Review: The Peer and the Puppet

The Peer and the Puppet by B.B. Reid
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

B.B. Reid’s The Peer and The Puppet caught my attention the first moment I stumbled upon the details of the upcoming release. It sounded like something I would love, and I was more than willing to dive into the story.

Unfortunately, I find myself in the minority with this one. This book wasn’t at all what I had thought it would be, and it was filled with the kinds of things I dislike. I know many will enjoy it, yet it was not for me.

In truth, there were multiple times where I almost gave up with this one. I forced myself to keep reading, hoping things would improve. I admit that there were some moments of the book I did enjoy, but it was nowhere near enough to win me over.

You see, when I saw the details of this book with the promise of a new adult read I was expecting the kind of drama you get with college aged characters. Instead, this book is filled with high school drama. The one thing I was done with a long time ago. Despite the popularity of The Royals by Erin Watt and Fallen Crest High by Tijan, I avoid both because I cannot deal with the endless petty high school drama you find in such reads. If you do enjoy those books, then I’m sure you’ll enjoy The Peer and The Puppet, as this is filled with the kind of drama I imagine both of those books offer. Having not read either of those series, I cannot say for certain – therefore, I’ll give you the exception to my high school drama read. The Kennedy Boys series by Siobhan Davis. The first three books in the series, the Kyler trilogy, deal with high school drama (which everyone tells me is like what you see in the two other series I mentioned), whereas the latter books deal with college aged drama. With The Peer and The Puppet I expected the latter Kennedy Boys books, not the thing that I least enjoyed about the early Kennedy Boys books multiplied by a thousand.

I think what made this one more difficult for me to enjoy was there were times when it did not feel as though I was reading teenage drama. There were so many times where they did not seem like teenagers at all, where I found myself believing I would have enjoyed this one a lot more had the characters been older and the events having taken place outside of the high school setting.

Then again, I wasn’t crazy about some of the other elements, either. I feel as though there were too many elements thrown into this one, leaving me curious about some but not others. I love it when multiple aspects are thrown together into a single book, yet with this one I feel as though I would have preferred individual stories – one for the high school drama, another story with the gang drama, and so on.

As I’ve said, though, I’m in the minority with this one. I’m sure many will love this, but I did not care for the characters or the events which made this a very difficult book for me to read. Sadly, this means I will not be continuing the When Rivals Play series, despite how I did not find myself a conclusion with this book.

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