quicksand, by malin persson giolito

mystery, young adult | mature audiences | 5 stars

*some smol spoilers ahead*

this is a courtroom thriller but it’s also a story about a toxic relationship between eighteen year old maja norberg and sebastian fagerman. they’re both from a rich sweidsh suburb, going to the best school there is, but obviously things are *bad*, or they get bad.

sebastian is the son of a billionaire and his father is abusive, but maja is totally sucked in into sebastian’s life and lifestyle. he’s cool, he’s rich, and it’s easy to get pulled into everything he does, his lavish parties, the drugs and booze and sex and luxury yachts/boats. their love story turns into an obsession and an addiction (can you see why i can relate lol luckily not 100% which will become clear why *luckily*).

the book starts a bit slow, and you’ll probably be annoyed with maja and the way she narrates the story, you’ll probably think she’s very self-centered and unfeeling and all the worst about her, but as the story unfolds, you start to sympathise with her and understand her a little better.

things unfold in the worst possible way and maja is left standing above this huge, terrible, awful thing that sebastian (and her…) did, and she’s mostly alone, besides her family, and it’s easy to hate her but it’s also not. she’s removed from her “ideal” life and put smack dab in the middle of a court case, and of course, because of the people who are involved, rich people, it’s also followed closely ba the media. which is a horror.

you might feel confused at first because of the way the novel is written, in different snapshots but after a while they start to paint this vivid picture of how things had gone so horribly wrong.

what i also love about this book is that (similar to my review of red rising) all the characters are flawed, some of them deeply so. and i love that type of realistic writing (i try to do it myself) - like, yeah, i can get into idealistic worlds and all that, but there’s something satisfying when you read about morally grey or just plain bad people. i’m not sure what is it exactly, but it’s definitely there for me.

and maja, as the main character, she’s so sharp and sometimes abrasive and like, even if it irritates you, i loved her style of thought and narration. i felt like we just clicked well.

there are lots of twisty turns in the novel, and it’s not easy to guess what will happen or how the story will end. i honestly found myself not knowing how to feel in the end or what to think and just hoped i would never have to be a judge or jury lol.

another thing i really loved was the sort of..social (?) commentary that comes from the almost universally understood expectation that the “good” girl has to save the “bad” boy. it’s so..sexist? and way too much and i loved the way this was portrayed in the novel.

i binge read this and i’m now in the process of re-reading it (yeah...i’m like that okay.) and it’s such a page turner, so it’s definitely a must read for everyone who likes a good mystery, toxic and dysfunctional, real people. and not being sure of anything by the end of the story.

(but please be advised that there's mention of school shooting, so take care not to read if it's a tw for you )