The problem with books about deliberately annoying characters doing intentionally annoying things is that they're still annoying.
This, for example, isThe problem with books about deliberately annoying characters doing intentionally annoying things is that they're still annoying.
This, for example, is about an annoying teenaged girl who decides to use a gossiped-about mentally ill peer, deciding she will ~fix him~ in order to write a kickass application essay to...psychology school.
This is a not good thing. The author knows that, the reader knows that, the characters either know or come to know that.
That doesn't make it more fun to read about.
Likewise for the aforementioned teenaged girl assuming said to-fix boy (who is gay) is in (reciprocated) love with her boyfriend and attempting to hook them up.
And likewise for the expletive-ridden essay this girl ultimately writes about the whole thing.
Especially considering 90% of the book details these things happening, and the last little bit attempts to tie it all up and forgive it.
Bottom line: Annoying stuff is annoying!
--------------- pre-review
hm.
review to come when my primary thought isn't how annoying the audiobook voices were / 2.5
--------------- tbr review
thinking about stealing this title for my memoir
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reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
The thing about this life is that the good comes with the bad.
Work (bad) in exchange for money (good). Cooking (bad) in exchange for food (good). ReadThe thing about this life is that the good comes with the bad.
Work (bad) in exchange for money (good). Cooking (bad) in exchange for food (good). Reading David Levithan's parts in this book (bad) in exchange for getting to read Nina LaCour's (good).
Basically what I'm saying is that this year I learned I love Nina LaCour (by reading everything she's ever written) and that I do not care for David Levithan (by realizing that I've never liked anything he's ever written) and then I read this book by both of them and found that to be correct.
The end.
Bottom line: The good, the bad, the mediocre!
--------------- pre-review
a lot going on here and i didn't like it all but i liked enough of it.
review to come / 3ish stars
--------------- currently-reading updates
i am reading this book set during pride month...WHILE IT'S PRIDE MONTH. leveling up.
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reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
Just got word - there's a new set of the coolest possible things you can be. 1) very into Shakespeare (can quote at length in casual conversation) 2) unJust got word - there's a new set of the coolest possible things you can be. 1) very into Shakespeare (can quote at length in casual conversation) 2) unbearably pretentious 3) complicit in a murder with your group of friends
You might think that the coolest things you can be might include traditional things, like "in possession of a motorcycle" or "a New York-based artist with family money" or "on some sort of high school athletic team / squad designated to cheer on said team."
But you'd be wrong.
Dark academia knocks all of those things out of the water.
I loved this book very much, as I love anything that even slightly reminds me of The Secret History, and anything that invests me insanely in a set of annoying (at best) or criminal (at worst) characters, and anything with a plot so twisty and intense that it makes my heart beat faster, and anything whose ending I dread (even as I found the book less and less interesting as it went on).
This is not a perfect book, but books with all of those traits are in short supply. And far be it from me to turn away any dark academia options.
Beggars can't be choosers.
Bottom line: Tell me any book that can help me relive the high of this one for even a second.
--------------- pre-review
my heartbeat has been elevated for like...3 straight hours.
and that is very unusual because i do not work out.
review to come / 4.5 stars
--------------- tbr review
WAY behind on my dark academia quotas. i'm going to lose my Allowed To Be Pretentious And Everyone Finds It Charming badge...more
If you like: - very purple and try-hardy prose with a style that is immediately apparent, never lets up, and is what I would politely describe as "not If you like: - very purple and try-hardy prose with a style that is immediately apparent, never lets up, and is what I would politely describe as "not my cup of tea" - characters who call each other inexplicable...nicknames? Including girlfriends call each other by their full name, first and last, or parents who call their children by their last name, which is also their last name, or ex-wives and offspring and current wives all referring to their ex-partner/permanent father/present husband as their military title - adult novels that read like young adult novels but also don't - spending the first two-thirds of a book thinking it's a clear easy one star and then kind of liking the last third but not really and maybe you just like it because it's different and that's refreshing - cartoonish background characters with showy-not-telly relationships to the protagonist that don't make sense - cartoonish main characters with...marriage to the protagonist? but ALSO it's a showy-not-telly relationship that ALSO doesn't make sense? - 43 uses of the term "lonely creature" - disliking a book so much that even though a copy of it has been waiting for you to pick up your order in your favorite bookstore, you'd rather cancel the order entirely than get any pile of novels that includes this one then this is the book for you!
I, unfortunately, don't like any of those things.
Bottom line: Thank god I had my buddy read dream team to talk sh*t about this with. Otherwise I would have perished, probably. Or just been very annoyed.
Hard to say which is more likely.
--------------- pre-review
Tragedy Befalls Four Cutest Readers As Extremely Belated Buddy Read Called "Universally Disappointing"
review to come / 2 stars
--------------- currently-reading updates
if the contents of this book aren't as lovely as the cover i'm giving up.
buddy read it took us four months to get to with thedreamteam
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reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
Have decided to use the one moment of earnestness I'm allotted per year on this to say: I read for moments like this! Yes, I'm critical, yes, my most common rating is a 3 by a country mile, yes, I bring suffering to the timelines of us all:
But I'm willing to bet that when I want to give a five star - when a book is PERFECT and makes me FEEL and I love the CHARACTERS and it SURPRISES me...
Well, I bet my five stars feel better than your five stars.
This is like if Emily Henry wrote young adult paranormal horror, which is the greatest compliment I can give...any young adult paranormal horror.
It's funny, the banter is A+, the friendships are fantastic, there's some sweet little sapphic friends to lovers action, and it is so goddamn spooky I could perish.
What a dream.
Bottom line: I'm going to live forever!!!!!!!!
--------------- pre-review
what the hell? what the actual living screaming f*ck?
here is the accursed lowdown: i have decided to become a genius.
to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way thmy becoming-a-genius project, part 12.5!
here is the accursed lowdown: i have decided to become a genius.
to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day (in this case 2 a day - i'm allowed to break the rule because i made them) until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity.
this is 12.5 (and not 13) because this project is allegedly one in which i read the COLLECTED STORIES of authors, not one collection. so i'm reading back to back roxane gay, baby. completionist as hell.
DAY 1, PART 1: I WILL FOLLOW YOU i am embarrassed to admit i didn't really look into this book (i go into almost everything blind - more fun that way) and did not realize that this was a collection of short stories, not a collection of essays. this is a pleasant surprise. this story is very horrible in a way that is not...believable? this doesn't feel real, like real things that happened to real people. the "after" feels true but not the "before" or the "during." the writing, though. wonderful. rating: 3.5
DAY 1, PART 2: WATER, ALL ITS WEIGHT i mean...okay. rating: 3
DAY 2, PART 1: THE MARK OF CAIN guessing from the title alone this will be some fun, light reading. i, like...respect this story, i think? but i wonder if i will ever find one where the characters and their lives feel real to me. maybe a bit doom and gloom - this is only the third one. rating: 3.5
DAY 2, PART 2: DIFFICULT WOMEN weird placement for the title story but OK! this one didn't have characters or a story really and i finally really liked it. rating: 4.5
DAY 3, PART 1: FLORIDA hurray for another story without lasting characters or a narrative! rating: 3.75
DAY 3, PART 2: LA NEGRA BLANCA this was very horrible to read. good but very horrible. rating: 4
DAY 4, PART 1: BABY ARM all right. i am deeply hungover (spent last night wine drunk doing the following: watching a years-old super bowl; tweeting to bands like they're my friends; adding people on linkedin with overly familiar messages; questioning my sexuality) and i'm ready to rumble. also i might order domino's but that's up in the air. this was so weird but in a good way. i'm surprised roxane gay didn't like ottessa moshfegh's short story collection more. rating: 4.5
DAY 4, PART 2: NORTH COUNTRY drinking a Strawberry Parfait Breakfast Smoothie i forgot i bought. it's terrible. and so we beat on, boats against the current. sorry i'm treating this like a diary today. oh jesus this was way too nice. what the hell. why was this so nice. damn it roxane i can't deal with yearning today! rating: 4.5
DAY 5, PART 1: HOW ultimately i did order domino's yesterday, for anyone who is invested. i admire how much roxane gay is interested in both michigan and toxically close sister relationships. anyway i like this one. rating: 4
DAY 5, PART 2: REQUIEM FOR A GLASS HEART this was like...okay, this was like watching a critically acclaimed movie where you can sit there and be like "i understand that this is well done, even as it is not enjoyable for me to watch and is making me feel nothing." rating: 3
DAY 6, PART 1: IN THE EVENT OF MY FATHER'S DEATH i like this 50% more than i would have with a different title. it's a good title. rating: 3.75
DAY 6, PART 2: BREAK ALL THE WAY DOWN again! another one with no realness to it! it's so frustrating to me because i don't even know how to explain it in a way that will make sense. rating: 2.75
DAY 7, PART 1: BAD PRIEST really hoping this is the Fleabag kind of bad priest and not the Spotlight kind. although those are both in my top 10 favorite pieces of media. okay more the Fleabag kind thankfully but definitely not as hot. rating: 3
DAY 7, PART 2: OPEN MARRIAGE this is a one pager and a fun change of pace, especially considering my most common criticism of these stories. rating: 3.75
DAY 8, PART 1: THE PAT does anyone else remember that very short-lived TV show "The Slap"? easy winner for most unhinged trailer. anyway this title reminds me of that. obviously. i am obsessed with this story. it's f*cking brilliant. i don't even want to explain it, i just want everyone to read it. i guess i'll say this proves masterfully how little our pity for others has to do with them, and it does it in like 2 pages. rating: 5
DAY 8, PART 2: BEST FEATURES this one reminds me of the recent response to people who say things like 'dating is unpaid sex work': you don't have to date people you don't like. i guess the point of this story is that the protagonist feels like she has to, but i don't know. i just can't get into most of these characters. another good title though. rating: 2.75
DAY 9, PART 1: BONE DENSITY i really often dislike marriage stories, as a 23 year old who is still able to believe she's immune to it. the ending of this was pretty hit-you-over-the-head, to steal an -ism of my senior year english teacher's. rating: 2.5
DAY 9, PART 2: I AM A KNIFE sheesh. no thank you. rating: 2.25
DAY 10, PART 1: THE SACRIFICE OF DARKNESS lamer title than usual but okay. yeah i just didn't really like this one. not sure why. rating: 2
DAY 10, PART 2: NOBLE THINGS ditto for this one. maybe i'm just a grump. rating: 2
DAY 11, PART 1: STRANGE GODS this one is...mostly true? it's a lot to consider where the lines between reality and fiction intersect here. but i guess that's always true of stories. anyway. brutal and brilliant, this one. rating: 4
DAY 11, PART 2: PILGRIMS gah these stories are not easy. rating: 3.75
DAY 12, PART 1: WE ARE ALL SO HAPPY NOW so weird that some of these stories are impossible to feel anything about, and then some (like this one) appear so effortlessly provoking and immersive that i feel like i made the other ones up. rating: 4
DAY 12, PART 2: GLASS i get it and i don't. rating: 3.75
OVERALL this varied in quality like crazy for me!!! don't know what to do! don't know what to say! but i respect the stories even if i don't always like them so 3.5 it shall be!!! rating: 3.5
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reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
If you have ever thought I'm not an optimist, you're wrong.
What could be more optimistic than continually picking up books in the hopes I have completIf you have ever thought I'm not an optimist, you're wrong.
What could be more optimistic than continually picking up books in the hopes I have completely transformed, changing into a person who instead of being difficult and picky and annoying is suddenly sunshiney and just Enjoys Things?
But alas - it has not worked yet.
I wish I liked this!
There were cute parts of it - I liked the illustrations?
Oh god why can't I think of anything else I liked.
I wanted to like the characters, and the romance, but it just didn't click. I had a hard time getting through this because no part of it really grabbed me. I feel like these characters hated each other for a reason, and then liked / loved each other for no reason. Which is truly the opposite of what I want from my precious enemies to lovers trope.
It was also not the fluffy read I expected, which doesn't typically bug me, but seriously what is it with all of these books with rom-com-y covers and rom-com-y titles and rom-com-y synopses being full of darkness and tragic backstories and Coming Of Age?
Another day of gremlinhood it is, I guess.
Bottom line: I don't want to be a grump! It's just who I am.
-------------- pre-review
it turns out i have forgotten how to pick books i'll like.
review to come / 2ish
-------------- tbr review
well. it's not a great pun, but it is a title with a pun.
and i am firm in my reading-books-with-punny-titles policy.
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reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
Being a overly controlling, emotionless nerd, there are few things I love more than a pros and cons list.
I will take any excuse to make one. Such as Being a overly controlling, emotionless nerd, there are few things I love more than a pros and cons list.
I will take any excuse to make one. Such as this review, for example.
(I am so excited about this.)
Here we go!
Pro: - The art is cute.
Con: - Very confusing and kinda half done - The narrative felt like it came in stops and starts - This felt outside of the head of the narrator and not emotive in any way
Seems balanced to me.
Bottom line: I'm here for the cute art!!!
-------------- pre-review
cute. sweet. nice. yay.
review to come / 3.5 stars
-------------- currently-reading updates
love that the pressure i am putting on myself to read a book a day is actually giving me anxiety :)
relatedly: it's graphic novel time
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reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
This was so bad that I immediately deleted it from my precious brain.
Immediately I remember very little of this, because I hated it desperately and I This was so bad that I immediately deleted it from my precious brain.
Immediately I remember very little of this, because I hated it desperately and I wanted to never think about it again.
I do remember that the romance was Bad Vibes, including sex pressure, and the friendships were Bad Vibes, including a lot of lying and a lot of dramatic departures at the reveal of said lying, and the family stuff was Bad Vibes, including a newly dead member and an oblivious member, and the protagonist was Bad Vibes, mostly due to the fact that he was intolerably annoying and unbearably full of himself.
So I guess I do remember more than I'd like.
Bottom line: Not my favorite!
--------------
remind me not to do that again.
review to come / like 1 star? yikes
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going into this blind just because i like the title.
life: i live it on the edge.
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reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
for those not yet in the know - sorry for the negative impact this will have on your life, and: i have decided tomy becoming-a-genius project, part 12!
for those not yet in the know - sorry for the negative impact this will have on your life, and: i have decided to become a genius.
to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity.
last month, i read only books by asian authors, but i didn't think ahead enough and connect my genius project to that. this month, as i read only books with LGBTQ+ authors/rep, i will make NO SUCH MISTAKE.
these are essays, not stories, but still. i make the rules and i say it counts.
DAY 1: INTRODUCTION: FEMINISM (N) PLURAL i very very much liked this but also now "feminism" doesn't look like a word. rating: 4.5
DAY 2: FEEL ME. SEE ME. HEAR ME. REACH ME. this was kind of a weird mishmash of different things and felt all over the place. which is cool but maybe not ideal for the second entry in a collection of essays? i'm still trying to find my footing here, man. can't just throw me in the damn pool. (that happened to me once in my final year of swim lessons, which was the pre-swim team level. some lady literally pushed me into the pool. guess what? i didn't join the swim team.) (in fairness there is not a snowball's chance in hell i would've joined it voluntarily regardless, but amping up the scope of this trauma convinced my mom it would have been cruel and unusual to make me. so.) rating: 3
DAY 3, PART 1: PECULIAR BENEFITS i just realized there are like 42 essays in this story so...going to amp this up and read 2 a day. i don't have it in me to be reading the same book for a month and a half right now. this is, like...a good if not groundbreaking piece about privilege. rating: 3.25
DAY 3, PART 2: TYPICAL FIRST YEAR PROFESSOR i do not like the condescension toward what students wear in this - it's college? we're supposed to have grown out of high school dress code you're being distracting mentality. also it seems a little, uh, non-self-aware to use space in your essay collection about feminism to call out ways women don't dress appropriately in your eyes (sweatpants with words across the ass, bra straps exposed) that are actually kind of like. fine? anyway. if i'm not being persnickety and getting hung up on the contents of one paragraph i can admit i thought this one was very honest and sweet and good. rating: 4
DAY 4, PART 1: TO SCRATCH, CLAW, OR GROPE CLUMSILY OR FRANTICALLY "I approach most things in life with a dangerous level of confidence to balance my generally low self-esteem." goals tbh. turns out i enjoy reading about competitive scrabble. rating: 3.75
DAY 4, PART 2: HOW TO BE FRIENDS WITH ANOTHER WOMAN immediately i am nervous about this because never once have i needed instructions on this subject. this also fairly quickly includes the sentence "If you feel like it's hard to be friends with women, consider that maybe women aren't the problem. Maybe it's just you," which i agree with but also feels like an admission that this whole essay is pretty unnecessary. i don't know why i'm being grumpy. this is actually very sweet. rating: 4
DAY 5, PART 1: GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS the beginning of this i loved very much. i wish this was a little more autobiographical. then again i am addicted to memoirs, so it could be that. rating: 3.75
DAY 5, PART 2: I ONCE WAS MISS AMERICA this made me want to read the sweet valley high books, which is a statement i never expected to write. rating: 4
DAY 6, PART 1: GARISH, GLORIOUS SPECTACLES the first part of this is mostly talking about two books, but then i wanted to read the two books so i didn't want them spoiled for me, so i kind of skimmed it to avoid getting too much of the stories, but then the rest of it was using the lens just created using those two books to analyze reality TV, so i feel like i didn't quite get so much out of this as i could have. no rating
DAY 6, PART 2: NOT HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS this is an essay in large part about how silly it is to say a character is unlikable as a criticism of a story - which is also something i've been thinking about a lot lately. as i get older, i appreciate unlikable characters more, and also less and less often think of an unlikable character as a negative aspect of a story. this makes me want to go through every review i've ever written and redo it. also it excerpts the gone girl cool girl monologue, which is always a plus in my book. rating: 4.5
DAY 7, PART 1: HOW WE ALL LOSE this essay really made me regret reading anything by caitlin moran. f*ck you, caitlin moran. this essay also made me feel very validated in how much i was unable to enjoy The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao because of the unconscionable and unrelenting sexism, which everyone in my freshman-year lit class hated me for pointing out. (this is probably the 100th time i've mentioned.) and thirdly, this essay made me really hope the lit-crit essays stop coming one after another. is that the whole book? go back please. rating: 3.75
DAY 7, PART 2: REACHING FOR CATHARSIS: GETTING FAT RIGHT (OR WRONG) AND DIANA SPECHLER'S SKINNY this was so excellent. we need more addresses of fatphobia like this. rating: 4.5
DAY 8, PART 1: THE SMOOTH SURFACES OF IDYLL "Sometimes, and especially as a writer, I feel like I have no idea what happiness is, what it looks like, what it feels like, how to show it on the page." to quote john mulaney: THAT'S THE THING I'M SENSITIVE ABOUT! rating: 4.25
DAY 8, PART 2: THE CARELESS LANGUAGE OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE bold move of me to spend my morning reading essays with titles like this one! what a way to start the day, and so on. this has some very good insights and a compelling thesis and it was so insanely short. rating: 4
DAY 9, PART 1: WHAT WE HUNGER FOR whoa. rating: 4.5
DAY 9, PART 2: THE ILLUSION OF SAFETY / THE SAFETY OF ILLUSION i find this a very outdated and deliberately inconsiderate view of trigger warnings - especially because people rarely, if ever, expect trigger warnings from the author themselves and will instead seek them out from readers. going out of your way to get irritated about something no one is asking for is very terminally online behavior (derogatory). rating: 1
DAY 10, PART 1: THE SPECTACLE OF BROKEN MEN this was kind of a presentation of facts, as far as these things go, but i'm not sure how one would even present an opinion on this. obviously famous athletes include violent criminals in their number; obviously this is a bad thing; obviously it's an inextricable part of professional sports and it's hard to imagine how to address something so pervasive. rating: 3.5
DAY 10, PART 2: A TALE OF THREE COMING OUT STORIES this one is weird because it literally says that supporting musicians like tyler the creator is wrong to do, because he uses homophobic slurs in his music. but tyler the creator is queer, so i'm not sure what i'm supposed to be getting out of this. no rating
DAY 11, PART 1: BEYOND THE MEASURE OF MEN another good if very done-before discussion of "women's fiction" that made me glad i deleted my chick lit shelf recently. i just think the name chick lit is cute. rating: 3.5
DAY 11, PART 2: SOME JOKES ARE FUNNIER THAN OTHERS again, i mean, yeah. this is correct. rating: 3.5
DAY 12, PART 1: TO THE YOUNG LADIES WHO LOVE CHRIS BROWN SO MUCH THEY WOULD LET HIM BEAT THEM this one was very, very good. rating: 4.5
DAY 12, PART 2: BLURRED LINES, INDEED another excellent one. rating: 4.5
DAY 13, PART 1: THE TROUBLE WITH PRINCE CHARMING, OR HE WHO TRESPASSED AGAINST US my library loan of this expires tomorrow and even though there is a beautiful renew button it is merely a torture device i cannot use, so i'm going to try to finish this today. day 13 will have a lot of parts. honestly i wish this was more about fairytales and romance novels in general than just fifty shades, but this is still necessary criticism, i guess. though i think most people are already aware their dream relationship shouldn't be based off fifty shades? rating: 3.25
DAY 13, PART 2: THE SOLACE OF PREPARING FRIED FOODS AND OTHER QUAINT REMEMBRANCES FROM 1960S MISSISSIPPI: THOUGHTS ON THE HELP i read the help when i was in 5th grade and i loved it, something i now find (before reading this essay and to be honest even more so after) very embarrassing and will rectify with a reread and re-review soon. rating: 4.5
DAY 13, PART 3: SURVIVING DJANGO this was very f*cking good. i apologize for being cranky at how much of this is criticism - the author is truly great at it. rating: 5
DAY 13, PART 4: BEYOND THE STRUGGLE NARRATIVE i don't know if 12 Years a Slave, being as it is based on the actual story of a slave as he told it, is the best candidate for a lot of this critique, but the unwillingness of critics / awards ceremonies to praise Black movies that aren't about Black pain is a really goddamn needed one. rating: 3.75
DAY 13, PART 5: THE MORALITY OF TYLER PERRY when the critique is one of a kind and complex >>>> that's probably the dorkiest thing i've ever said. rating: 4.25
DAY 13, PART 6: THE LAST DAY OF A YOUNG BLACK MAN all right. i will come back to this and finish it either later today or tomorrow because bingeing all these stories like this is antithetical to the whole of the genius project!!! this was seemingly more summary than criticism? more time was spent detailing the events that occurred in fruitvale station than really analyzing them. rating: 3.5
DAY 13.5, PART 1: WHEN LESS IS MORE let's do this. (it's technically the night of day 13 but we will forgive that transgression.) (okay originally i labeled this day 14 but now i'm going back and changing it to 13.5.) i have never seen orange is the new black (my cultural ignorance is REALLY showing in this genius project) but this was a good critique of it. i think. rating: 4
DAY 13.5, PART 2: THE POLITICS OF RESPECTABILITY still night of day 13. there are 8 more stories. imagine how long this would have taken me if i'd done it normally. i don't really think it's my place to rate this one but i thought it was excellent. no rating
DAY 13.5, PART 3: WHEN TWITTER DOES WHAT JOURNALISM CANNOT i am both twitter's biggest fan and biggest hater so i'm eagerly anticipating this one. also follow me on twitter. i'm on there even more than here. as expected i loved this. rating: 4.5
DAY 13.5, PART 4: THE ALIENABLE RIGHTS OF WOMEN i truly think that to be anti-choice is one of the least empathetic things you can be. i have known many people who quietly believe they know better than others, in broad strokes and in sweeping declarations. i have had very real feelings very recently (even maybe now) for people who feel that they know better than women at large, even as they are typically very caring and kind people. it is the most discombobulating thing. anyway. i'm on Nexplanon and i adore it even though it makes me bleed unpredictably from the vagina. such is the world we live in. rating: 4.5
DAY 13.5, PART 5: HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO i kind of lost the thread of this one, unfortunately. rating: 3.5
DAY 14, PART 1: A TALE OF TWO PROFILES okay. it's officially day 14; i am coming to you live from a moving vehicle but i took a horrific motion sickness pill so i will hopefully survive reading; i was wine drunk and reeling from a surprise loss to my basketball team of choice last night so i apologize if i were more R-rated than my typical PG-13. however it is important to me that i maintain my reputation as the cool book nerd who gets laid. the profile / profiling through line here is so satisfying and extraordinarily well done. rating: 4.5
DAY 14, PART 2: THE RACISM WE ALL CARRY the running theme of my experience with these stories is that they all feel like they were written very quickly and effortlessly by a very smart person - but with editing and further reflection they could be better. this story about the "rules of racism" describes the paula deen deposition and relates an anecdote, but there's very little in between and it's FRUSTRATING. rating: 3.75
DAY 14, PART 3: TRAGEDY. CALL. COMPASSION. RESPONSE. this one still fell under the irritating category i outlined above, but i liked it anyway. rating: 4.25
DAY 14, PART 4: BAD FEMINIST: TAKE ONE honestly i think the ways roxane gay claims to be a bad feminist are the ways that make her version of feminism so appealing. rating: 4
DAY 14, PART 5: BAD FEMINIST: TAKE TWO what i just said, but even more so. rating: 5
OVERALL this collection felt, at many points, half-baked to me, but it's to the credit of roxane gay that even when it seems as though she's not trying very hard to carry across a point, the point itself (and really the way her brain operates) is interesting enough in and of itself. aka i will read more stuff by her. rating: 4
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reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
Do you know how hard it is to make a summer camp book boring?
And not just a summer camp book - a secret-sister family-drama friends-to-lovers finding-Do you know how hard it is to make a summer camp book boring?
And not just a summer camp book - a secret-sister family-drama friends-to-lovers finding-yourself summer camp book?
Have you considered how goddamn hard it would be to fit all of that into 300 pages and still find time to make it a snooze and a half?
Because this manages to do it and make it look easy.
This is simply a very meh situation.
I did not like the author's other book, Tweet Cute, very much, but I did not think it was BORING. In fact I thought it was funny and promising but simply annoying.
This had none of the flavor. None of the pizzazz. Nothing in this could have annoyed me, because I was too busy not caring.
A minor tragedy. But I'll get over it.
Due to the whole not-caring thing.
Bottom line: Bummer! But not really.
--------------- pre-review
the defining characteristics of summer aren't "meh" and "boring" and "ugh," so i take back what i said about this being the summeriest thing ever.
review to come / 2ish stars
--------------- tbr review
have you ever seen anything summerier?
also, can you believe summerier is not marked as a typo?
buddy read with lily and all is right with the world
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reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
Why did I enjoy this book, which is about a girl attempting to find love in spite of not knowing her father / living in a van witWhy was this so good?
Why did I enjoy this book, which is about a girl attempting to find love in spite of not knowing her father / living in a van with her complicated mother / finding romance built on a foundation of deceit (and ditto for her found family), so much?
Every single character in this is flawed almost to the point of being unlovable and I had a blast and a half.
I do not know why. This just instantly was a good and fun and pleasant read for me.
I'm not going to psychoanalyze that.
Bottom line: I read an ARC, I read it basically on time, and I liked it! Three things that never happen.
-------------- pre-review
i don't know what it says about me that this book, which is about how every human is deeply flawed and lives a life of suffering, was a nonstop funfest to read, but uh.
it was, so.
review to come / 4 stars
-------------- tbr review
secrets and spying and stealing oh my
thanks to the publisher for the ARC, which i am actually reading kinda sorta on time
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reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
going to write a lil review with a rating for each story!
because i am addicted to my genius project and i don't know how to stop.
story 1: Guilt Trip bgoing to write a lil review with a rating for each story!
because i am addicted to my genius project and i don't know how to stop.
story 1: Guilt Trip by Claire Kann realized this story is by the same author as Let's Talk about Love due to the similarly bratty protagonist. anyway this is actually very sweet and had more satisfactory character development in 18 pages than that book did in hundreds, so it's a win in my eyes. rating: 4
story 2: Shatter by Cassandra Newbould this was simply trying to do way too much. rating: 2.5
story 3: Prom Queers by Alex Gino "eighth grade prom" is not a word combo i have read before, but this is good. rating: 3.5
story 4: Dupatta Diaries by Nafiza Azad this has so many insanely delicious food descriptions in it that i might die from intensely craving butter chicken. this collection markets itself as being happy stories of thriving fat teens who love themselves, but this one was pretty sad? and the ending was like. happy adjacent. rating: 3.5
story 5: Food is Love by Chris Baron not feeling good about my chances of recovering from food description-induced cravings. i kind of feel like i didn't...get this one. and it made me sad how impatient this protagonist was with his grandmother's memory loss. rating: 2.5
story 6: Orion's Star by Catherine Adel West the vast majority of these are turning out to be sad. which is fine, but i feel bad for fat teens who were excited to read stories where they aren't defined by their bodies and they get more of the same. rating: 3
story 7: Weightless by Sheena Boekweg YES CUTE SPACE ROMANCE. THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. THIS IS THE CONTENT I WANT. rating: 4
story 8: Outside Pitch by Kelly deVos ugh. sports. just kidding. that's a cheap joke and i like football. and basketball. and hockey. and soccer, sometimes. and the olympics. but not baseball or any variation of it. so. this is like a Catfish romance in which the mom is a totally insane person and it's not really addressed. all over the place. rating: 3.25
story 9: Filling the Net by Monique Gray Smith whoa. this one is about hockey. i feel like i summoned it. like seemingly every YA short story in existence, the relationships in this were completely rushed and bizarre, but we forgive and forget. rating: 3
story 10: A Perfect Fit by Jennifer Yen god this was another one where the plotline is mostly Sadness. and then it ended cute but i feel fooled and deceived! rating: 3.5
story 11: Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire by Rebecca Sky everybody was so mad at each other in this one. jeez. there were like 4 characters in this and 3 of them were haters. rating: 2.5
story 12: Letters to Charlie Brown by Francina Simone ANOTHER sad but sweet one. how do i rate these when they're fine but i feel LIED TO??? rating: 3.75
story 13: love spells and lavender lattes by amanda lovelace lowercase stylization, for once, not mine. i have managed to make it to this point in my reading career without voluntarily reading even one word of the instagram poets. but here i am. about to fail. jesus christ. rating: 1
story 14: Breathe You In by Hillary Monahan MERMAIDS!!! okay. this lost me a little when a strand of hair was described as a "ripe curl," but i'm trying to stay onboard. (nautical pun intended.) style nightmares aside this is so fun. rating: 3.75
story 15: Unpleasant Surprises by Linda Camacho ANOTHER SAD ONE WITH A PROMISING ENDING!!! WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE! rating: 3.25
story 16: Letting Go by Renee Watson way to end on the very best one so i feel like i liked the whole thing more. rating: 4.5
overall i think this anthology is so important, but i also think the way it's been marketed is pretty cruel. saying this is "celebrating body diversity and fat acceptance," featuring characters who "are loving to themselves and one another," and giving "fat young people the representation they deserve," and then more than half of the stories are about self-hate or hate from others or both...it's mean. i wish more of these could have been about space travelers and evil mermaids and cousins loving each other at the beach. but i loved the ones that were! rating: 2.5 or 3
--------------- tbr review
beyond excited to read this.
(thanks to the publisher for the ARC!!)
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reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
I cannot deal with a book that is sad and soulless.
A book that is filled with trauma, starring a protagonist undergoing unrelenting suffering, featuriI cannot deal with a book that is sad and soulless.
A book that is filled with trauma, starring a protagonist undergoing unrelenting suffering, featuring a plotline that just seems to bring on more and more unbearable pain is bad enough.
But when the characters feel half-baked and the story doesn't feel real and even what may be a moment's hope at the end feels cheap?
That's the worst.
The synopsis of this book will make you think it's about a trans main character who loves his pretty best friend who he's known his whole life.
It is not.
It is about a character's realization that he is trans (he is deadnamed more often than notand addressed with the wrong pronouns more than the right ones) while he is sexually harassed by the aforementioned best friend, who he is not into romantically.
It's just very painful and difficult. There is another romance that feels similarly cheap and shoehorned in.
I don't want to say this is a bad book. But it did not work for me at all.
Bottom line: Whatever is happening with book marketing lately needs to STOP.
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more books about ghosts, i say
i mean...not books like this one, maybe. but others.
review to come / 2 stars (thanks to the publisher for the ARC)
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reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
after i'd already picked this up and read most of it, i learned through good samaritans in my comments that this was to some degree inspired by the Siafter i'd already picked this up and read most of it, i learned through good samaritans in my comments that this was to some degree inspired by the Sixties Scoop.
i won't tell you how you should feel about this, but i think that taking the unbearable trauma (a trauma that included not just the murder of a culture but also murder in a quite literal sense) of real-world Native children and turning that into a happy-go-lucky tale of how Hate Is Bad but the fantastical equivalent of those disgusting and reprehensible nonfiction orphanages is good...
well. i think that's f*cking gross. (and i have read from indigenous voices on both the Pro side and the Con side of this story. i have seen significantly more Con.)
here are some better reviews you can read about this: Kas's Sofia's
more of a review of my own to come.
okay, update - to give a bit more of a traditional review:
even had i not been informed of the at-least-partial inspiration behind this, there's no way this would have been higher than a 3 star read to me.
i don't like the saccharine or the sickly sweet. i don't like having to read about an unprecedentedly lonely man with a sh*tty life in a toxic workplace whose own cat, boss, coworkers, neighbors, and goddamn bus driver don't like him, in a city where it rains every day and he NEVER REMEMBERS HIS UMBRELLA.
i don’t like reading weirdly stilted dialogue, where the same sentences (“Quite.” “You dear man.” EVERY OTHER F*CKING SENTENCE SOME VARIATION “Oh you do, do you?” “Oh I did, didn’t I?” “Oh you have, have you?” “How I cherish/adore/simp for you.” Okay the last one I made up for a moment’s levity.)
i feel like this book could have been a hundred pages shorter and had the exact same impact on me. except it would be a touch and a tad more merciful, due to being shorter. this, to me, felt emotionally cheap and profoundly repetitive, as if enacting the same set of scenes where the characters show the same set of traits over and over would hypnotize me into falling in love with them.
this book is touted as feel-good kryptonite, but it didn’t make me feel good. it made me feel bad. maybe the rest of you are being deeply secretive about some magical island with cody ko-style blue ass water and a ragtag group of children sitting and waiting to give you unconditional love and a purpose in life, and also your soulmate and new best friend are there and baking pies, but…
many people are unhappy. many people are lonely. and as far as i can tell in the 23 years i’ve lived in this yucky world, there is no business trip that will deus ex machina your sorry ass into your place and your purpose and your people.
and i’ve never seen a wyvern either.
-------------- tbr review
i heard reading this is like a pure happiness injection, so here i am immediately
Turns out my reputation of eating sunshine for breakfast and stomping out rainbows and generally being a curmudgeonly grump might be warranted.
But to Turns out my reputation of eating sunshine for breakfast and stomping out rainbows and generally being a curmudgeonly grump might be warranted.
But to be fair, I WANTED to like this book.
It's got my favorite trope (fake dating). It's a romance (which I always desperately want to enjoy). There's a tinge of enemies to lovers (the other best trope of all time).
And yet.
The fake dating is almost never fake!!! There's none of the yearning and miscommunication and stifled feelings! The romance itself hardly feels present! And the enemies to lovers simply consists of one character being an absolute sh*tstorm to the other, who simply takes it!!!
This book had more tragic backstory and descriptions of unholy curries and friends who appear and disappear with an eye to plot convenience that would make deus ex machina jealous. Like, as a concept.
I think Alexis Hall's writing style might just not work for me, and so with a hint of mourning designed to draw your sympathy and a far-off look into the distance I must say...
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