This book was definitely different! It's written in a very short, witty, and snappy style, and it reads extremely quickly since the page for3.75 Stars
This book was definitely different! It's written in a very short, witty, and snappy style, and it reads extremely quickly since the page format is so shortened that it's almost like reading a book in verse. Emmy is a hilarious yet awkward main character who is very eccentric, but at her roots was strangely relatable and enjoyable to read about. Some aspects of this book were really intriguing and I could tell it was well thought-out, others just seemed cheesy and as if they were added in just to fit the certain demands of a YA book. Otherwise, I thought this was a really nice tale about a young girl coping with the death of her best friend and learning to grow into her own skin. I really liked it!...more
This book was mediocre, mostly just because I already know that college-aged straight white dudes are generally the worst. Nothing was particularly baThis book was mediocre, mostly just because I already know that college-aged straight white dudes are generally the worst. Nothing was particularly bad about this book, but nothing was extremely impressing either. If anything, I'm just more disturbed and angry at the white guy culture, and I wish this book touched more on how girls can help other than being a mother and teaching future generations to do better. (Which isn't happening because haha. Me with kids? nah.)...more
This got really political and lost me. I like reading classics and literary fiction for the character development, and this one just leaned to the dryThis got really political and lost me. I like reading classics and literary fiction for the character development, and this one just leaned to the dry side. Some aspects were interesting, but the climax of the book and what it was leading up to was a bit of a let-down....more
This was an amazing book about a main character with an ambiguous moral compass. It was infuriating, it was interesting, it was just such a ride. MajoThis was an amazing book about a main character with an ambiguous moral compass. It was infuriating, it was interesting, it was just such a ride. Major trigger warning for rape and pedophilia, since pretty much the entire book revolves around that. But I just loved this. It made me think so much and we had amazing discussions in class. Highly recommend!...more
I don't know what happened but this book just got SO boring! The first two had a really cool world and the characters were so funny and dynamic but thI don't know what happened but this book just got SO boring! The first two had a really cool world and the characters were so funny and dynamic but this just lost everything. It focused on characters I didn't care about, and it made the plot contingent on people I couldn't care less about. The war aspects of this book were skimmed over, and I'm just so confused. I hate books that talk about the paranormal/fantasy world spilling over into the normal human world, because there's just no way to recover from that and it's so uncomfortable to read. I loved the first book in this series but it just evolved into something entire too long-winded, and it was too anticlimactic of an ending for me to feel like it was even worth it to finish the series....more
This book was downright rough. It took a lot of googling and professor explanations to realize what was happening, because me and this writing style jThis book was downright rough. It took a lot of googling and professor explanations to realize what was happening, because me and this writing style just did NOT click. That was the main downfall of this book, I definitely think: the writing was done so weirdly and awkwardly and hard to read. A lot of times, random lists and jagged sentences were thrown together, and with the dialogue having no speaker tags or even quotation marks, I was forced to get the audiobook just so that I could comprehend what the heck was going on and who was talking. In the end, I don't even feel like that helped a lot. The only thing I can say is that there were several times where this book had a sentence or two that really blew me away. There is definitely a lot of thought behind this book, which leads me to say that if perhaps I pick this book up in the future and give it more time (I had to read this entire thing in one week, amongst 4 other college classes), I would probably enjoy it more then. I think going into it knowing what to expect will allow a lot of the details to make sense and I would be able to see much more of what the characters are referring to in their vague dialogue and unexplained flashbacks to their past lives.
Bottom line: I just didn't understand 60% of this book....more
I really enjoyed this book! It was the first book we read in my contemporary world literature class and it stirred some really good discussion. I'm alI really enjoyed this book! It was the first book we read in my contemporary world literature class and it stirred some really good discussion. I'm all about any conversation in which I can discuss dismantling the patriarchy, and this book definitely dealt a lot with sexism, which is a topic I find infuriating yet interesting. The writing style was simple and quick to read, and although there wasn't an abundance of imagery, some of the similes/comparisons were really pretty! I thought this was a great book to discuss and it was really interesting as far as learning the culture and religion of Nigerian villages! I can't wait to read and discuss more books in this class! ...more
I was sent this book for free by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Honestly, I am both honored yet upset to be the first one to rate and revI was sent this book for free by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Honestly, I am both honored yet upset to be the first one to rate and review this. Clearly I wasn't the huge fan of it, sadly. Poetry is extremely hit or miss to me, and this collection didn't wow me. I wish there was a better context to this collection, or some sort of clarification of if these are fiction, autobiographical, both, neither? A lot of these poems deal with very intense topics like murder, rape, and pedophilia, so it was just sort of startling. Some of these poems were pretty, but a lot of them lacked any noticeable imagery, and I only marked 4 poems in here that I really enjoyed: Open Book, Sinking in Love, Love Unrequited, and As Willow Weeps.
It's another addition to my poetry shelf, but not anything memorable....more
3.75, but would probably be 4 stars if I read a finished copy.
I enjoyed the first one more. This is a companion series, which I was sorta disappointed3.75, but would probably be 4 stars if I read a finished copy.
I enjoyed the first one more. This is a companion series, which I was sorta disappointed with, but it still delivered the same interesting format and humor. This was neat, but a little harder to follow. In the middle I actually put it down to start another book, because it's 650 pages that takes place in a little over 2 days, so it was just a lot of info to take in. I was disappointed with the ARC because several crucial diagrams were missing, which left me a bit confused. Also, this book starts to deal with parallel universes, and that entire section and ending was sooooo mindboggling. It's a subject that I find hard to wrap my head around, so the entire ending i was just like lol wat...more
This book was super promising, and I'm sure a lot of people will like it, but I'm not a fan of books about pirates, and I didn't know that's whatMeh.
This book was super promising, and I'm sure a lot of people will like it, but I'm not a fan of books about pirates, and I didn't know that's what this would be about! I liked the writing and plot of this, but I just got really wildly bored. If I hadn't combined the audiobook with some skim-reading, I definitely might have DNF'ed this. Sefia just seemed like a very basic and interchangeable main character, and the rest of the characters were pirates or mysterious/confusing/muddled-backstory characters that I didn't get connected to, so in the end, there was nothing for me really to grasp onto for it to keep my attention.
The one really cool thing about this, though, is that it's sorta like illuminae with little hidden messages in the book and pictures and smudges and censored paragraphs, which I thought was awesome!...more
I'm wanting to get into more poetry, but I have to classify books of poetry in two categories: poems I understood, and poems I didn't. The majority ofI'm wanting to get into more poetry, but I have to classify books of poetry in two categories: poems I understood, and poems I didn't. The majority of these poems went over my head.
I saw in a previous review that Plath writes very personally, which I suppose is what went wrong here. There were so many abstract references and just being plain honest, 80% of these poems I just had no clue what she was trying to communicate, other than the fact that she wanted to die. Although I didn't grasp most of the poems in this collection, I did really enjoy a few: Sheep in the Fog, Lady Lazarus, Tulips, and The Rival.
I was a much bigger fan of The Bell Jar than I am her poetry. ...more
This was great like book one! I like how this one delves a little bit into mental illness and expands the world of our sex police and other timestoppeThis was great like book one! I like how this one delves a little bit into mental illness and expands the world of our sex police and other timestoppers lol. I liked the first one a little better because there's less relationship angst, but the humor and the weirdness of this is so compelling and I can't wait to read volume 3!...more
This book is simply unforgetable. It's the first book I've read about a school shooting, and it was just as horrifying and jarring as you wou3.5 stars
This book is simply unforgetable. It's the first book I've read about a school shooting, and it was just as horrifying and jarring as you would expect. I'm very glad i'm not in high school anymore, because for the rest of my life I'm going to be a little bit startled walking into an auditorium. Sadly, I think this book's only selling point is the subject matter, however. It was gripping and tragic, but the characters, writing, and structure didn't support that very well. I liked how diverse this book was, but it was very hard to interconnect the 4 perspectives as they were described because the way this book is told is very confusing. A lot of the time I was grappling for details, not sure what was going on or who was who. The characters themselves didn't have a lot of time to be fleshed out, and by the end of this book, I didn't find myself particularly attached to them.
This book has very sensitive and violent material so I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but it was absolutely crazy and is such a horrible reality that I think it's an important read if you can get your hands on it, even though the execution of it was shaky....more
WOW this took a dark twist I was not expecting! I'm just a huge fan of graphic novels that are LONG because it's so nice to see character growth and tWOW this took a dark twist I was not expecting! I'm just a huge fan of graphic novels that are LONG because it's so nice to see character growth and to have time to explore bigger plot arcs and intricacies that are lost on you in littler series, or shorter stand-alones. This stands alongside Blankets as one of my new favs, even though I didn't find myself going WOW at the end of this one. The art and dialogue and everything was just mediocre, but it's the characters and the story that really drove this home for me. Although the weird sculptor powers in exchange for death was pretty weird and it was executed strangely and unclearly, I loved how this book showed so vividly the topics of failure and frustration and poverty and overcoming hardship, and it was especially enlightening about the art community and the struggles that upcoming artists face every day. It was definitely a graphic novel that I connected with, but there were just some plotting issues that dragged this down for me because of the strangeness of it, like I said. ...more
This book was difficult because I like the format, but it wasn't the easiest story to go along with it. The conflict is more intricate than w3.5 stars
This book was difficult because I like the format, but it wasn't the easiest story to go along with it. The conflict is more intricate than what can be seen on the surface-level, so trying to figure out what was unfolding got a little bit more difficult toward the end, and it was harder to connect to. I think this format of telling a story would be REALLY neat if it was something more approachable, more blatant. Although this was a unique storytelling experience, some of the imagery was lost on me, and it was just hard to gauge what happened, or to track any of the characters' emotional growth....more
This book was super entertaining! I really have few complaints about it, but the issue with the matter is that I read this book too soon. I assumed adThis book was super entertaining! I really have few complaints about it, but the issue with the matter is that I read this book too soon. I assumed adulthood began at age 18 so this book would benefit me, but this is more geared toward college graduates and people trying to figure out their lives away from home. Therefore, I felt like half of the advice in this book went in one ear and out the other because I didn't have to think about stuff like that yet.
A lot of the advice in this book was a little bit long-winded. Some of the steps were things I didn't know, but the pace of this book was dragged down by a weighty explanation after almost every step, even when the step itself was self-explanatory.
Some topics (*cough* taxes) still went way over my head, because she would say, "Oh, you need to do this!!!" but she wouldn't explain what "this" is, how to do it, or why it's important. I guess until then, i'll be googling what a 401K is. I'll definitely be keeping this around until my early twenties, and then maybe when I reread it then, i'll dog-ear the pages on the most useful tips!...more
This book is a MASTERPIECE. I'm never particular about the art in graphic novels, but this is the most beautifully-illustrated graphic novel I have evThis book is a MASTERPIECE. I'm never particular about the art in graphic novels, but this is the most beautifully-illustrated graphic novel I have ever read. That, combined with the lesbian rep, the message, and this coming of age story full of angst and true love and tragedy gripped me until the very last page. I think this is the first graphic novel I've cried over. I cannot wait to track down the movie adaptation to watch it, because I'm sure it will be just as great. I cannot highly recommend this enough!...more
This book was as interesting and twisted as I hoped it would be! The writing style was slightly jarring and I got one sentence into the audiobook befoThis book was as interesting and twisted as I hoped it would be! The writing style was slightly jarring and I got one sentence into the audiobook before going NOPE (annoying child voice... argh), but I did end up enjoying it once I got further into it!
This book's main selling point is that it's not just your average trauma story of being locked in isolation-- it's told through the eyes of a child, and that room is all he's known for his entire life. I went into this expecting almost a thriller, a "will they get out of that situation???" type of storyline, but I was wrong. This follows more of a "can they get out, and when they do, can they live normally in the outside world after being locked up for so long?" And I liked that version more than I thought I would. Although half way through this book it wrapped itself up and felt very weird to continue onward, I did enjoy seeing the character progress throughout the end of the book, and although I wish we could have seen from someone other than Jack's perspective (he got exhausting and frustrating after a while), I think this would be a REALLY good book to discuss amongst friends and I'm sure the movie is very jarring.
There were certain points that gave me chills so bad that I had to put the book down, just because the severity of what these characters went through was so chilling, and all of it is undermined by the fact that the entire thing is told from the perspective of someone that's too young to understand. I just think this book brings up great controversies, was a tragic story of a mother and son who had to go through hell, and it was just as gripping and unforgettable as I hoped it would be. My only complaint is the pacing throughout the middle of it, and Jack's voice growing irritating after a while....more
I gave myself 24 hours to think over this before rating it, but I still don't know... i'm left off very confused... This is a book about characters whI gave myself 24 hours to think over this before rating it, but I still don't know... i'm left off very confused... This is a book about characters whose backstories and full character arcs aren't really explored, so it was jarring to read a character-heavy book whose main focus is on a woman that we never even see the perspective of. Maybe i'm missing something, and i'm horrified that I did because everyone else loves this book, but this just read very strangely to me. By the end I understood the characters' motives for doing everything they did but I was never invested into them, which makes me sad because this is a book highly centered around psychological issues and female autonomy and both of those things are usually fascinating to me. If anyone felt the same way I did, what did you think was missing? I'm just not quite sure how to put into words what about this felt not amazing...more
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