Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn't affected the content of my review.
I don't think Courtney Summers is for me. I've tried Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn't affected the content of my review.
I don't think Courtney Summers is for me. I've tried three of her books now.
This is an extremely well-written and timely young adult thriller that is supposedly about the death of a young girl found on the side of the road, but it's really about how the world is built to use up pretty young women and undermine their self-worth, and what that looks like. The main character is Georgia Avis, who dreams of becoming a model, of making it big, and she uses her looks to do it. At the same time, she's horrifically innocent while being used by people who on the surface look like they are supporting her.
It was, frankly, really unpleasant to read. I don't think it was meant to be pleasant, but that kind of book usually isn't for me, and I don't think it was here, either. It was so uncomfortable being in Georgia's head, because her perspective is so skewed, and the things she doesn't understand about the world around her (while thinking she does) are staggering.
If you liked Sadie, I think you will like this as well. It actually takes place in the same world, where a feature film has been made about West's podcast from that book. But I think now that I've read three of her books, and none of them have gotten more than 3.5 stars from me, when so many other people are just blown away by them, I might have to retreat gracefully and pursue other authors who are more to my tastes....more
I do, on occasion, voluntarily read lit-fic, even dare I say, get excited about it! And that is usually when there is some sort of weird hook to the pI do, on occasion, voluntarily read lit-fic, even dare I say, get excited about it! And that is usually when there is some sort of weird hook to the premise. Here, it’s nuns. I’ve had a weird thing with nuns ever since I watched The Trouble With Angels as a child, and I can’t explain it. I think they are funny and interesting and weird, and some of them were completely demented (my mom had a nun teacher in the early 1960s who used to throw a mophead at children who annoyed her during class). It’s like, how many reasons are there why a woman would be shut away, married off to God, and then spend the rest of her life wearing a fancy black hoodie and contemplating the universe? So many reasons.
This book takes place in the 12th century during the rule of Eleanor of Aquitane, who banishes our main character, Marie (a fictionalized portrayal of Marie de France) to an abbey to get her unruly and unwanted presence out of court. The abbey is extremely impoverished (many of the nuns are literally starving to death), and they are fresh off an outbreak of some sort of plague-ish thing that cut their numbers significantly. And young Marie isn’t just there to be a nun, but to be the prioress, the head nun. At first she does everything in her power to not fit in, sure she will be rescued and brought back to court to bask in the presence of her beloved Eleanor (who she is in love with), but when she realizes she’s there for good, and that she has it within her power to make the abbey not just a good place to live, but a spiritually wholesome, welcoming place, she begins to do so, with style.
My favorite thing about this book was the dark humor. I read most of this not at home and I forgot my tabs, so I was only able to mark a couple of passages, but here’s an early one as an example of the somehow simultaneously beautifully written and yet also full of grodiness that made me laugh out loud just from surprise:
“Goda has the affronted air of someone who lurks in corners to hear herself spoken ill of so that she can hold tight a grievance to suckle.”
The whole book is like that, and by now if you have been reading my reviews you know that there is nothing I appreciate more than a book that goes back and forth between opposite tones: humor and drama, elegance and disgusting descriptions of bodies, with the ease this book does. Life is not one-toned and books should not be either, in my opinion.
What really gets you in the end is the community that Marie builds for herself and her fellow nuns. I ended the book and was like, well that was five stars. And it’s really not that long. I read it in a day. I very much recommend this one, even if you don’t normally like historical fiction, or literary fiction. Not sure if I will be reading more of this author’s books, but I’m glad this one was a rousing success....more
This was a cute story and well written, but I didn't connect to it emotionally as much as I did with Deaver's first book, I Wish You All the Best. DeaThis was a cute story and well written, but I didn't connect to it emotionally as much as I did with Deaver's first book, I Wish You All the Best. Deaver still plays with themes of gender nonconformity and coming of age while queer and discovering your sexuality and gender identity, but their main character is a much more difficult and complicated person (read: kind of an asshole). This is also a romance, though as with their first book, the main character's emotional growth is the center of the book, not their relationship with the love interest.
Here we have Neil, a sixteen-year old trans boy who is away at boarding school in South Carolina, after his family sent him across the country (he feels he was sent there to keep him out of the way). He has a friend group of queer teenagers that have helped to center him and try to call him on his bullshit, but Neil lives in his own Neil world. His roommate, Wyatt, is also insufferable. A series of circumstances leads to Neil inviting Wyatt to travel to CA with him on spring break to attend his brother's wedding (it's always so convoluted, so I've given up trying to explain how the characters get to the fake dating), and the trip ends up changing not only their relationship, but some of the ways that Neil has viewed the world and his family.
Deaver always does a great job with emotional verisimilitude, and Wyatt is the most lovable human, but Neil is a difficult character who acts out and makes really bad decisions, which is never my favorite type of character because I didn't even get anywhere close to that phase of adolescence. The way that Deaver pulls off Neils arc is great, but you have to put up with Neil being a jerk for quite a bit of this book (albeit, a funny jerk).
Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books for the ARC! It hasn't affected the content of my review.
I was slightly skeptical of thisThanks to Netgalley, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books for the ARC! It hasn't affected the content of my review.
I was slightly skeptical of this book going in, as I always am with YA these days, but I couldn't resist the premise. I'm really glad I gave in to my impulse on this one, because this book was really cute, and surprisingly emotionally harrowing at the same time. The premise here is that Atherton's star quarterback died in a drunk driving accident over the summer, and the coach has found his replacement in Jack Walsh, who is to everyone's shock, a girl. She's extremely talented, and she just wants the chance to play football and be part of a team. That no one accepts her, and in some cases actively plot against her, is not a great feeling.
The only person who is even somewhat nice to her is Amber, a cheerleader who is gunning hard for Captain next year (they are both juniors) and who is a closeted queer girl in a fake relationship with her also queer friend Miguel, another player on the football team. Amber has spent all of high school trying her hardest not to rock the boat, especially since so many of her classmates are homophobic, including her best friend Cara, whose family is uber-religious but stepped in to be a sort of second family for Amber when her single mom needed the help. Just a soup of conflict up inside Amber. Of course, the two are drawn together and quickly fall for each other, in a very cute way. (Amber calls Jack's glasses cute, and can't resist flirting with her, then straight up telling her she was flirting, promptly and accidentally outing herself.)
I was mostly surprised by how intense the homophobia and misogyny is towards Jack, and surrounding Amber. All the queer characters are out to their families, but none want to take the step to come out to the community as a whole, lest they end up friendless and ostracized like Jack. Haunting the whole thing is the ghost of Robbie, the dead quarterback, who was an asshole (he was blackmailing Miguel about being gay, among other charming behaviors), but who is now being sanctified by his teammates, the cheerleaders, and the other students. They refuse to give Jack credit when they start winning games, and the fact that she's a girl has everything to do with it. And even Amber and Miguel don't feel like they can stand up for her, because of the perceived consequences.
I was a bit worried that the conflict Adler created was too much to be resolved in the book, but she made it work, with only a little bit of handwaving. Most of it was just well-constructed plot, and you end the book knowing that Amber and Jack have their Happily-For-Now.
I hadn't read anything by Dahlia Adler before this, but I would definitely consider reading more from her in the future, even though none of her previously published books are calling to me at the moment....more
Look at me, reviewing a book I just finished yesterday. I am determined to review all my October books in a timely fashion so as not to make my backloLook at me, reviewing a book I just finished yesterday. I am determined to review all my October books in a timely fashion so as not to make my backlog problem worse than it already is. (Sigh.) This was sort of a bummer one to start my October spooky reads on because it was all serious and stuff, no fun at all to be had here. But I can't deny it was very well done.
Ansel Packer is a murderer, some call him a serial killer, and he is on death row currently waiting to be executed. He has twelve hours to live. The book is split between second person POV sections from Ansel as he waits to die, and the majority of the book, told from the POV of three women impacted by Ansel's actions: his mother, a detective, and his wife's sister. We experience Ansel's life from birth to death, but the narrative doesn't really pass judgment on him, it leaves that to us.
I don't want to say too much about the point of the book because that would be spoiling it, but I found this actually more interesting to think about than to read, like I do with a lot of literary fiction. This is definitely literary fiction, playing with and commenting on crime tropes. The style is not my favorite, as it is way more interested in the interior life of the characters (at a remove) and the style of the writing than it was the plot.
If you like literary fiction and crime fiction, this is a book for you. I was skeptical of it at the beginning, but the story and themes pulled me in by the end of the book and I ended up really appreciating it for what it was. No mistake, though, the rest of this month is going to be reveling in trashy plotty fun.
I really hate when I get so excited about a book and it's just a dud. And this one was for sure a dud. And it sounded so cute! That title! Nigerian imI really hate when I get so excited about a book and it's just a dud. And this one was for sure a dud. And it sounded so cute! That title! Nigerian immigrants in Britain! A black Bridget Jones bemoaning the pressures of being single! But it was just . . . uninteresting. I mention Bridget Jones because 50% of the reviews I've read of it compare it to Bridget Jones's Diary, and aside from this also focusing on singleness as a topic, they couldn't be more different. For starters, Bridget is funny. This book is not. It's also a romance! This book is not. There is no HEA here, which is fine! But you should know going in, it's a book about Yinka finding herself, not a book about Yinka finding her huzband.
And it's not just me. Several of my BOTM crew (multiple text threads at this point) also picked this book as an add-on choice this month, and all three of us were disappointed, one of us to the point of DNFing (not me, oh I pushed all the way until the end!)
The last fifteen pages or so were actually pretty good, but the rest of it was really not. The person who has the most personality in the book is Yinka's mom, but until the very end, she has exactly one characteristic: reinforcing the patriarchy via prayer and pressure on your children. Get married, have babies, get married, have babies. I know that's the point, but the experience of her is really not nuanced. The rest of the characters, including Yinka, (with the possible exception of Yinka's best friend Nana and former coworker Donovan) had no personality. It wasn't funny. It wasn't moving. It wasn't really anything. Just this happened then this happened. Yinka is a 30 year old, well educated, religious virgin who feels pressure to get married, and that's what I know about her. The dialogue was mostly empty of substance for me, and there was a lot of it (including the most dull text messaging I've ever seen in a piece of fiction).
I mostly am just disappointed that a perspective like this didn't get the treatment it deserved. A religious heroine respectful of other's choices who believes sex is sacred could have been really interested to read about! Experiencing nuanced family dynamics through the clash of cultures, also could have been really interesting. Experiencing a by-choice virgin dating men in a misogynistic world, also could have been interesting. None of that was mined for conflict. Some of it was touched on, but barely. Instead, we get a plot about Yinka "changing herself" (she barely changes) and one time she lies about going to counseling, and one time she blurts a secret about her cousin at a wedding shower. Her friends then treat her to an intervention and act like she's started murdering animals in the street.
This one, in short, was not for me. I wish others better luck.
This was a nice read. A bit misleading of a title—it's less about the library than you'd think—but nice.
As with many three-and-a-half-star books for mThis was a nice read. A bit misleading of a title—it's less about the library than you'd think—but nice.
As with many three-and-a-half-star books for me that are just good reads—nothing out of the ordinary or particularly noteworthy, but nothing worth criticizing either—it's pretty hard to drum up a review. Especially since I have forgotten all the characters' names and just had to look them all up.
Through a series of charmingly contrived circumstances, sixteen-year old Tom and seventy-two year old Maggie become friends through the library, and the book follows both of them in how the relationship slowly changes them. They sort of adopt each other as pseudo-family. Tom's mother is dead, and his dad is emotionally unavailable, in addition to money troubles. Maggie doesn't have a family at all, it seems she once had a son.
There's a lot of mentions of specific books in here, as part of Tom's journey is to learn to love reading (and he reads all over the place, starting with a ton of romance novels). There's also a lot of loving descriptions of food, and quite a few animals (Maggie lives on a farm).
I suppose the main point here is that the library acts as a central place for the community the way that other places can't, but that part of the book really was the weakest by far. The faux-grandmother/grandson relationship between Maggie and Tom is really the heart of the book, not the library, even when the plot focuses on saving the library it still didn't feel quite as important as I thought it should.
I definitely want more from Maud, the old lady who never met a problem she couldn't just casually murder.
I had this out from my library so long they cI definitely want more from Maud, the old lady who never met a problem she couldn't just casually murder.
I had this out from my library so long they charged me for a replacement copy, which is dumb of me because it's the world's shortest read. I finished it off in less than two hours. (Don't worry, I returned it, and me and the library are all good now.) It is seriously a teeny little book, like five inches tall and three inches wide. A teeny tiny book full of murder.
There are five short stories in this book, some interrelated, and in chronological order in Maud's life. The last two stories are really just two different POVs on the same story, which is why I'm not giving this five stars, because both weren't necessary. Most of the stories start out really normally, and if you don't know the premise going in, you too might fall for Maud's disguise, because she is just so very chill about her actions, so concise and matter of fact. The first story in the book, for example, features one of Maud's neighbors not so cunningly coming after her apartment. The problem hasn't even escalated anything beyond the neighbor making hints and bringing over sweet treats for Maud, but what Maud does ends the discussion forever. The matter-of-factness does make this whole thing very funny, though, and because of the tone its written in, even as you're disapproving of Maud, you also don't want her to get caught.
After returning this book and having my account cleared of all fees, I immediately placed a hold on the next one....more
"Also," Sadie said, "What does any of that have to do with games?" "Isn't it obvious?" Marx said. It was not obvious to Sam or to Sadie. "What is a game?"Also," Sadie said, "What does any of that have to do with games?" "Isn't it obvious?" Marx said. It was not obvious to Sam or to Sadie. "What is a game?" Marx said. "It's tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It's the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win. No loss is permanent, because nothing is permanent, ever." "Nice try, handsome," Sadie said. "Next.”
If this doesn't make my top ten books of the year, I'll eat something inedible. My cat does it all the time, how hard can it be?
This book sucked my entire being into it while I was reading it, and I was a brainless husk just turning pages while my brain was flopping around in there having a grand old time. Sorry if that sounds gross but that's what happened! I can't change the facts!
This is a book about friendship, love, and video games, and also the process of storytelling and the creation of art, and also lots of other things, and I loved it. I love Sam, and I love Sadie, and I love Marx. I want to play all their video games (and you can play Sadie's very first game 'EmilyBlaster' RIGHT HERE). I'm not even a gamer, but I love reading books and watching movies about gaming, and this is a book that doesn't shy away from the details of that. It doesn't go into technical details, but it is very focused on the WHY of the games.
We follow Sam and Sadie from when they meet as children to decades later when they are successful adults, still trying to make sense of their emotional lives, as we all are. Marx joins the picture during their college years, but I would say he's just as important as the ostensible two main protagonists.
If you are a human being, there is a good chance you will love this book, so you should go pick it up right now. You're welcome.
Chipping Away at Mt. TBR, July 2022—Book 16/31...more
"At one point he brushed my hand and there was electricity, but I think that was the combination of the deep carpet outside the restaurant and my new "At one point he brushed my hand and there was electricity, but I think that was the combination of the deep carpet outside the restaurant and my new cardigan."
I don't know how much more I can continue to say about these books, as my love for them is not diminishing but only growing, and the books are so consistent with what I love about them, I don't want to just be saying the same things every time a new one is published. But I guess I'm going to anyway! Sorry.
But not really.
Our four septuagenarians are still at it, solving murders on Thursdays, and hopefully things have calmed down after the chaos of their last big case. Now they have their sights set on the murder of a newscaster ten years before who worked near where they live (and it doesn't hurt that Joyce has a little crush on the newscaster they are trying to rope in to helping them with the investigation, as he was a close friend and colleague of hers before she was murdered). The plot descends into jollity, murder, and capers, as always with touches of real emotion mixed in along the way.
A delightful thing that is becoming clear as these books go on is that the four pensioners (retirees for my fellow North Americans) are really beginning to collect a crowd of friends/sources/people they can use when they need to as time goes on. But the people are completely willing to help and be blatantly used because they're so charmed by this oddball group of old people still kicking around when most around them are in the process of giving up.
Also there's a dog in this called Alan.
(Speaking of animals, I still haven't figured out why there's a fox on all the covers. I love foxes so I'm not complaining, but there are no foxes in the books. Is it because some of them are foxy? Like, wily, not hot. Although, apparently Ibrahim is quite the looker.)...more
I feel badly about the review I’m about to write, because it betrays a cynicism I like to squash when possible, but I feel like this book was publisheI feel badly about the review I’m about to write, because it betrays a cynicism I like to squash when possible, but I feel like this book was published (and picked by Book of the Month) because publishers knew it would sell, and not because it was anything special. This is similar to the way that Hallmark Christmas movies are cheaply made, poorly written, and at best acted with mediocrity, but scratch a specific itch in a specific type of person that watches them anyway. I think maybe when I was younger I was well able to accept mediocrity and even enjoy it, but I just can’t anymore. This book could have been so much better.
So, quick prep, this book follows identical twins Cass and Charlie as they swap lives for the first time in forever, because an incident involving a concussion leaves TV reality show cooking judge/chef Charlie without a sense of taste or smell, which will put her career in jeopardy.
This premise was cute, and I really enjoyed certain aspects of the world the two authors created (Maggie Knox is a pseudonym for a new writing duo, Karma Brown and Marissa Shipley) but I also think the result, while not bad, betrays a lack of cleverness and deep emotion that I prefer in my romances. I also think it’s obvious that it’s both authors first attempt at writing romance (as is noted at the end of the book) because they deploy a whole bunch of tropes in ways that skilled and seasoned (or even new authors who are just very good!) romance writers know how to work more authentically and organically into their stories. This book was rife with coincidences, obviously constructed plot set-ups to move the story where the authors wanted (like one character conveniently losing her cellphone for days and not freaking the fuck out like anyone else would do, or that same character conveniently breaking up with her sister’s boyfriend for her while on a livestream she forgot to turn off).
And because there are two romances in here, not one, there isn’t really room for emotional depth or intimacy. Both sisters meet handsome men and fall for them in quick fashion in ways that left me unsatisfied because it was just so shallow. Don’t get me started on some of this dialogue, or the weird way the authors infodump constantly to let us know what’s going on. I’ve never seen so much infodumping in a romance.
The one part of the book that I thought was actively stupid was that this whole thing kicks off with Charlie getting a concussion on the set of her reality show, and no one on the show seems to care. I’m sorry, in reality, the show would be shitting its pants making sure their asses were fully covered in terms of liability, both so that Charlie wouldn’t sue them but also because recasting her would lose them a lot of money. I also do not believe for one second that someone as smart as Charlie and competent as she is supposed to be would actively ignore TBI symptoms, and not even tell her fucking doctor that she’d lost her sense of smell and taste! That is important information!!!! The whole situation smacked of a lack of research on the authors’ parts, because I’ve had friends who’ve had concussions, and in some cases the recovery is long, and the symptoms obvious and life-changing.
I’m being really harsh on this book, but it’s just hit me in that spot where it’s not bad or terrible or anything, but it’s also not good, and could have easily been made so much better with just a little thought and effort, and something about that drives me absolutely up the wall.
Now, please excuse me while I try to finish Harrow the Ninth by the end of the year, a book which is the exact opposite of this one in every way.
[2.5 stars, rounding up because it wasn’t terrible]...more
This is a silly, inconsequential—one might almost say *cozy*—book that is largely about the retrieval of a wooden duck, and I liked it very much.
I reaThis is a silly, inconsequential—one might almost say *cozy*—book that is largely about the retrieval of a wooden duck, and I liked it very much.
I really love Linda Holmes. I'm in for her whole thing, after this book. I was hoping Evvie Drake Starts Over wouldn't be a fluke, and it wasn't. While I didn't like Flying Solo as much as I loved Evvie Drake, this was a really good time.
You don't often get stories from the POV of a woman who isn't interested in a traditional romantic relationship (and is just fine on her own, thank you, hence the title). In fact, I don't think I've ever read one that was also a romance, at least where the arc of the book was to rid the troublesome spinster of her delusions. Here, our thirty-nine year old main character Laurie, who pretty recently canceled her own wedding, is back in her hometown for the first significant period of time since leaving for college two decades before.
Unfortunately, it's to help her family clean out her recently deceased great-aunt's house in order to prep it for sale. Laurie was very close to her aunt, almost closer to her aunt than her own mother, who had a full house of many boy children in addition to Laurie (I don't remember exactly how many, but it was a lot). Like Laurie herself, her aunt was a solo act, very much on purpose. We of course get a very nice emotional arc for Laurie, in which she learns that just because she doesn't want the life that everyone expects her to want (marriage, house, kids) doesn't mean she can't find her own way to having romance in her life.
But also, the duck. She finds this old wooden duck in a chest in her aunt's bedroom when she's cleaning it out, as well as an old letter with the mysterious phrase, "And anyway, if you're ever desperate, there are always ducks, darling." She's at first told the duck is worthless, but when it goes missing from her aunt's house, a series of ridiculous events ensue. What kind of secrets was Dot keeping? Where did she get the duck? And why would someone want it bad enough to steal it.
I just had a really genuine good time with this book, and though the romance is secondary here, the main plot is so fun it's totally worth giving a shot. I also really, really liked her love interest, and I thought the way things resolved felt exactly right....more
This was one of my most anticipated books of the year, so naturally I chose it for one of my book clubs, because I like pushing books on willing victiThis was one of my most anticipated books of the year, so naturally I chose it for one of my book clubs, because I like pushing books on willing victims. Joke was on me! We all hated it, every single one of us. What was this???? How could such a good premise biff it so hard?
First of all, this is NOT a heist book. We spend approximately 5% of the book with the characters doing crime, and that is probably generous. There is also no planning of doing crime. They watch Ocean's Eleven to prep. Yep.
The premise here has the potential to be absolutely unbelievable if not given the right tone and justification by the narrative, and that is 100% what happened. Why would a hugely rich entity hire five idiot Ivy League students with no criminal histories to steal back some of the most precious and infamous Chinese art? The answer is they wouldn't, at least if the conditions in this book hold. They would get actual criminals to do it for them. (I could see another book taking the smarter option of using the kids as patsies. Or having the kids actually be good at stealing things.)
The other main issue besides the execution of the premise is the writing itself. Oh my god if I had to read ONE MORE SCENE of the writing masturbatingly describing the atmosphere around these characters. "Poetic" descriptions of the weather and the ocean and the sky and the sun made up most of the content of the book. STOP DESCRIBING THE WIND TO ME AND TELL ME A STORY. The characters, by the way, were insufferable.
In summation, this is lit-fic that tried to pull in the exact wrong audience of people who enjoy heist novels and also appreciate a good critical takedown of colonialism and imperialism. I originally had this rated two stars because the ideas that motivated the story, particularly those surrounding the Chinese diaspora, felt worth reading, but in the end I just really hated it, so rounding down to one star.
[1.5 stars, the extra half star is for the handful of scenes with the one character and his father; those were pretty okay, but the rest of the book can fuck off to the sun]...more
Oh, dang, this book has fallen out of my brain since July. I remember that I was really charmed by it upon finishing, but it hasn't really stuck with Oh, dang, this book has fallen out of my brain since July. I remember that I was really charmed by it upon finishing, but it hasn't really stuck with me. I'm sure if I picked it up again, the reasons why I liked it so much would come back to me, but it does justify for me not giving this five stars on the first go-round, because a five-star read really should be "sticky".
Our two main characters in this here romance are Delia, newly divorced, and London, who are both contestants on a cooking show. I don't remember anymore what there "things" are, besides that Delia biffs it spectacularly on her first day of shooting, dropping her impeccably prepared tacos all over the floor. So that was pretty memorable. Also, I do remember it being super cute that London was always distracted by Delia because their work station was right behind hers, and they keeps staring at her because of her hair and her clothes and whatever else they are looking at that day.
Oh, and there was also a subplot in here about a dickweasel on the show who was being a bigoted jerk about London being nonbinary, and they have to deal with the producers of the show playing up that conflict for publicity. Hmm, and I seem to recall that London was very sweet and somewhat quiet, but Delia was a bit of a mess.
Anyway, I remember that I had a good time with it, so in that respect I recommend it highly!
Chipping Away at Mt. TBR, July 2022—Book 30/31...more
I liked this, but except for two elements that set it apart, this is kind of just a Big Little Lies clone.
So, this three stars is a more positive threI liked this, but except for two elements that set it apart, this is kind of just a Big Little Lies clone.
So, this three stars is a more positive three stars. I really did like the experience of reading this book. The writing is very playful, and the characters have depth to them. There's also a satirical edge to some of the goings-on, like the neighborhood book club meetings the novel revolves around, which each feature, excepting Lolita, what I'm pretty sure is a made-up book that pokes fun at different genres.
The most interesting part of the book had to do with the family who have a twelve year old boy with conduct disorder, and the parents' struggles to help their son fit in and be healthy and not turn into a violent sociopath. It was actually very sweet, and part of me wonders what the book would have been like had it focused entirely on that family instead of spreading POVs over the entire neighborhood.
The central mystery for most of the novel is that there is a vandal in the neighborhood, but you are also aware due to the presence of a framing device, that by the end someone will end up dead, and you don't know who it will be, just like in Big Little Lies. It also all culminates at a big party. Part of me was frustrated with the pace of secrets being revealed. What happened in the past wasn't a huge deal, but clues are dealt out slower than molasses in January, as my mom would say, and that was frustrating, and not in a good way.
So, this was a nice read and I liked it while I was reading it, but not much except the little pre-sociopath boy and his family will stick with me.
February 2022: I was wondering where all my five star reads were in January, and it turns out they were hiding in the first April 2022: Still love it.
February 2022: I was wondering where all my five star reads were in January, and it turns out they were hiding in the first week of February.
PhD graduate student Olive spontaneously plants a smooch on notoriously mean and horrible Professor Adam Carlsen in order to convince her best friend that it's okay for her to date Olive's ex (don't worry, he doesn't supervise her in any way!) and fake dating ensues. That's really all you need to know, to be honest.
Objectively, this is not a perfect book. It did things that in other books I have been annoyed with. In this case, though . . . I just did not care. At all. I was too busy having a good time. This book worked on my brain like I imagine one feels while taking ecstasy. Just pleasure centers lighting up everywhere, and for the silliest things. This sweater is so soft, I need to feel it forever! He doesn't like chocolate, that's so dumb and I love him! Just, pile of goop on the floor, was my experience of reading this.
Some books obviously work better for some readers, and occasionally you just find a pairing of reader and book that is magical, and I do think there is a lot of that going on here. But a huge part of my enjoyment, I know, is that Ali Hazelwood comes from a fanfic background, and this book started its life as a Reylo alternate universe fic (Rey/Kylo Ren from Star Wars, if you didn't know). And fanfic authors write . . . differently, and lots of times for different reasons, than writers who start off writing to sell commercially and publish traditionally. I'm not going to waste time delving into the details on that, I just know that I got the same feeling from reading this book that I do when I'm reading a truly excellent fanfic (I loooove AUs). I was most definitely picturing Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley as the main characters. I have never read a Reylo fic before in my life, but now, I would consider it. That is the magic of this book.
Real quick note, you can tell Hazelwood is for real an academic and a scientist. Those books shone with accuracy and nuance. It was very pleasurable sinking into the world she created here because of that.
I don't even know what else to say except that I will be revisiting this one again, and perhaps again, and I have already pre-ordered the four (!) pieces of fiction that Hazelwood has coming out in 2022....more
Loading...
