Emi

Andrew Smith just has this way of hiding important issues under sarcasm and wit, that by the time you finally have to put down his book because there is nothing left to read, you realize that the 400 pages you just read were more than a story, but a life lesson on change and depression and growing up.

3.75/5 stars

Truth time: the only reason I'm reviewing this is because my internal pressure to review every book I read is getting to me.

I don't have much to say about this story. I read it because there were elements of the plot that are a guilty pleasure of mine, and also because I did the one thing they warned you about since childhood. I liked the cover. Oops. Admit it, we all do it.

So here's a quick review, as I am already starting to forget details. I enjoyed the main character, not so much her love interests. I enjoyed the way the chapters alternated between time lines, but sometimes I felt like one storyline would start to drag behind another, struggling to keep up. There were probably way to many things that made me say. “So, um, okay...why?”

Would I go recommending this book? Probably not. It wasn't that complicated of a contemporary. But I still enjoyed it, and if you are looking for a book you don't have to think much about, then look no further.

3.384/5 starsVillains, the deliciously wicked. We love to hate them and they hate to be loved, if only because being hated frees them from having to be good.
I read this book solely because of Victoria Schwab, even postponing my weekly watch of one of the greatest shows, The Bachelorette, to read it, so if that's not showing you how dedicated I am to my favorite author, I don't know what will?

I think to celebrate this villain anthology, I have decided to include a GIF of my favorite “villain” aka angsty prince turned nicer angsty Fire Lord



This book was a hit or miss for me. Some of the stories I absolutely loved, most of them I had neutral or negative opinions of. A lot of the stories did not feel villainous at all, while others made me wanna sleep with one eye open. In the end, I decided just to find my average rating and rate from there. I think my favorite stories were Victoria Schwab's (of course), Andrew Smith's, and Andrew Silvera's, but the biggest surprise for me was Cindy Pon's. If you only read one short story from this, I would highly recommend the one Cindy Pon wrote.

I think should discuss, real quick, is that a huge part of this book is the presence of Booktubers. I've seen some reviews address the controversy, and I feel like I should mention it as well.

I'm not a writer, nor do I ever want to be a writer, but there are a lot of writers who struggle to just get their works picked up by an agent, and many of them never do, but these thirteen individuals who post reviews on the internet get to bypass the struggle of getting a piece of work published? I mean, I post reviews on the internet? Where's my name in a book? It does seem quite unfair. But, at the same time, many of those booktubers work hard to create quality content and put themselves out on the internet in a way I never could, so while they didn't necessarily work hard in publishing-a-book-wise, I believe they did work hard in other ways.

I also don't believe it's right to tear down someone else's accomplishments just because you think they don't deserve it.

However, I don't find the booktubers really added anything to the story other than the prompt they supplied. While some of the prompts were great for authors to work with, others not so much. And a bad prompt could really damage an author's story. Their small pieces of writing that followed the author's stories were almost a waste of paper. It was just them analyzing the story for me, telling me what to think about the plot or a character or their actions and I don't really appreciate that. I much rather analyze what happened myself, thank you very much, because everyone analyzes things differently. I ended skimming post of their content, as I didn't find it important.

But let's just go into reviews of the short stories, shall we:

The Blood of Imuriv
by [a:Renee Ahdieh|4600197|Renee Ahdieh|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1487663209p2/4600197.jpg], prompt from Christine Riccio/PolandbananasBOOKS4/5 stars
I love Renee Ahdieh, so it's not a surprise to me that I loved her part in this book. However, I do think this story had the unfortunate luck of having to be a short story. There was so much history and politics that had to be condensed to just a few pages it took away from the overall understanding of the story. The plot was so interesting and the world so unique, I got myself invested and then it ended. I want an entire 400 page novel in my hands by yesterday, Renee, please and thank you.

Jack
by [a:Ameriie|15218531|Ameriie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1494714018p2/15218531.jpg], prompt from Tina Burke/The Lushables 1.25/5 stars
I've never heard of Ameriie before, even though her name is the biggest on this cover, but even from her chapter, I don't think I want to read anything else by her. Her writing and story, in my opinion, reminded me of a high schooler's creative writing project. Maybe it was the weird ass prompt she got, as I don't Jack and the Beanstalk can ever be cool, but she could have made it work. Instead, we got a protagonist I didn't care for and unnecessary pop culture references that didn't work. Easily my least favorite story in this entire book. Next, please.

Gwen and Art and Lance
by [a:Soman Chainani|780120|Soman Chainani|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1483891427p2/780120.jpg], prompt from Samantha Lane/Thoughts on Tomes1.75/5 stars
This could have been such a cool af story, as the prompt was King Arthur meets Hades and Persephone, but instead, it was just high school drama sprinkled with more high school drama. It wasn't even villainous. It was literally just an egocentric girl pining over two guys who are too good for her. And the entire thing was told in text messages. Just no. I'll pass.

Shirley & Jim
by [a:Susan Dennard|4499623|Susan Dennard|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1394447133p2/4499623.jpg], prompt from Sasha Alsberg/Abookutopia1.5/5 stars
I have never read or seen Sherlock Homes. I know absolutely nothing about him except he's a detective and he's hooking up with some dude named Watson and they wanna go back to elementary school or something? I'm assuming Jim is some sort of villain but I don't even know. But anyways, I probably couldn't care less about this story.

The Blessing of Little Wants
by [a:Sarah Enni|15218533|Sarah Enni|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1475793807p2/15218533.jpg], prompt from Sophia Lee/Thebookbasement 2.5/5 stars
Who is Sarah Enni? Why is she a featured author in this book? I looked at her Goodreads page, and all that is featured under her written books is this book right here. But, even if she's not as published of an author as others featured in this anthology, she actually wrote a story with more depth and plot then most of the other stories in this thing. While I wasn't too invested in everything that happened, after the mess of the past three stories I embraced this with open arms. Even if I didn't understand fully what was going on? That ending was confusing af and how did any of this have anything to do with villains???? The main character just travels to some island by boat and kills something that I'm 99% sure is a figment of her imagination.

The Sea Witch
by [a:Marissa Meyer|4684322|Marissa Meyer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1357318852p2/4684322.jpg], prompt from Zoe Herdt/ReadbyZoe4.5/5 stars
Finally, we are getting good here, but that's no surprise from Marissa Meyer, veteran author and seemingly amazing person. This is the kind of story I was expecting when I started this book. We had a plot! And motive! And intrigue! And love! And villainous actions. The entire plot of this short story was what if the Sea Witch from the Little Mermaid fell in love too, but killed her love interest. And it was so good. Sooo freaking good. At times I was a little concerned it was a little too similar to another Marissa Meyer book, [b:Heartless|18584855|Heartless|Marissa Meyer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1477740245s/18584855.jpg|26322524], but I feel like eventually it branch off into its own story. I like to thank Marissa Meyer and Zoe Herdt for giving me hope that this anthology won't be all horrible.

Beautiful Venom
by [a:Cindy Pon|2471183|Cindy Pon|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1259643400p2/2471183.jpg], prompt from Benjamin Alderson/BenjaminofTomes 5/5 stars
Trigger warning: (not graphic) rape scene
Ummmm I have never read anything by Cindy Pon before, but I am now quickly adding all her books to my TBR because I am just amazed at how much I loved her writing and her imagination. This was a villainous retelling about Medusa and it followed the origin myth very well, but it also explored rape culture and victim blaming and how utterly harmful they are. Every f*cking person needs to go read this right now.

Death Knell
by [a:Victoria Schwab|3099544|Victoria Schwab|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1336685438p2/3099544.jpg], prompt from Jesse George/JessetheReader5/5 stars
I was starting to feel like this was never going to happen? This entire story is the only reason I wanted to read this book. You're the best Victoria. Keep doing you.
And this story is so Victoria? It is covered from page to page in her lyrical writing. So breathtakingly beautiful and meaningful. It's about how life is short and death is not outrun-able. I'm in love. I'm incredibly biased, as I'm a self-proclaimed #1 Victoria Schwab fan, but this is the best story so far.

Marigold
by [a:Samantha Shannon|5830526|Samantha Shannon|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1450373891p2/5830526.jpg], prompt from Regan Perusse/PeruseProject3.75/5 stars
I liked this on. I'm not sure if I loved it, but I did like it. It was full of folklore and children getting kidnapped. I especially loved the twist at the end that shows that not every girl is sitting around waiting for his knight in shining armor. However, I just wasn't fully engaged in every aspect of this one.

You, You, It's All About You
by [a:Adam Silvera|7577278|Adam Silvera|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1414725025p2/7577278.jpg], prompt from Catriona Feeney/LittleBookOwl4.25/5 stars
Adam Silvera seems like the coolest guy in all of existence. So is he taking applications for a new best friend? Because I have a resume that I'd love to send him. Anyways, he came through like he always does and presented us a solid piece of writing about a teenage drug lord. Not only was it funny at times, but the main character is probably the villain in this book that scared me the most. She's twisted. I don't ever want to cross her path. Also, it's written in second person. What I've read of second person in the past has never gone well and I always end up hating it, but Adam pulls it off effortlessly in this. You go Adam! Please hire me to be your friend.

Julian Breaks Every Rule
by [a:Andrew Smith|1383409|Andrew Smith|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1455127379p2/1383409.jpg], prompt from Raeleen Lemay/Padfootandrongs07 4.75/5 stars
I didn't even realize Andrew Smith apart of this anthology until I got to his chapter and let me tell you, I was so freaking existed. [b:Winger|11861815|Winger (Winger, #1)|Andrew Smith|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1367927656s/11861815.jpg|16818567] is one of my favorite books of all time and I seriously don't talk about it enough, hence this not so subtle promotion of it. And his short story was everything I wanted it to be and more. It was soooo much an Andrew Smith novel. It's about a boy who can never do anything wrong and can wish almost everyone to death. Not only that, but its the funniest thing in this entire anthology. The only thing faulty about this is that it isn't a full legnth novel and that is such a shame. I never wanted it to end. I need more.

Indigo and Shade
by [a:April Genevieve Tucholke|5288442|April Genevieve Tucholke|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1471890358p2/5288442.jpg], prompt from Whitney Atkinson/WhittyNovels1.75/5 stars
Another author whom I'm just like, “Who?!?!” but she actually has books published which is cool. I thought this story might cool as well, as it was a beauty and the beast retelling, but I was beyond wrong. The plot was one I find to be quite overused, the narrator was uninteresting and annoying, and the ending was predictable. This one wasn't for me.

Sera
by [a:Nicola Yoon|7353006|Nicola Yoon|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1411143980p2/7353006.jpg], prompt from Steph Sinclair and Kat Kennedy/Cuddlebuggery3.5/5 stars
I've always wanted to read a non-contemporary Nicola Yoon book and I think this might be the closest I get. Nicola Yoon is pure talents and I'm quite jealous. But while the writing is great, I don't know if I quite like this story. It's gender-flipped God of War, which is something I know nothing about. And I wish it stayed a lot more focused on the present than the past. But Nicola's writing though. It's gorgeous.

I forgot my book at home, and not wanting to start another novel, I knew this short story I had on my phone would be a perfect thing to read until I get back home to Eleanor & Park. But it was almost two short bc now it's only halfway through the day, I know have nothing to read, and I just want more Ellie and Graham in my life

This book wasn't bad. At all. It just had so much wasted potential.

It would have been better if it took place over years instead of months. There could have been so much more manipulation that was less obvious to the reader. There could have been more at stake. Perhaps if the main character, Emily, was a lot more unreliable. Idk it just could have been better.

2/5 stars

Oh my God, finally it's over. There was literally one scene where I said out loud, “If she dies, that would be so good.” and honestly I stick by that, it would have made this book so much better.

This book did have some plus sides, from a diverse cast of (side) characters to being sex positive with a huge emphasis on consent. Everything else though was just not good. It was drawn out and lackluster.

It has potential though, if you take it apart and rearrange the scenea into something that makes sense. I think I was just hoping for a slowburn? This was the opposite of a slowburn.

Urghh, I just remembered that I had to read an entire scene of him making her orgasm in an Uber. Maybe I should give this one star

This is the second gymnastics YA book I've read within the past two months. It's a guilty pleasure of mine I guess. Whatever. I had fun reading this, but enjoyed the gymnastics element more than the romantic element. If you know of any more YA books that involve gymnastics please let me know. I want to read them all.

4.5/5 stars

I probably would round this up to 5 star if I hadn't read the epilogue, but urgh I did and I hate epilogues. I need ambiguous endings to satisfy my desire to dream. Fuck it. I'm giving it 5 stars. It's been almost four months since I've given a book 5 stars. It's time. What epilogue????

Maybe I don't hate romance. Maybe I just need romance to involve sports and slowburns.

Anyways, this book was far from perfect and usually I rate things super critically but we're making an exception and rating based entirely on vibes and the fact this book made me smile almost too much.