i can recall many in my life. when i was 13, for example, and i thought that the height of fashion was a graphic twe all have our periods of delusion.
i can recall many in my life. when i was 13, for example, and i thought that the height of fashion was a graphic tee that said AEROPOSTALE in huge letters on the front, paired with a simple and understated pair of black fake uggs.
or most of my childhood, which i spent convinced i was destined to marry either joe jonas (the obvious best of the brothers) or my neighbor who once threw a snowball directly at my face — whoever showed up first.
or when i read this book, which i recalled as being cute and fluffy and one of the only romances i have ever given five stars, and lent to my mom.
this book IS cute and fluffy, in many ways, and talia hibbert Does It Again.
BUT THIS BOOK ALSO CONTAINS MANY, MANY MENTIONS OF A GIANT, COLORFUL, VERY ACTIVE DILDO.
AND I LENT IT TO MY MOTHER.
in fact, i generally misremembered this book, which is no longer 1 of 2 romances i've ever given five stars. it is funny, and it is fun, but it isn't the things i require in my perfect love stories (namely, mostly yearning and suffering). it is mostly silly and sexy.
and there is nothing wrong with that.
unless, and i can't stress this enough, you are thinking of book recommendations to give your poor, sweet, innocent mother.
bottom line: sorry mom.
(sidenote: this has been another installment of PROJECT 5 STAR)
---------------- original review
(view spoiler)[Do you ever have the food you've been craving at exactly the moment you're craving it?
That fasting-for-Thanksgiving feeling of finally sitting at the table, except for if turkey and canned cranberry sauce were ever everything it's cracked up to be. So more like pizza by the slice in the salt air and setting sun of the boardwalk after a day on the beach, or takeout-dim-sum pork buns and scallion pancakes when you've forgotten to eat and are suddenly hollow-stomached, or FINALLY experiencing the toothachey sugar of a warm cinnamon roll, which always take like eight times longer to make than expected.
That's what reading a good romance feels like after dozens of mediocre ones.
This is a perfect romance, for me.
I loved the brash kind protagonist. I loved the shy rough around the edges sweet love interest. I loved the fun dialogue, I loved (for once in my life!) the steamy scenes, I loved the complicated loving family, and I loved watching these two miscommunicate and yell and fall in love.
I blushed, I smiled, I heart-hurted, I winced. It's everything I want.
I thought the first book in this series was good. I thought the second was not. This was something else altogether.
I hope this holds up on reread.
Bottom line: Enemies to lovers wins again! (hide spoiler)]
The best things in the world are as follows: - when you perfectly toast a bagel. I mean we all know how easy it is to underdo that bad boy so it’s stilThe best things in the world are as follows: - when you perfectly toast a bagel. I mean we all know how easy it is to underdo that bad boy so it’s still a weird squishy bread circle or even more likely, burn that baby till it’s glorified charcoal but when you really find that sweet spot...(chef’s kiss) - baking cookies and then eating them while they’re still warm, and then you eat a whole tray because if you made them they don’t count as caloric - genuine, believable enemies to lovers where you really feel them fall in love and also it’s funny and also everything is perfect.
Aka this book.
Because I am extremely picky about books and am disappointed by most of what I read, I like to do this very adorable and charming thing where when I like one thing, I assume I will like everything that is similar to it.
I very much enjoyed The Hating Game (possibly to an extent in which I compared myself both to a jack o’lantern and a gif from Disney’s Tangled in my review, I don’t know, who’s to say), and so I assumed I would like every rom-com. Especially ones that were actually funny.
Especially-especially of the enemies to lovers.
And, like the new Star Wars movie and orange-flavored Skittles and every other disappointing thing, that was not to be.
But finally, FINALLY, my suffering has been rewarded.
Because...dare I say it…
This book is better than The Hating Game.
I KNOW.
Look at us. Hey! Look at us. Who would’ve thought?
Not me.
This is The Hating Game in terms of tropes and plot and the overall yay-falling-in-love feeling it gives off, but with better characters. And more humor.
GOD. This is so funny it doesn’t make sense. Since when are books funny? When was the last time I truly laughed at a book and I wasn’t laughing out of all the anger and hatred in my cold dark soul?
Not sure. Well before this, I’ll tell you that.
But it wasn’t just a barrel of laughs my friends. It also made my heart hurt, but in the good emotional way where you’re like, oh my god...fools...just love each other...kiss already...except also don’t because the drama and conflict and miscommunication and will-they-won’t-they (they will) is the fun part.
Basically what I’m saying is: I don’t know how to love anything without being obsessed with it, and I already want to read this eleven more times.
Bottom line: I didn’t play Animal Crossing for this! ANIMAL CROSSING!!!
-------------- project 5 star update
welcome back to PROJECT 5 STAR, a project in which i revisit all the books i've ever given five stars, mostly out of cynicism and masochism, but in this case just as an excuse to reread the most perfect romance novel of all time.
simply rereading this so i can write a kickass review and not because i've been searching for a reason
-------------- pre-review
please don't tell anyone i burst into tears at the gushy part of this book. it'll ruin my bad-boy image.
review to come / POSSIBLY FIVE STARS
-------------- tbr review
just saw this quote from this book: “I’m a miserable cynic (a newer development) and a dreamy romantic (always have been), and it’s such a terrible combination that I don’t know how to tolerate myself” and instantly started reading it because girl if that ain't me...more
I love her so much that I knew if this book even made me think about her, I’d be a fan, but it did way more than that. I felt like I love Jenny Slate.
I love her so much that I knew if this book even made me think about her, I’d be a fan, but it did way more than that. I felt like I was in what appears to be the single most magical non-fictional place in all the world: inside Jenny Slate’s brain.
If you have so much as watched an interview of hers, it’s immediately clear that she sees the world in a way that is totally unique to her. It is such a gift to be able to see that perspective for 304 pages.
She uses language differently. Words are lovely and flowerlike and carefully selected. Images are clear and breathtaking. This is an extraordinary thing.
Now, for a small request.
I would like every book I read to be written by Jenny Slate, thanks very much.
Okay, fine, compromise. I at least would like her to write 100 more books.
I got one dose of the beautiful starlike lens through which she perceives everything and just one look through her perception is not going to cover it please and thank you.
This was so gorgeous that when I finished it I immediately wanted to restart.
Also now I want to again.
Bottom line: This is a perfect little book.
---------------- project 5 star
welcome back to PROJECT 5 STAR, an event in which i revisit books i used to love and see if i still do out of masochism or completionism or...something.
i feel (gag) hopeful about this one.
update: not to worry. STILL FIVE
---------------- pre-review
while i was reading this, i had to stop for a moment, close it, put it down, take a breath, and whisper to myself: oh, my gosh. i love this so much.
review to come / 5 stars
---------------- currently-reading updates
i am 11 pages into this book and i already know i've never read anything like it in all my life.
---------------- tbr review
i love jenny slate and i can't wait to have this book in my brain....more
Logically, it seems that maybe shorter books would be harder to love. You spend less time with the characters, the narrative complexity must be limited, you live in the world for a minimal amount of time.
But for the past few years, I’ve found that I’m more likely to adore short books. Maybe it has something to do with the incomprehensible length of so many young adult fantasy books I’ve read, which have no need or right to stretch so far past the four hundred page mark.
Or maybe I’m endlessly impressed by the power of some authors to touch me with the strength of their voices, their prose, their characters, their stories, in less than three hundred pages.
I had fallen in love with this book, for example, within a few dozen pages.
Salinger’s writing is glorious, Franny and Zooey and the Glass family leap off the page, I could spend unlimited volumes sprawled in the overcrowded living room of their glamorous unusual apartment. The ending hits like a physical strike. I was reading of both feelings I’d always had and never put into words and emotions I had never imagined.
I need a modern day Frankenstein - someone to wake Salinger up and tell him I need enough of the Glass family’s words to spend the rest of my life with.
I don’t care about the ethics.
Bottom line: Literally no one needs me to tell them this book is amazing, but it is and I’m saying it anyway.
---------- reread updates
welcome back to another installment of PROJECT 5 STAR, an excuse for me to revisit all my favorite books and feel joy again.
for once.
update: it worked!!!
---------- pre-review
this book feels like it was made for me in a lab.
review to come / 5 stars
---------- currently-reading updates
30 pages in and i am already absolutely in love with franny...more
This reality is fine and all, but if given the option (and I am choosing to give myself the option), I would much rather live in an island world of beautiful ocean landscapes and lovely giant birds and wonderful little inns and divine magical justice, thanks.
If this is not possible, I would be happy with any Katrina Leno world.
Because she is just fantastic.
I love these gorgeous flawed characters. I love the inn and I love the island. I love the way this FEELS - so, so real, which is my favorite way for magical realism to feel. On reread, some of the magic had been rubbed away, and I felt a little less in love, but no less enjoyment.
This is so atmospheric and beautifully written and sometimes funny.
I just wish the world we lived in was this world.
Bottom line: This slim little book is so powerful.
------------------ pre-review
it's another installment of PROJECT 5 STAR, a devious plan in which i ask for trouble by rereading books i've previously rated five stars.
let's see what happens.
(updated review to come / lowered slightly to 4.5)
------------------ tbr review
so the cover of this is cute + magical...and the first 50 pages are cute + magical...coincidence? i think not....more
this has been another installment of project 5 star, an ill-advised undertaking in which i reread books i at one time loved in order to test a) my affthis has been another installment of project 5 star, an ill-advised undertaking in which i reread books i at one time loved in order to test a) my affections and b) presumably my will to live.
this was a particularly nerve-wracking one, seeing as i do not remember anything about this book, least of all why i five starred it.
life does contain its pleasant surprises. allegedly. so i was ready. in a way. and this was fun! very fun.
but not a five star read.
it was fun (how many times can i say that), and cool and eerie, but it wasn't as fun or as cool or as eerie as coraline. this won't stay with me as long, sadly, and i think the lack of memorableness of character and story (although not setting) is what took this down from 5 to 3.5.
it must have hit me at quite a particular moment, back in 2017!
or maybe i just used to have a soul.
hard to imagine.
bottom line: a good time, but not a perfect world-changing memorable beloved 5 star time.
I just managed to get through a book - a whole freaking book - with no blatant sexism, racism, homophobia, girl-on-girl hate, instances of the beloved not like other girls trope, love triangles, flat characters, overused archetypes, that plotline where you discover your power and it’s consuming you, gag-worthy romance, weird writing quirks, overwrought emotion, social issues used to make it seem ~profound~, apocalyptically bad characters, or plot slowness. In the year of our Lord two thousand and seventeen.
I’m in shock. I have gotten so freaking used to hating books - and it’s not even that I choose to! It’s just...what are the chances of a book not containing one of those things? If you take my 2017 reading challenge so far as your not-so-random sample (I'm in a stat class, can you tell?), the chance is 2/36. Because out of the 36 books I’ve read this year, this is only the second I’ve given five stars. So I guess I’m really covering my bases on the negatives. No one can call me problematic, baby!
But anyway, there’s good news in that paragraph of sad - besides just how woke I am. The good news is that this book is essentially perfect. According to my tried-and-true method - the one that skyrocketed me to fame, you guys - The Graveyard Book just full on rocks in every category. So let’s go through those categories!
First, the setting. (If you somehow have managed to see this review without seeing my Caraval review, 1) congrats and 2) I’ve declared settings to be my favorite thing.) This book takes places in a motherf*cking graveyard, baby. (Let me know when I’ve said baby too many times. Oh, it already happened? Yeah, fair.) Anyway, graveyards are cool as hell. Setting a book there? Specifically in one with thousands of years of history and a historic monument on the grounds? Even cooler.
And you know what graveyards mean, guys. Ghosts. YES, I AM INTERESTED IN A BOOK THAT CENTERS ON GHOSTS. ANY BOOK. GIVE ME ANY GHOST BOOK. But especially one that starts off with a ghastly death. (That’s not a spoiler. It’s literally the beginning of the book.) Anyway, this is everything I love combined.
So, as I mentioned with an excess of enthusiasm a second ago, almost every character in this book is a ghost. Or at the very least, the type of creepy little thing that spends most of its time in a graveyard. (A handful of human characters who are probably Tim Burton fans included. It seems like Tim Burton fans would force themselves to hang out in graveyards just for the aesthetic. You feel me?) Anyway, it should go without saying that the characters are great. They’re graveyard inhabitants.
This book also has a little bit of magic in it. MAGIC, I SAY! A very cool kind of magic. It gives you a hint of the creeps when it happens. I’m not going to say any more than that! Read to find out, as my elementary school librarian would say.
Other than that...this book is bananas well written. An absolute pleasure to pick up. The title is great. (More books should just be named The Subject Thing. Like The LEGO Movie. That was a successful film. Take a hint.) Also fast-paced. Made me feel emotions. (A truly rare occurrence.) Cute ending. What more can I say?
Bottom line: READ THIS BOOK. READ IT READ IT READ IT. I never like anything and I loved this. (hide spoiler)]...more
this year, i'm trying to read more for Quality instead of Quantity (after nearly ruining my life last year reading 365 boowelcome to...PROJECT 5 STAR.
this year, i'm trying to read more for Quality instead of Quantity (after nearly ruining my life last year reading 365 books), and so part of that will include revisiting every book i've ever rated as perfect!
please join me in praying that this project is whimsical and optimistic instead of a devastating loss of all my favorites.
this is one of my earliest favorites, and i remember it almost not at all, and i am nearly certain it won't hold up.
but life is about adventure.
and ultimately this is just as simple and lovely as i remember, and just as much a part of my favorite cross-media subgenre (Everyday Life Is So Stunning And Magical In Its Mundanity), but it does have some weirdnesses i didn't recall.
still an enjoyable read!
bottom line: from a five star fav to a four star fav!
-------------------- original review
i love translated books and i read this in one sitting. i also love character-driven novels. i love this man, this happiest man on earth, and his simple story. initially i gave this 3.5, but i'm dumb. this is a 5 star read....more
welcome back to project 5 star, in which i ill-advisedly pick up books i remember fondly and put them to the test of my current evil mind.
and, well.
i'welcome back to project 5 star, in which i ill-advisedly pick up books i remember fondly and put them to the test of my current evil mind.
and, well.
i'd like to apologize for 18 year old me. she knew not what she'd wrought.
this does have moments of true loveliness and piercing observations of the human experience, but it is so weighed down in pretension and gimmicks that it's almost impossible to see to them.
it was actually all i could do to get through this book, which shifts between three perspectives that each manage to be as unreadable as the last. our characters — 18th century residents of a shtetl, a metafiction JSF, and a pathetic tour guide named alex — have the power to be memorable and real, but are only the former.
and not in a nice way.
sorry to the ex-boyfriend who bought me a signed first edition of this.
bottom line: people change! it's a bummer. kinda.
2.5
----------------- original review
(view spoiler)[when it's 1:20 a.m. and you're thinking about your favorite book of the year (so far) again and you realize you never posted your review and you just havetohavetohaveto let everyone know how much you loved it.
This book was incredible. Truly. I’ve taken the last hour or two to just kind of continue with my life and try to absorb that experience. Because even though I’ve been reading this book for almost three weeks (bananas long for me), it still feels like one cohesive experience.
I just want to quote this book to you, if that’s okay. Just for a hot sec.
“There is no love--only the end of love.”
Between a grandfather and a grandson: “(You have ghosts?) (Of course I have ghosts.) (What are your ghosts like?) (They are on the inside of the lids of my eyes.) (This is also where my ghosts reside.) (You have ghosts?) (Of course I have ghosts.) (But you are a child.) (I am not a child.) (But you have not known love.) (These are my ghosts. The spaces amid love.)”
Maybe quoting it wasn’t a good idea, because I want to give swaths of it to you all. I’ll end up trying to trick you into reading by including ever-lengthening passages.
These characters may very well stay with me for the rest of my life. Lovely Alex, with his love for his brother and his grandiose lies and his dashed dreams and his wonderfully terrible English (“Did you manufacture any Zs?”). The metafiction how-much-is-real Jonathan Safran Foer, dedicated to his notebook, staunch vegetarian. Brod and her 613 sadnesses, her love for everyone and everything and no one and nothing. The Gypsy girl whose heart broke for Safran, whom she did not love, and his books organized by the colors of their spines. The shtetl of Trachimbrod, its Trachimday and the Time of Dyed Hands and surname-initialed residents (Bitzl Bitzl R was my favorite).
This book sometimes gave me a feeling like my heart was swelling up. My hand twitched for a pencil or a Post-It while I read these lovely words, but I was always too absorbed and soon forgot what I was trying to remember to do. That feeling is why I read.
This was slow to start, and I almost--god forbid--DNFed it. Can you imagine? Even two-thirds in I contemplated three stars, sadly reminiscing on my vast love of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
I know this review isn’t of YA, or a book that’s “in” right now, or a new release. I still hope you guys read this and will consider picking it up, though. Because I want to live inside this book.
Bottom line: I don’t even know what to say. I so badly want you to read it. But if you do and you don’t like it, even when you get to the beautiful, beautiful last seventy-five pages, please don’t tell me.
curse the young adult romance industrial complex because why am i reading a nazi love story when i was promised a shapeshifting hitler assassin?
this dcurse the young adult romance industrial complex because why am i reading a nazi love story when i was promised a shapeshifting hitler assassin?
this disappointment was brought to you by PROJECT 5 STAR, an ongoing act of cynicism in which i put books i used to love to the test of my current cold and unfeeling heart.
this is a book i didn't remember which i read as an entirely different reader, when i was a teenager and hope sprang eternal. or something.
in other words, revisiting it was a recipe for disaster. or for masochism.
i see why teenage me liked this book, but it has all of the things that drive current me (the more important one) crazy: strange pacing, repetitive writing tics (she didn't have the heart. or maybe she had too much), a compulsory and annoying romance, an unearned plot twist, inauthentic-feeling historical fiction.
there was a time when i could look past all of that, somehow. but not now.
my heart is too wizened and my brain too critical to accept this sort of thing at my big age.
bottom line: i recommend this book to all teenagers with hearts of gold, and no one else....more
this is true even though chances seem high that he is quite pretentious (shoutout to that natalie portman i have a soft spot for jonathan safran foer.
this is true even though chances seem high that he is quite pretentious (shoutout to that natalie portman email correspondence, cringe both in content and in the fact that he thought they were in love because of it and left his poor wife (if she has a gofundme i'll truly donate. talk about a fate worse than death)).
it's true even though i've only read two of his books and will probably never know more than that.
and it's true in spite of the fact that in both books, his writing has been heavy-handed, and self-indulgent, and generally of the type of unrelenting style that makes it very difficult to lose yourself in the act of reading.
in short, this book is unbelievably, almost disarmingly pretentious, which is better at some points than others, but if you allow yourself to look past it and ignore certain perspectives entirely (yes that does mean half the book), it can still be a good time.
the flaws of safran foer's books — characters and scenes that border on the fantastical, a pervasive feeling of try-hard-iness (to coin a word) — are also their greatest strengths. in this book, this culminates in our dual points of view. oskar is so unforgettable, even if he is completely unrealistic, that it seems like an unforgivable crime that this book has other (far worse) perspectives.
but if you can ignore them, this book is a treat.
bottom line: this book is corny, and overwrought, and silly, and unrealistic, and i have a fondness for at least half of it anyway.
3.5
-------------------- original review
i reread this book as part of project five star, in which i reread old favorites and see if they're still favorites. the review from when this was one is below.
(view spoiler)[WARNING: EARNEST REVIEW AHEAD. Very genuine and emotional and generally gross.
I love Jonathan Safran Foer. I love him even though chances seem high that he is quite pretentious (have you read that New York Times piece made up of email correspondence between Natalie Portman and himself? Perma-cringe). I love him even though I’ve only read two of his books and may never read more than that. I love him even though absolutely the only thing I care to know about him is his writing.
When someone writes the way he does, there’s no response to have, for me, other than that.
The flaws of his books - characters and scenes that can border on the fantastical, a pervasive feeling of try-hard-iness (to coin a word) - are so easily overlooked. Not even, actually. I fell and fall so deeply in love with his writing that these things seem like positives too.
I like that our main character, Oskar Schell, feels a tad too big and vibrant for the world. It makes me love him harder, experience his too-big feelings more. I especially like his unbelievability because he’s surrounded by lovely mundanity: flawed but loving parents, countless beautiful and unremarkable people of New York.
I love, love, love his quest through the city to meet everyone he can with the last name Black. I like the impossibility of it, the various things that come together to make it “possible” when even those various things seem deeply unrealistic.
I like the sometimes-eye-rolly ways that the author plays with formatting and perspective and language. It doesn’t take me out. It wraps me up more.
Bottom line: I like all the things that make this book beautiful and completely one of a kind. Even the over-the-top things. (hide spoiler)]...more
this has been another installment of project 5 star, and the nightingale is the latest unlucky candidate: a book that a past, more loving version of mthis has been another installment of project 5 star, and the nightingale is the latest unlucky candidate: a book that a past, more loving version of me loved, confronted by the dark abyss that is my present-day heart.
once upon a time i called this book the mac + cheese of historical fiction, because it is cheesy and cozy and makes you feel satisfied. years later, i am pleased to confirm it is that.
what it is not is very accurate or even very good. it is readable and turn your brain off and kind of vaguely inspiring. it prompts emotions from you in the least intellectual way possible.
somewhere within me is still the 11 year old whose favorite book was kristin hannah's firefly lane. and while that book is better than this one, it still feels kind of the same.
however strange that is.
bottom line: more fun than it should be.
3.5
------------------ original review
(view spoiler)[this is the cheesiest, most fulfilling historical fiction. OH MY GOD IT'S THE MAC AND CHEESE OF HISTORICAL FICTION.
i'm a genius. a real lyrical writer of reviews, don't you think?
anyway. i need to reread this book soon. i don't want to say it was fun, because it wasn't. it's a real emotion-twister. but reading kristin hannah is a Very Particular Feeling for me and i always like doing it. kristin hannah is the writer that ties me to my middle school best friend (jesus, what happened to her? where is she now? Avery if you're reading this, hmu) and to my grandma (who is definitely not reading this. but can you imagine? it strikes fear into my soul).
also this is about sisters and i always love reading about sisters.
bottom line: this has a lot of clichés and inaccuracies and overwrought moments, and i love it. probably if and when i reread it i won't love it so much. but for now it's still a HELL YA from me.
(this is part of a project i'm doing where i write mini reviews of books i read a long time ago. how fun am i?) (hide spoiler)]...more
i loved this book when i was 17, but i have approximately 0 things in common with 17 year old me, except a raging sweet tooth and an enduring soft spoi loved this book when i was 17, but i have approximately 0 things in common with 17 year old me, except a raging sweet tooth and an enduring soft spot for the early one direction albums.
for many years i wanted to reread it, except i loved historical fiction then and have since realized i no longer can say that. aka this seemed like a recipe for disaster, even for me.
i mean, i did have a lot of trouble getting into this. it was beautifully written and the characters were wonderfully constructed, but i didn't feel emotionally connected until the last two chapters.
the ending was perfect and i always want to 5 star books with perfect endings, but i've also lost the charm that historical fiction used to have for me since reading this...a lot of conflicting emotions, but in short this will be 4.5.
and cloud cuckoo land is better.
bottom line: trying to be masochistic and it isn't working. this book is too good.
-------------- project update
welcome to...PROJECT 5 STAR.
this year, i'm trying to read more for Quality instead of Quantity (after nearly ruining my life last year reading 365 books), and so part of that will include revisiting every book i've ever rated as perfect!
please join me in praying that this project is whimsical and optimistic instead of a devastating loss of all my favorites.
i genuinely, truly, from the bottom of my cold and shriveled heart where very little other than hate and vitriol can possibly exist...love this book.
ai genuinely, truly, from the bottom of my cold and shriveled heart where very little other than hate and vitriol can possibly exist...love this book.
and it just seems that no matter how old i am or where i'm at or what i want from it, i still do. i first read this book in 2013, a time when i had braces and an enduring appreciation for a variety of teen pop sensations. neither of those have anything to do with why my feelings on this book would have changed, but i firmly believe they both had a significant impact on my evolving personality.
in 2013 also, notably, i was young and full of life. while i was still very tall, i was also little. emotionally speaking. and nice. i liked everything i read. (can you imagine.)
so suffice it to say that 15-year-old me and current me have very little in common. my teeth are metal-free. my heart is empty of celebrities. and i have one starred countless books that once were five stars.
but not this one!
11 years passed, i changed as a person, i apparently have all different cells or something, but guess what stayed the same.
if you guessed "my love for this book," you're today's winner.
ostensibly this is a YA contemporary romance, a subgenre which i used to read exclusively and now, despite my best efforts, seem to abhor. we follow allyson, who at the beginning is in a snoozefest teen tour of europe. she is one pair of glasses, a haircut, and a dream away from the 2000s movie style makeover that will reveal her to be hot the whole time when willem appears, a hot european guy who takes her on a Life Changing Weekend Sojourn to paris.
all of that is fun and fine and involves crepes, but it's not the good part. the good part is allyson.
she starts off the book very play-by-the-rules, very shy, very...boring. and her little parisian love story is nice and all, but it only takes up a fraction of the book. the rest of it is about allyson learning to take risks, to stand up for herself, and to live the life she wants to.
so maybe this book isn't perfect, but...i'm not open to that concept. because (CHEESY ALERT, I ADVISE YOU TO STOP READING HERE BEFORE WE BOTH GET EMBARRASSED): it is pretty goddamn inspiring. i hate to be emotional ever at all, both because it's off-brand for me and also just unpleasant, but...i can be the kind of snoozefest person allyson starts the book as. but all the best times of my life have been because of times that i wasn't!
as in, have happened when i was drunk. (just kidding! (kind of.))
i will finish by saying: willem is pretty hot in this book and all, and that’s a nice bonus, but what is really cool about this book is allyson.
bottom line: if you don't like this book you're wrong; allyson is my daughter; let's all go get drunk in paris and land some willems.
----------------------- project 5 star reread
welcome back to PROJECT 5 STAR, an undertaking in which i reread my favorite books and dare the universe to smite me by proving them lacking.
this one is especially auspicious as i read it (a book about a trip to paris) ahead of my own trip to paris.
AND IT REMAINS FIVE STARS.
(updated review to come)
----------------------- reread pre-review
AMAZING NEWS: I loved this book just as much rereading it as I did in twenty goddamn thirteen.
Like, 2017 me: Bitter vessel of hatred; one stars books she used to love; in the midst of a Reread Extravaganza that is going, on average, quite badly.
2013 me: Fifteen, enjoys the simple things in life, still has braces I think, mentally rates every book highly (doesn't have a Goodreads yet).
But those two selves form a lopsided Venn diagram. And in the needlepoint-small cross section of that diagram: a love for this book. And also for sweets.
I legitimately, earnestly, worry- and sarcasm-free can't wait to read the sequel.
Review to come!!!
----------------------- rereading updates
me most of the time: there's no cure for depression me when i remember this book exists: there's one cure for depression
below i said this is my favorite book i'll never reread.
i lied.
welcome back to PROJECT 5 STAR, in which i reread onetime favorites to see if they stilbelow i said this is my favorite book i'll never reread.
i lied.
welcome back to PROJECT 5 STAR, in which i reread onetime favorites to see if they still are, you know. favorites.
this one is not.
while ostensibly there was some teenage part of my life when this hit me like a punch in the heart, in this read i found it to be very uneven and unfeeling. it has moments of truly stellar writing, but at no point were the characters particularly memorable (prime example: even in my glowing original review, i can't remember anything about it), and at many points i thought this book was plodding along in search of a great point about humanity it wasn't really sure of yet.
there is a lot of world war two fiction in this world, and you could dedicate your whole reading career to that alone if you wanted to be very sad.
i still wouldn't recommend you pick up this particular one.
sorry!
bottom line: this was a very good book when i was 13. that's an okay thing to be!
------------------------ original review
(view spoiler)[this is my favorite book that i'll never reread.
the worst bit of that is that i don't remember this book well enough to do it justice here. but it's beautiful and devastating and human. it's masterful in a way that caught me off guard. there are elements of this story, like the perspective, that will stick with me for life. there are quotes from this book i want tattooed on me.
which is why reading I Am the Messenger and it not being great at all was like, whaaaaa? Markus, how you gonna not be magnificent suddenly? do you think it's ok to go from being quotable/brilliant/gently-holding-my-emotions-in-your-hands-like-play-dough-and-then-suddenly-squeezing-and-then-as-if-that-weren't-enough-taking-that-hammery-spiked-mallet-thing-people-use-to-tenderize-meat-and-hitting-them-over-and-over to eh? to weird quasi-profound-ness and gross romance?
non, merci.
but anyway.
bottom line: read this book and try to think zusak only wrote one perfect book, instead of the tragedy of his one-hit-wonder status.
(this review is part of a project i'm doing where i review books i read a long time ago, etc etc, does anyone read this, no one cares, and so on) (hide spoiler)]...more
Loading...
