as someone who abhors true crime, i found reading this exploration of how evil it can be and who has ththis is the final boss of unreliable narrators.
as someone who abhors true crime, i found reading this exploration of how evil it can be and who has the right to tell a story and what even constitutes "true" extremely satisfying.
and it does so brilliantly, through an unreliable crooked journalist narrator, through the lens of true-crime fandom, through clever workings of sympathy and fact.
i know it can be upsetting to explore our guilty pleasures, but i really recommend this to everyone who "indulges" in people's tragedies as entertainment. it's something that as a society we really must reckon with.
the most wicked, evil, devious part of this thriller was the romance.
for a long time i couldn't decide if this was overwritten or underedited. plot twthe most wicked, evil, devious part of this thriller was the romance.
for a long time i couldn't decide if this was overwritten or underedited. plot twist: the answer is it's both!
there's just too much information in here, and very little of it is necessary. on top of that there's the writing-based stuff: many instances of the same word being used in back to back sentences (one of my hundreds of pet peeves), plus the overall sense that this was written at a desk with an open thesaurus on it...
this was an incredible premise that overcommitted and underdelivered, offering disappointing characters who treat each other terribly, no development, and a disappointing plot.
and again, just about the worst romance i've ever read. negative chemistry. terrible influences on each other. continually calling each other ugly and/or terribly personality'd in their truest and most internal thoughts.
bottom line: the horror.
(thanks to netgalley for the e-arc)
--------------- tbr review
selecting the single mystery/thriller book i'll read this year...more
unfortunately it appears i will keep reading these books as long as they keep coming.
even as they continue to ruin my life.
these are peak guilty pleasunfortunately it appears i will keep reading these books as long as they keep coming.
even as they continue to ruin my life.
these are peak guilty pleasure content and are also sometimes not pleasurable at all.
at its best, this series is a pretentious guy who is also an unreliable narrator who is also truly hilarious getting up to hijinks on the regular. and of course by hijinks i mean felonies and murder — the best kind.
tragically this installment contains a lot more writing about writing than it does writing about murder. and also a lot of self-soothing.
all i'll say is that a fairly major character in this book is a female author who longs to write respected works of (self-insert) literary merit, but when she breaks from her beloved but unrespected bestselling thrillers she is roundly mocked. and i will leave it at that.
giving yourself some therapy while getting paid thriller-series-contract money...that's great work if you can get it.
generally this lacks the same MAGIC as its predecessors. each entry in YOU seems to have less and less fun, forcing itself to become serious for no reason and losing the goofiness and originality that made the first one among my favorite thrillers of all time.
but this one did coin the phrase "Dunkin' Sally Rooney," so it can't be all bad.
bottom line: keep em coming, kepnes. masochism awaits me.
when i first saw this book, i was filled with a personality-changing, life-defining, character-destroying rage. HOW COULD THEY NOT TELL ME ABOUT THIS when i first saw this book, i was filled with a personality-changing, life-defining, character-destroying rage. HOW COULD THEY NOT TELL ME ABOUT THIS BOOK, i demanded of a THEY that does not exist. WHY DID NO ONE SEE FIT TO INFORM ME OF ITS EXISTENCE, i followed up, also of the nameless THEY that had swiftly become my enemy.
but it turns out that the enemy i thought was my enemy was actually my friend.
not telling me about this book is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. and because no one told me about this book, everyone in the world is, it turns out, actually nice.
so the good news is we can probably have world peace now.
the bad news is: this book sucks.
the first installment of this series was very fun. it had several things that made it that way — mainly a sick and lovely new-england-in-the-fall boarding-school-yay setting and a fun original mystery from History.
those things are no longer here.
over the four (!) books since that first promising start, those things have slowly faded, and they have been replaced with a series of nightmares.
the things that made this series good were not here, and the things that made this series bad — our protagonist stevie's never-progressing identical character arc, side character david as a presence, david as a romantic lead, stevie in general, the attempts at emotion — were here in spades!
and to prove it, this book, WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE FIFTH BOOK IN WHAT IS ALLEGEDLY A MYSTERY SERIES, had a cliffhanger centered around the romance that i, as indicated, ABHOR.
a cliffhanger that acts as a warning not to continue...interesting tactic.
and yet, sadly, i will probably just keep reading these, continuing to grow the hate in my heart like a reverse grinch.
bottom line: i love everyone and i hate this book.
the problem with setting a book in one of the coolest places in the world is that real life is going to be better than the story.
and the problem with the problem with setting a book in one of the coolest places in the world is that real life is going to be better than the story.
and the problem with the word "cloisters" is that i hate it.
it's worse than moist.
i didn't hate this book, on the other hand, but i would 200% have rather just gone to the museum, and 100% have rather read about the museum itself, than whatever confusing hijinks and love triangle bullsh*ttery happened here.
i'm filing this with The Woman in the Library as part of a burgeoning subgenre i call Actual Places Are More Interesting Than The Stuff You Made Up, Even Though You Had The Power Of Imagination On Your Side.
rolls off the tongue.
bottom line: meh!
2.5
---------------- tbr review
committing a huge act of bravery (reading this even though it contains one of the worst sounding words in the english language)
this was the least enjoyable read ever. but it was brilliant.
the exploration of what we owe to each other, and especially of what women owe, what wow.
this was the least enjoyable read ever. but it was brilliant.
the exploration of what we owe to each other, and especially of what women owe, what it means to be a mother and a daughter and if we have any choice in being either, was excellent and — to my experience — one of a kind.
wrenching and disturbing and sad and clever and just very, very good.
bottom line: the best thing a book can be is short literary fiction....more
it's hard for a book this short to be way too much. but here we are.
this was goofy and fun and then it was less goofy and fun and then there was a 3 pit's hard for a book this short to be way too much. but here we are.
this was goofy and fun and then it was less goofy and fun and then there was a 3 paragraph description of poop and then it was unadulterated suffering for every remaining page.
this book was incredibly dark, bordering on gruesome, and absolutely eerie in how much it stuck with me. in a word it waoof.
this might have killed me.
this book was incredibly dark, bordering on gruesome, and absolutely eerie in how much it stuck with me. in a word it was stunning.
the writing hit me hard, as did the characters and their stories.
this book is not for the faint of heart, and now i am questioning whether my ol' cardiac system is insert-antonym-for-faint or not!
it wouldn't be an emma review if i didn't throw a complaint or two in, and true to form there were moments in this book that felt weaker than others: (view spoiler)[the twist, which felt trite and out of place, even unnecessary, and the mother's diary, which felt...also those (hide spoiler)].
but overall this was striking and powerful, and i can't wait to read the author's other book.
bottom line: the fact that i barely indulged in my usual focusing on the negative says it all!
------------------ tbr review
i don't have anything to say about this beyond how excited i am to read it.
(and also thanks to the author for the arc)...more
"darkly humorous, surprisingly poignant, and utterly gripping"...me when i lie!
in some ways, i feel bad for this book, which has been totally mismarke"darkly humorous, surprisingly poignant, and utterly gripping"...me when i lie!
in some ways, i feel bad for this book, which has been totally mismarketed...but in more ways, i feel bad for me, because i had to pick this up and hate every second of it.
and also, i had to both discover a dream job (this is about a guy who works in hell trying to get people to sell their souls to the devil!) and have it stolen from me (this is very boring) in one fell swoop.
that is life-changing, tragic-past, mean-guy-in-romance-novel-revealing-his-backstory level trauma.
i thought i was getting a goofy book about hell, à la the good place or layoverland, and instead i got roughly 7 pages of that and then 900 chapters of teenage trauma and pedophilia, respectively.
two plotlines i thought would be be at least related, if not interesting, that managed to be neither.
bottom line: the real hell was the book we read along the way.
if you write one book i give five stars, you're stuck with me forever. i'm like a barnacle in that way. or a stalkerif you write one book i give five stars, you're stuck with me forever. i'm like a barnacle in that way. or a stalker...more
this is categorized as horror, fiction, contemporary, thriller, magical realism, fantasy, literary fiction, and mystery.
even crazier: it actually IS athis is categorized as horror, fiction, contemporary, thriller, magical realism, fantasy, literary fiction, and mystery.
even crazier: it actually IS all of those things.
this is a wild and weird and one of a kind book that's as repulsive as it is immersive. i would have read it no matter what because it's by the author of the strange and unforgettable bunny and also that cover, but what a pleasant surprise to have found it so worthy of the legacy of its predecessor.
i like to cover up this trait of mine with various charming eccentricities, such as self-deprecating humor, existential enni am incontrovertibly vain.
i like to cover up this trait of mine with various charming eccentricities, such as self-deprecating humor, existential ennui, and a general hatred for every single aspect of the universe up to and including Me...but it is there.
how else could i be so present on this website, doing nothing but spouting opinions as the populace cries for mercy?
and so i am able to understand, empathize with, relate to, and using various other synonyms comprehend this book.
i, too, am often so impressed by my own ideas that i forget to do anything at all.
and similarly, i liked what this book was trying to do. if only it didn't spend so much time metaphorically gazing at its own synopsis in the mirror and found time to actually pull it off.
this is, ostensibly, a YA mystery/thriller involving a girl with a dead mom (of course) who begins working at the mysterious (read: literally never described and profoundly unrealistic) glorified country club in her town. it intends to use the whole, you know, plot as a means of commentating on stuff like Feminism and What It Means To Be A Girl and Pretty Privilege (or reverse pretty privilege). also, it's sapphic.
all of this stuff is fun and sounds interesting, but unfortunately we never really get there.
on top of all that, the pacing is just all wrong. part one feels like it should be one third of the book (background! character establishing! etc.!) and instead we're well past the 65% mark by the time we start hitting the big leagues. the plot, the climax, the Significance...all of it just felt off.
bottom line: this feels like the tiktok version of itself. kind of obvious, very self-indulgent, and above all shallow and disappointing.
------------------ currently-reading updates
love to receive an advance copy of a book and then forget i have it until it is no longer advance
(thank you to netgalley for it. and sorry)
------------------ tbr review
if i don't read at least one (1) good thriller this summer i'm going to explode...more
i don't wanna call the collective internet a bunch of cowards, but...this was on Easy Mode. thisthis is what everyone was so freaked out about?
sheesh.
i don't wanna call the collective internet a bunch of cowards, but...this was on Easy Mode. this was no level of freaky at all.
anyway.
i think it's interesting to consider the lives of people who have to moderate social media content, but this book didn't have much going on beyond that. it couldn't even commit fully to its thesis - that this type of life would make normal people evil - so it felt not only pointless, but pretty boring.
not the stuff of nightmares i thought i was signing up for.
when i was a child i had a recurring nightmare that i had to cross a large forest in the pitch-dark night, completely alone, knowing that there were dwhen i was a child i had a recurring nightmare that i had to cross a large forest in the pitch-dark night, completely alone, knowing that there were dangerous figures just out of the reach of my vision and just beyond the narrow path, and when i had finally reached the outskirts and considered myself safe, i would suddenly notice the eyes of the wicked witch of the west peering out at me. eventually i would see this last image every time i closed my eyes to sleep.
anyway.
what i am trying to say is there is nothing in this life scarier than the goddamn woods.
and also that i was inexplicably afraid of the extremely goofy villain from a hundred year old movie.
and also, yes, this spooked me out a bit.
most of this was kind of Blah, but the last 25% was pretty spot on what i wanted it to be - weird, eerie, perturbing. thematically complex (lots of mother/child stuff here!).
there is nothing in this life i love more than a creepy fairytale.
except i should have included that i love creepy fairytales that feel, you know, likthere is nothing in this life i love more than a creepy fairytale.
except i should have included that i love creepy fairytales that feel, you know, like fairytales. or even, to be more general and (you would think) forgiving, like stories.
that is not quite what we have here.
tragically, for me, because i am addicted to pleasure and do actually want to like everything even though i have a heart filled with hate, it could not have been more obvious that this is a collection of authors used to writing 400 page books trying to write a 25 page story. almost everything felt half-baked or flat or overly ambitious, and these varied a lot in basic quality.
but damn i love a spook! i love eerieness! i wanted to like these more than i did, and still i didn't hate them!
things i don't like: sister drama. boredom. maybe vampires?
the second i heard this book was vampire gothic horror set in the 90s, things i like: gore.
things i don't like: sister drama. boredom. maybe vampires?
the second i heard this book was vampire gothic horror set in the 90s, i was like...gimme.
but now i'm in the midst of an existential crisis, questioning everything about myself. in spite of my inhuman ability to rewatch the twilight franchise multiple times a year...do i dislike vampires? in spite of my sensitive stomach and physical rejection of all things gross...do i like gore? and in spite of the world-record-breaking excitement indicated by "vampire gothic horror in the 90s"...was this boring?
or maybe this book just wasn't for me.
one or the other.
bottom line: another thing i dislike - being disappointed by anticipated releases.
Usually, reviews have a central point that's about "plot" or "characters" or "writing." You know, one of the core cGuys, I have to tell you something.
Usually, reviews have a central point that's about "plot" or "characters" or "writing." You know, one of the core components of a book. Something that would do what we like to call make sense.
And this book is good, and it's not a cancelable offense, and in fact it's just something amusing and weird, but I can't stop thinking about it all the same.
Because the thing is, in the first 50ish pages of this alone, our protagonist is knocked or bumped into by another person no less than FIVE TIMES.
And also multiple other times after that.
I can't think of why this happens so often, other than to take the place that characterization normally would.
Sorry! That was mean. I don't even think that, necessarily, maybe.
This has a lot in common with Ace of Spades, but centers around the recent spate of hate crimes against Asian-Americans. The writing isn't quiiite as good as AoS, but this is entertaining and packs a real punch. It's important reading that also manages to be readable, even if its conclusion ultimately is a bit over the top.
And includes a lot of falling over, for some reason.
Bottom line: Go ahead and fall...into this book? I don't know.
------------ pre-review
always promising when i forget to mark a book as read.
review to come / 3.5 stars
------------ currently-reading updates
hopefully these lies will be more interesting than mine (which mostly center around how many cookies i eat)
update: it has come to my attention that my original review of this sucks and is poorly phrased. i meant to say that i found this book to be trying toupdate: it has come to my attention that my original review of this sucks and is poorly phrased. i meant to say that i found this book to be trying too hard to be edgy, and that i think the point it's trying to make about factory farming is heavy handed, and that i think humans are more good than bad.
but i didn't succeed in conveying any of that, so i deleted it.
sorry!
---------------- currently-reading updates
quick word of advice:
i picked this one up to start during my lunch break today.
don't do that.
---------------- tbr review
don't mind me, just adding another hot girl book to my to-read list...more
I have a sort of whimsy to me, I never want to grow up, I am naturally suited to leading a ragtag group of I'm like the Peter Pan of being unpleasant.
I have a sort of whimsy to me, I never want to grow up, I am naturally suited to leading a ragtag group of people younger than me (I was a camp counselor for many years).
And also I am a huge hater.
In other words, I had to read this book for a workplace book club, and I hated it both because it's not good and because I abhor grown-up activities of any kind.
But I'll try to focus on the book. Seeing as this is a "review of it" and all.
This shindig involves some truly stunningly bad writing.
This book doesn't understand its own characters - some, if not most, of these actions have no explanation whatsoever. When the story ends and it's wrap up loose ends time, there is both a moment in which our narrator literally says the bad guy's actions are inexplicable, AND a moment when she destroys her own characterization.
In fact, the ending is so bad, so immoral, so unintentionally convincing of our main character's soullessness and her stupid boyfriend's, that it made me consider other more interesting plot points, like me killing all of them in the first cross-fiction murder spree in history.
The single most readable bit in the whole thing is when it accidentally implies a plot twist that would create a story line approximately 100,000 times more interesting than the one we actually have, and even though in any other context I would have thought it was lame I gasped with joy and gratitude.
But no. It was just misleading.
If only.
Bottom line: Everything is bad.
----------------- pre-review
reading this for my work book club. this is the most adult thing i have ever done
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