My Review of Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos

Have you ever passed by a book in a store and just been captivated by the cover? Maybe the inside flap or back of the book helps add to the intrigue with a unique premise or a comparison to a popular work that everyone loves. This is what happened with me when I first bought my copy of Foster Dade Explores the Cosmos by Nash Jenkins. I finally got to it in my TBR and I just finished it last night only to find out I wasted my time.

This will be my first ever book review here at the Nest so there will be spoilers ahead for the book.

First off, the book was way too long, coming in at a whopping 523 pages I definitely felt like there were sections of the book that could have been cut out completely. The first instance of this was Hannah's story, I felt like I didn't need to know her backstory because it no way related to the main story. Foster is the main character, and we get all this backstory about this other character, and it goes nowhere. All she ends up being is another kid that foster sells drugs too. I did not need to know this, the sections from her online profile the VTT talks did not need to be there. With Porter it made sense because for a small portion of the book because eventually she had a short relationship with Foster, but I did not need to know that much about a background character, who spoiler alert does not make it to the end of the book.

Second, and I feel like this goes hand in hand with the first issue, some of the plot lines were a bit strung out. The book is mostly told from the point of view of an unnamed narrator who is a new student at the Kennedy boarding school where the book takes place. There are several points towards the back half of the book where the narrator is talking to other characters in Foster's circle in reference to "what he did" and there is no confirmation of what he actually did. I thought that he might actually get expelled to selling drugs to multiple classmates even resulting in the death of Hannah and the expulsion of his roommate and drug dealing partner Jae.

He still gets expelled but the only benefit, at least as a reader, was that he took the circle down that betrayed him. Of course, due to their families' wealth they got away with only minor suspensions and fines, but small victories are always nice.

So my final verdict on the book would be 2.4 of 5 stars, I feel like it needed some major edits. I'm glad I am done the book that is for sure.

The Hardcover version that sucked me in

Have you guys ever been sucked in by a cool book cover and then be disappointed by what's inside?

Let me know in the comments below and I hope everyone comes back to the Nest for my next review, hopefully it'll be a more positive one. :D