Thanks to Netgalley.com and F W/Adams Media for allowing me access to this title.

There was a lot going on in this book. A MIA brother, an alcoholic father, and an emotionally distant mother, not to mention the nosy neighbor, the new influential friend/support, and the crazy secondary characters. It was a lot to keep track of, and I'm almost feeling like it was too much to include in one book, but somehow it works here. I was a bit disappointed in the ending though. I felt like it just stopped in the middle of a scene. It felt kind of off there, and I had to reread a bit to get a better sense of an ending. ( )

I received a copy of Twigs from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I could not finish this book. Twigs was hard to relate to and I just couldn't bring myself to care about her. There was a lot of different things in Twigs, deaf, African American, military, but they all fell by to wayside to Twig's incessant inner monologue. Everyone had a nickname, which was also annoying. Twigs, Deaf Lou, Tower of Isaac. I felt overwhelmed by the story. It was just one awful thing after another, her dad leaves, her brother goes missing, some woman throws hair dye on her, she hits her college professor with her car, her dad doesn't want to see her, her boyfriend ignores her. It all felt false, and I didn't care enough about Twigs to care about her life. It was just the same old, "Why is this happening to me? Why does everyone hate me? What did I do to deserve this? Why won't anyone take me seriously?"

I tried, really tried, to get through this book because it's not often that I put a book down in the middle, but after two weeks, it's time to move on.

Due to copy and paste, formatting has been lost.

I have several very upsetting things to say about Twigs. First of all, I can't believe I made it through this book! For the about the first 30% of this book, I really wanted to drop it. But I soldiered on, with the false hope that it would pick up for me. But it was all in vain, because to tell you the complete truth, I hated Twigs. The character. Because she was annoying and self-centered and immature and had little development towards anything good.

Upon first glance, I really thought that I might like this. Maybe I'd get into the rhythm of the book (everything kept happening all at once, with no explanation to be heard) and it'd be okay. But I never got used to it. I'm still slightly confused as to what all happened, because there was some serious drama going on in this book. And most of it was stupid.

But let's get back to Twigs. I can't stand her, I truly can't, and I'm curious as to how anyone could! Apparently, babies and dogs both like her (she even uses the same phrase in each instance), yet no one from the real world seems to. Except for Helen, who likes her after she throws hair dyes (?) on her. Violently. So of course Twigs (after meeting Helen on the street randomly, again), proceeds to go spend the night with her, alone, without telling anyone where she's going and without a cell phone. This almost makes me want to go spend the night with someone I don't know... no it doesn't. Especially since Helen is...well... to say the least, she's a little bit psycho.

Your husband cheats on you? Okay, go destroy a pharmacy. What about when he's out with a girl (or whore as you like to call him)? You convince Twigs to steal his car with you, and she breaks his arm on the way out. Atta girl! But what about *gasp* when you get home with his car? Whatever shall you do with it? Oh, how about you smash it to pieces then have a neighbor drive it to the hospital (where he's being treated for a broken arm) and leave it outside. Awesome, your debt to society is paid. OMG WHY ARE YOU SPENDING THE NIGHT WITH HER? You don't know her, and you watched her do all of this before you spent the night. ALONE. WITHOUT A CELL PHONE.

Call me crazy, but that does not sound like a safe friend to stay with. Or be around. As the book wore on, though, I do have to admit that Helen does have some sane moments that make her okay. But she's pretty crazy, regardless. I keep trying to talk about Twigs, but I've been sidetracked. So, again.

Twigs was... how do I put this? She doesn't think things through.... She's prone to making untrue judgments... She only cares about herself... She's annoying... Nope, I just don't know how to put this, so please just understand that I didn't like her, and I don't know how to explain it.

The only light part of this book was Coop. I enjoyed several of the scenes that he was in; because he made it lighter and funnier. He really was a sweetheart, and I wish that he had been around more often. All in all, Twigs just wasn't the book for me. I don't know how to say it any better than that. ( )

This book was received from the publisher for review via Netgalley.

After a friend of mine downloaded Twigs off of Netgalley, I read the description and thought it sounded pretty good, so I requested it as well. Unfortunately, i just couldn’t get into this book and only made it to 27% before I put it down.

I’m not totally sure what it was about Twigs that I didn’t like, but I just was not connecting to the story.

First, there’s Twigs, aka Madeline, who is the main character and narrator of the story. I just didn’t find her to be likable. She seems like a completely miserable human being who hates everything about life and doesn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities. And the other characters, such as her boss, mother, sister, and absentee father, didn’t really seem any better.

At 27%, I also felt like not much happened, aside from a lot of whining from Twigs, and one very uncomfortable incident in an alley. I really didn’t feel like much else was going on, and I was bored. However, that alley incident made me completely uncomfortable. I just had dread curling in the pit of my stomach over what may have happened in that scene or will probably happen in a future scene, and honestly, it was just something that I wasn’t prepared to deal with during this reading.

It’s hard to really say much about Twigs since I only made it to 27% before I gave up, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a horrible book. I think it would probably be good for someone who is looking for a darker, slower-paced, tough subject contemporary. However, it just wasn’t for me, and I decided not to force the issue.

This review is also posted on my blog: http://mommysreadingbreak.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/dnf-arc-review-twigs-by-aliso...