Deeper by Robin York

Deeper by Robin York

Part 1 of Caroline & West's story

3.25 stars
Caroline Piasecki had a bright future ahead of her until pictures of her and her ex-boyfriend in sordid acts popped up all over the internet. Now she’s trying to clear her name and get rid of the pictures, but it doesn’t look like any progress is being made. West Leavitt lived across the hall from Caroline her freshman year at Putnam and she’s stayed away from the resident weed dealer. But when West defends Caroline from Nate she starts a not-friendship with him by spending nights at the bakery. As they grow closer, Caroline faces more than exposed pictures and complicated feelings and West world starts to come crashing down. I haven’t read a whole lot of New Adult and it seems that the New Adult I do love was originally categorized as something different, like YA or adult. With NA I either love the book to pieces (The Devil's Metal,The Piper's Son, and All Over You), enjoy it, but had qualms with it (Lick,Bully, and The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden), or absolutely loathe the book or just feel a neutral dislike for it (Beautiful Addictions,The Secret of Ella and Micha, andThe Edge of Never). It probably seems frivolous to list these books I’ve read I think it’s necessary to show how I can judge this book and where it falls into a category. Here’s the thing about Deeper it falls into a category completely out of what my usual NA experiences are. Deeper belongs in a category of sometimes I really liked it and others I loathed the stupidity that crawled out of the book. Boy, there was a lot of stupid in this book. Some of the lines were ridiculous. I did enjoy this book sometimes, but I also had problems with it.


Like most books I come across since joining GR this is a book that I discovered and wanted to read this book immediately after the review. That review really prompted me to want to try something new. Deeper sounded like an intense story about a girl coming to terms with her experience of revenge porn and falling in love with a guy that could help her find her way. In some ways it was that story or it had the possibility of morphing into it, but then something would happen and it would become a pointless story of the push-away romance game. This book, sadly, didn’t focus on what was important, Caroline was important and she should’ve had more time to grow and her growth did happen a bit, but it was rushed. Her growth randomly sprouted out during an intense argument with her father and while I really enjoyed this new Caroline it was quickly squashed by “Oh, btw, Daddy I need you to bust my new boyfriend out of jail. And yes he’s the one that you didn’t want to me be around, but I love him and couldn’t stay away.” Caroline transitions from acting strong to acting like a lost dog who can’t find their own.


I feel like I need to address the message behind Deeper before going on to character analysis and this throws off my usual review format, but some books are meant to have different reviews from others. Revenge porn became a huge thing in my town recently. I mean what else do you expect from Southerners with a snow day for half the week. I must add that the kids I interact with on a daily basis are known for stooping to levels of hate and “exposing” people does happen every now and then, but during the snow week it hit an all time high. I really think that this book tried to touch on the subject. In passing it did a well job, but as a whole this book could’ve done so much more.


The main female character is Caroline. I’ve already touched a bit on Caroline’s personality above and her constant flip-flop of feelings happens a lot. She can go from normal to hearing the voices of men her head calling her names. She also has terrible references to pop culture such as this one that immediately make me think she is a Mary Sue.
“I guess I’d rather be Bella Swan hanging out at the Cullen place than, you know, school Bella- all pissy and defensive, clomping around Forks High, convinced everyone hates her.”
Why would you want to ever be defenseless Bella Swan? In what world is she a good character to want to be? I know you’ve experienced something traumatizing, but wanting to Bella Swan isn’t a good thing. Don’t mope around, Caroline. Don’t be Bella, be Caroline. Caroline is also known for being pretentious. She’ll go from saying something that sounds like every other teen in America to saying, “Who even says cool?” I don’t know Caroline. Maybe I say cool because sometimes there’s no better word to describe it. I honestly don’t get why she thinks she’s better than everyone sometimes because just cause someone says cool, it doesn’t mean they aren’t any less educated. Caroline is also an over-analyzer and she over thinks everything West says to her about his feelings even when what he says is so blatantly obvious.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 5

The main male character is West. West seemed great at first and he was a sex magnet, but then as the book went on I liked him less and less. He curses a lot in unnecessary places that don’t need curse words to prove points. That isn’t cool. I don’t mind cursing in the slightest because I’m no saint in the cursing department, but saying the f-word to say to prove stupid points just seems stupid. And that’s the thing about West he does stupid things like this, but he isn’t stupid in the slightest. He has a lot of street smarts and he doesn’t seem to be an idiot when it comes to learning new things whether it’s school or work wise and that’s why I don’t get why York went to great lengths to contradict him as a person. He is also extremely possessive. To the point where he’s borderline obsessed and I think he is.
“I treated her like she belonged to me, even though I wouldn’t have her and I wouldn’t let her have me, either.”
How does that sound stable? It doesn’t because sometimes West went a little bit psycho in his obsession and started to ramble about how he possesses Caroline. Sometimes the alpha male can be hot, but sometimes it can also be scary. West went from being hot to scary in zero to sixty. West also falls into the very infamous NA trope of he-man. He beats up people several times and while his actions do have a consequence, which is very unlikely in most NAs, he is still a violent man with serious anger issues. West is also known for saying the same thing over and over again about want to be deep inside Caroline. All the time. It was sweet at first, but it got annoying fast.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 5

The Villain- I really liked how the question of who sent the pictures hung the air. It was obvious who it was but still I was hoping maybe something would change.


Villain Scale: 5

I did like Caroline and West’s friends, Bridget and Krish as well as Quinn. They were funny and added comedic relief to the sullen tone that surrounds Caroline and West through most the novel. I do look forward and hope to see more of them in Harder. I also really like West’s devotion to his younger sister, Frankie. He really cares about her and his love for her is strong.


Character Scale: 6

I wasn't completely impressed with Deeper, but I wasn't majorly disappointed either. As I’ve said before this book has a lot of faults and a lot of things that drove me bananas, but it does have a lot of good things. Like the ending. I do love happy ones, but I also love (view spoiler)I do look forward to Harder because I think it has potential to offer an interesting story. A lot of NA has unnecessary sequels, but I really like the fact that this one does have room for a sequel and it is necessary in some ways.


Cover Thoughts: This book has a beautiful cover and it’s absolutely breathtaking. It’s such a pleasing color scheme and the model and pose just seems to say a lot about the book. It’s one of my favorite covers recently and I just absolutely adore it.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House- Bantam for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.