And yes, I think every female alive should read it and understand what the author is trying to say through a dark and messed up plot.

But at the same time, I’m a bit disappointed about it, because I loved many of the characters, I wanted to read more about them, but all I had was rape, rape, rape. There are a lot of violent scenes and I think they weren’t totally necessary. I mean, the message was clear; it would have worked out with less rape scenes and gore.

The Female of the Species is told through Alex’s POV, Peekay’s (the preacher kid and Alex's only friend), and Jack’s, the love interest. They played specific roles in the story. Alex is the killer. Peekay is one of the victims. And Jack is who gives Alex humanity. He brings the human out of the monster.

The first chapters are a little slow, but once you get to know these characters, you care about them.

And Mindy McGinnis’s writing is flawless. So, I had no problem with that.

What I didn’t like was the overuse of violence.

Do I recommend this book? Yes, unless you are very sensitive to this topic… (That doesn’t mean I’m not sensitive). But if you think you can be triggered by it, don’t read it! Stay away of it!