I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

So.... I was so excited to review this book because this is my first time receiving an ARC from NetGalley, and the description sounds really awesome. I mean, some sort of Eskimo tribe magic? Sign me up! I was expecting something like Brother Bear or Pocahontas (I know they're Indian, but I mean I was expecting those kind of magic, shaman, old wise people, elders, etc). Well if you're putting this book on your tbr because of that aspect, then prepare to be dissapointed. (Also it's going to be a long review so prepare your popcorn)

The problem with this book is it tries to cover so many problems. I think it's better to write 2 different books, contemporary OR fantasy. It's like the author googles "what problems are usually in a book" and use all of them. Let me list it for you: depression, suicide, pedophile, rape, disfunctional family, magic, romance, cancer, bitchy friends, deaths, teen pregnancy, birth defects, and religion. It makes this book unecessarily long and seemed unfocused. I guess this book should've been a contemporary? I was 50% into the book and the most magic we have is rattling trees and swirling gold in Aggie eyes.

The writing style was also not my favorite. I got the impressions that this is a MG book, because of the cover and the synopsis but apparently our character is 15 going on 16?? Which also confuses me because the story feels juvenile for me, and the characters are really really immature.

"You hurt me. I don't know what you did to me, but you hurt me because I wanted your stupid cats. You hurt me on purpose and I'm telling my dad."

I mean, what kind of 15/16-yo girl that fight and then threatened "to tell her dad"?

It also overly detailed, does the author tried to incorporate purple prose in this book too? There are a lot of descriptions that could be cut off.

As they watched the helpless babies, tears welled in Aggie's eyes. "Somebody threw these babies away like they were garbage." One shiny orb overflowed and trickled down her cheek.

Okay, I don't think you need to describe tears in that way? Also since Aggie cries a lot in this book, we get a lot of "tears/orb trickled/rolling down" her face thing, which is not necessary. I know how crying looks like thanks.

"Okay. Say hello to Jackie and Sakari", Sonja smiled in her direction then turned back to the show flickering on their big 60-inch flat screen.

I'm sorry but I don't see the relevance of how big her tv is to the story. Also the description definitely doesn't fit her family condition. (her mom work in a library and her father is unemployed but they could afford 60 inch flat screen?)

It also tries to be hip and cool by incorporating texting slangs, social media (PeoplePlace) that's basically facebook, and swearing. And lastly, it doesn't focused on Aggie only. We get insight of Sonja hanging out with her friends, Bishop and Billy talk, the teacher talks, and worse, seeing John and Sonja, Billy and his wife, and Mr, Dennings and his wife PDA-ing. No, I don't want to see parents PDA-ing and the warmth and giggles and the FEELINGS that spread between them. It's really unrelevant to the story.

Each chapter is really short, but nothing happened really since like I said, this book has too many things going on and it took a lot of set up, so the pacing is crawling. I'm 50% in and I'm waiting for something big to happened and when it does happened it MAKES ME SO MAD. I literally cried because I just WHY. After all this problems you had in this book and set up you really have to add more issues?? I also think that was the point I actually considered dnf ing this book for real.

The so-called magic is useless in general. Does it heal or do anything? No. The whole "you can't help people unless they want to be helped" really makes me mad. Well then, I'll just go to normal psychiatrist or doctor then. It works the same way, doesn't it? If the magic element is deleted from the book, it would be a decent read.

I think I would enjoy the romance, because it's written as one of my favorite tropes, but the execution is just NO. The way she acted whenever the love interest do something is just ridiculous. Easily blushed, "jelly legs" and so on. It makes me cringe and wonder why does the romance exists in the first place.

Now, let me point out the thing I disliked in details. Beware of spoilers, and as usual, highlight to see the content.

In conclusion, I'm very very dissapointed. I was expecting for magic, but it was barely exists and instead I got this whole mess. From what I read, the magic element is an analogy for religion/consience. This book has too much going on, and instead of following one single plot, it keeps adding more and more issues. It's an okay coming of age read, but the whole mess and experience really left a bad impressions for me. If only the (sorry!) useless magical element erased, I would enjoy the story more.