on top of that gift from the universe, i found this to be so thoughtful and inteme and this book have the same birthday :)
and that's not the only pro!
on top of that gift from the universe, i found this to be so thoughtful and internal. i love the pleasant surprise of spending a couple of hundred pages inside the head of a protagonist i find clever and interesting. there is almost nothing i enjoy more than reading fictional thoughts and pausing occasionally to google the art that passes through them!
this does a weird thing with perspective, spends time switching POVs without warning or explanation for a couple paragraphs at a time, that i could have done without, but otherwise i had a great time.
bottom line: i predict more teju cole in my future.
they say don't judge a book by its cover, and yet doing that with this one got me a read that's nice inside and out.
another loss for cliché users out they say don't judge a book by its cover, and yet doing that with this one got me a read that's nice inside and out.
another loss for cliché users out there.
this book, which ambitiously covers topics like the prison system, addiction, sexuality, parenthood, and atonement, does so simply but effectively. as someone who likes a lot of the action in my reading to happen behind the scenes and between the lines, if you will, it wasn't quite my cup of tea at points, but it was well done all the same!!!
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.
keeping up my streak of reading exclusively Contemporary Literary Fiction On The Connection Between Mothers And Daughters In Childhood Compared To Adukeeping up my streak of reading exclusively Contemporary Literary Fiction On The Connection Between Mothers And Daughters In Childhood Compared To Adult Life.
why mess with what works.
i truly cannot stand, 99% of the time, when books split themselves in half. i rarely find dual timelines, or multiple perspectives, or any variation on Back And Forth necessary, and almost always i prefer one to the other and that makes me hate both.
this was no exception.
usually in books that flash between the current day and childhood, i detest the childhood section — there's just something about lit fic attempting to Poetically render a kid to the page that drives me nuts.
in this case, it was the opposite — i found the past to be captured in detail, full of emotion and disturbing images and reality, and the present day to be a frustrating and overdramatic afterthought.
this book is like baking brown butter chocolate chip cookies and eating a whole tray, or getting your hgirls can have a little petty theft, as a treat
this book is like baking brown butter chocolate chip cookies and eating a whole tray, or getting your high school part time job paycheck and immediately spending it on a frozen coffee drink and 8 interchangeable crop tops from american eagle.
in other words it's too much of a good thing.
this is like gossiping for almost 400 pages. it has moments of gleeful "oh my god i can't believe she said that," but it doesn't have much else. it's never interested in going deeper than that.
i love to gossip but even i throw in a "i don't want to be mean" from time to time for good measure.
bottom line: you can't have your cake and eat it too. apparently....more
brb, mom. heading to the goblin market. going to fall in love with a girl with like, corduroy skin and a spine made of thorns and have a chunk torn oubrb, mom. heading to the goblin market. going to fall in love with a girl with like, corduroy skin and a spine made of thorns and have a chunk torn out of my shoulder via teeth. see ya later
anyway.
i was obsessed with this and read like 200 pages in a sitting and it took me 2 days to get through the next third.
the pacing was weird!!! and not in the goofy weird mythical creature way i expected and/or would have been delighted by. it flashed back and forth between the past and the present, one of those books that's half flashback, and while normally i hate the flashbacks this time i preferred em!the stakes just...never felt very high in the current day.
like...if your guardian is letting you get bit by a goblin how unsafe is it.
but overall i thought this was a huge improvement over the author's debut stylistically and in content and i love feeling optimistic!
it's like a tropical for my dark twisted nihilistic brain.
bottom line: goblins!!!!!!!
3.5
---------------- tbr review
sapphic star-crossed lovers in a horror-fantasy spooky goblin market?? am i dreaming
i requested an ARC of this on netgalley with great haste and love in my hearthello mtv and welcome to insanity.
this is THE WEIRDEST book of all time.
i requested an ARC of this on netgalley with great haste and love in my heart, because it's set partially in the boston public library, otherwise known as the single greatest place in the world.
i am a dramatic person with a flair for believing everything to be a sign from the universe, so i thought my liking this was ordained.
au contraire.
but let's back up.
this is a book within a book, kinda: an author is writing a murder mystery. half the book is the murder mystery (which follows four lame, boring friends, 2 in college and 2 grown ass people who should have something better to do, who witnessed - except not really - a murder in the BPL) and the other half is emails the author is receiving from her writing buddy, a full on loser.
the full on loser in question is based in boston, whereas our dear author is in australia (?), so a big part of this is that every chapter ends with an email intended as an unsolicited consultation on All Things American.
this would be kind of boring and weird even at the best of times, but it is truly made one of a kind in that the loser friend has a roughly 50% accuracy rate on his advice and corrections. "americans say cell phone, not phone!" he says in one email. (i always say phone). have your character say "i'm on the subway!" he adds in the next sentence, when it's (FAMOUSLY) called the T in boston.
i was waiting for this to be made a part of the story - turns out he's a freak who was never in america at all, or something! - but no. it was just error after error, as it turns out.
anyway. this has the pacing of a cozy mystery with the darkness and goriness of a thriller, derogatory. it's a combination that absolutely won't work for me, and the amount of ham-handed social commentary from immigration to US politics to the pandemic that's thrown in doesn't help.
worst of all, these characters are unbearable - oddly flat while omnipresent. there's no excuse for each of the friends having 1-2 personality traits when there are fewer sentences they don't show up in than do. they read cartoonishly, and their insta-love fixation on each other is bizarre to witness.
don't even get me started on the actual insta-love.
add in a lame reveal and a silly villain and we have a true nightmare on our hands!
every single thing i heard about this book was "it wasn't what i thought it would be."
and still i'm like...huh. that wasn't what i thought it would beevery single thing i heard about this book was "it wasn't what i thought it would be."
and still i'm like...huh. that wasn't what i thought it would be!
i am, like any self-respecting citizen, addicted to heist plot lines. they're the best. i once thought i had feelings for someone because we watched heist movies every time we hung out, and then the heist movies were removed from the equation and there were no feelings whatsoever.
in other words, i feel genuine romantic love for heists.
relatedly, i think most people dislike this book (or felt disappointed by it) because it's not really a heist story, and because the heist(s) there are are very rudimentary and not so fun.
and by most people, i mean me.
so this bait and switch (lol) momentarily upset me, betrayed me, destroyed my trust and love in the universe and those around me, but once i recovered somewhat...
the themes that take up the page count that the heists otherwise would have (if i designed the entire world) were enough for me! the explorations of diaspora and colonization, of cultural and personal identity, were fascinating and well done, imo.
where we have a problem (because this is me, and of course there is a problem) lies elsewhere.
namely, in the flat characters, the suddenly-there romances, and the annoying writing style.
there were so many descriptions teeming with that "she was all thighs and eyelashes," "he was all confidence and cologne," "he was all ___ and ___" sentence structure i abhor.
there were so many chapters than began or ended with corny, declarative sentences: "this was growing up. this was the future shifting. this was history."
and i get the theme of what home means that was happening here, but if i have to read one more interchangeable harvard or galveston description i will ensure both are permanently closed.
i guess in the end, this felt like a very promising debut to me, but there was no moment i could forget it was a debut.
sorry if that's b*tchy.
bottom line: the real heist was the expectations we lost along the way.
2.5
------------ currently-reading updates
a heist story about Chinese college students stealing back art from colonizer museums? i'm so excited about this i don't even know what to do with myself. what do i normally do with my hands?!...more
You see, my favorite YA series ended, and then it got a spinoff, like a beautiful wonderful gift from the gods specificalI have an enemy on the loose.
You see, my favorite YA series ended, and then it got a spinoff, like a beautiful wonderful gift from the gods specifically designed to help me, personally, avoid the worst part of life: endings.
And the spinoff, sure, followed my least favorite characters and had an awful title and an even worse cover, but then somehow I loved it.
And then it got a sequel!
And yes, the sequel had the worst title and cover I have experienced in my short life, making the last book seem like a work by Ocean Vuong (great titles, famously) in comparison, but it also took place in my favorite city (Boston), centered around my favorite place (the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum), and was chock full of the kind of art and culture and history fun facts I'm obsessed with.
So...a dream scenario.
And then I did not like it at all.
In fact this is easily my least favorite Extended-Raven-Cycle-Universe book and possibly my least favorite Maggie Stiefvater book. Even the terrible boring corny vampire ones had a certain charm.
To create such a perfect situation only to destroy my hopes and chances of happiness is, to put it simply, nemesis behavior. Person responsible, come forward, so we can begin a life of nefariousness and malfeasances.
This is just not a good book.
It's fragmented as hell. There are about a hundred perspectives, and none of them have a strong or unique voice. The plot was completely incoherent, with no real pacing or time to connect to any characters or story-lines. Relatedly, the new characters felt flat and dry, and even our Old Standard established characters felt wrong.
And yes, I will be reading the next one.
Bottom line: This was bad. Now I'm onto more important issues (read: vengeance).
--------------- pre-review
the worst cover yet, the worst title yet, and the worst time i've had yet.
review to come / 2 stars
--------------- tbr review
turns out these books can have horrible covers and humiliating titles and i'll just...keep reading them...more
For me, it's a combination. It's a little bit how I felt about a book while I was reading it, but it's mostly how IHow do you give a five star rating?
For me, it's a combination. It's a little bit how I felt about a book while I was reading it, but it's mostly how I feel about it after. If I'm unable to stop thinking about it: five stars. If it leaves a mark on my brain I can't shake: five stars. If it changes the way I think, even if it's a subtle tone shift, even if it doesn't last very long: five stars.
This is why most of my five star ratings come out of books I initially four starred, or four-point-five starred, or refused to rate.
Because in the other case, I five star a book impulsively based on how much I liked reading it, but I don't come out of it thinking much at all.
Like in the case of this.
I couldn't put this book down. It's beautifully written, I connected with our protagonist hard, I adored the setting (BOSTON I LOVE YOU!), it ate me up while I read it. And for a day or so after, I did wish I was still reading it, because I am constantly in search of that feeling. It's why I read so much. (Too much, you could say, if you wanted to give my branding a boost. #emmareadstoomuch)
But now, a month later (exactly!), I'm left not feeling much. I remember this book, sure, but in the way you remember a conversation you had a few weeks ago or a mundane dream. In a surface-level, simple remembrance way. It didn't leave a mark.
So: dropping to four point five rounded down it is!
Bottom line: Reading is weird. But the best weird thing.
----------------- pre-review
oh, no. i couldn't stop reading this book and now i'm finished and it's 2 am.
review to come from a sleepy me / 5 stars i think (dropped to 4.5 upon reviewing)
----------------- tbr review
give me all the literary fiction with boston settings...more
To be honest, I don’t even know why I’m bothering to review this.
There is no scenario in which I am a more trusted source than Obama, Oprah, the New YTo be honest, I don’t even know why I’m bothering to review this.
There is no scenario in which I am a more trusted source than Obama, Oprah, the New York Times Book Review, and the Goodreads Choice Awards combined, and if they’ve all already told you to read this (which they have) then I don’t know why my recommendation would push this whole thing over the edge for you.
If I am a more trusted source than all of those, then I just don’t know what to tell you. Besides the fact that I’m concerned for us both.
But here we are, so. Introducing: My thoughts. My thoughts are: that this is a very good book.
Truly groundbreaking stuff, I know.
But really - it’s worth the hype. And this is coming from the girl who’s one-starred so many popular books she has an “unpopular opinions” shelf with hundreds of books on it.
Can the New York Times Book Review say that?
Maybe I should be the more trusted source.
Anyway. This is not only beautifully written (and it is beautifully written), it’s stunningly recollected too. The emotional intelligence of the author is so vivid in every page. There is so much empathy here.
This is already an incredible, gorgeous story, with a profound and impactful arc, but the talent of the author is what really makes it masterful.
Bottom line: This is good sh*t.
(You don’t get that kind of blurb from Oprah.)
---------- pre-review
oprah was right.
review to come / 4.5 stars
---------- tbr review
all it takes to convince me to read a book is 500,000 ratings with a 4.48 average + a Goodreads award + tons of nominations + the New York Times, Barack Obama, Oprah, and every major publication naming it one of the best of the year.
I read this book in one sitting on a train ride. And that’s about all I can definitively say at this point.
That train ride took place in November, whI read this book in one sitting on a train ride. And that’s about all I can definitively say at this point.
That train ride took place in November, which is to say two months ago. As I’ve said before, kids: Learn from my mistakes!!! Don’t tell yourself you can write a review later when you haven’t taken notes!!!!! Because then you’ll be forcing yourself to write about a book you can’t remember after sixty-plus calendar days have passed!!!!
I had pretty high expectations for this. It’s got a 4.52 average rating as I write this, for one thing. It follows a teenage female con artist, and if you wanted me to sum up my aesthetic in four words it would also be that. And it’s a YA thriller. I love YA (kinda); I love thrillers.
So. Where did we go wrong here?
This book isn’t creepy or thrilling or scary so much as unsettling. A lot of that stems from my number one central massive biggest disappointment of this book: that teenage con artist isn’t so much a con artist as a desperate, lonely girl who wants a family.
A lot less fun that a (Michael Jackson voice) smooth criminal.
She’s soooo damaged and broken, and that’s done really well. So again: unsettling. But I wasn’t really out here for unsettling.
There’s also much more emotional manipulation in this book than there is, like, things that are scary or jumpy or bad. There’s one major plot twist, and it’s a great one, but it comes smack dab in the middle and the book only gets less thrilling from there.
We covered Jo, the broken lonely main character. There’s also Temple, who could have been the teenage mastermind I was looking for but was instead a complete emotionally manipulative brat. And not the fun-to-read-about kind. The parents were blah, and Jo’s boy-prostitute ex-luuuuuhvah, Wolf, is also a bit o’ a bore.
But there are some good things. That twist, for one. Plus, that aforementioned train ride was to Boston, which was a blast because that’s where this book takes place. The setting was pretty good, I thought. Felt Boston-y. Fun insider-y things.
It was a quick read, and it wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, which seems kind of crazy since the average ratings for Kim Savage’s other books are 3.26 and 2.85 (ouch). It’s even really well-written.
But the synopsis is misleading. If you’re looking for a genius protagonist, a great con, a twisty thrill ride - you’re in the wrong place. If you want a story of a broken girl and the emotional manipulation she falls prey to, with one great twist, then you’d probably be veryyyyy into this.
Still, that isn’t what I wanted. And it’s not really what I like. So even though this book isn’t bad, the reading experience kinda was.
Bottom line: THEY SHOULD LET ME REWRITE THE SYNOPSIS FOR THIS BOOK. I’ll try to be nice. Pinky promise.
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