Review Detail

Chloe is working the 6:30 a.m. shift at the GoodFoods market on Christmas Eve. Saying her day isn't going well would be an understatement. Her way to get through the day is to make lists in her head, on any subject matter she can think of, and it's working. At least until she and her fellow teenage co-workers find themselves being accused of stealing from the store's charity box.

This book was a lot of fun to read. It was fast, the whole book took place within around 9-10 hours, it was playful, the lists Chloe made were amusing, it was just a lot of fun and entertaining. Having worked retail in high school on Christmas Eve, I could easily relate to a lot of what Chloe was going through with the stressed out bosses, pushy customers, strange customers, and just general chaos. I liked that she and her fellow teens still managed a few stolen fun moments during their shift.

Chloe was very likeable for me. Her reaction to things, her frustrations, the weird things she would notice about customers, her lists, all those things made her feel like she could have easily been one of my co-workers in high school. Her interactions with her co-workers were amusing and awkward. She felt believable to me.

All the characters were great. They were diverse and had distinct personalities so it was easy to separate them instead of them blending together. It would be hard for me to chose a favourite since all of them had moments and things about them that I really liked. I make no secret about loving when misfit characters come together to form a bond and that was definitely present in this book. It had a Breakfast Club vibe to it, taking place in one day, authority figure thinking they're all delinquents, finding ways to amuse themselves. It all added up to me being very entertained.

There were moments in the plot that had me shaking my head, not in frustration, but because I could easily believe events unfolding in the same way. Money goes missing and the blame automatically goes to the teens working there, working with someone day after day and knowing so little about them, not telling your co-workers about a health issue because you think they'll treat you differently. These were things I could see happening in real life.

This is likely a book I'll pick up again just to re-read certain parts of it after a long day because I know it'll amuse me.