Megan
While this didn't introduce anything new on this subject to me, I feel it's a perfectly concise introduction to feminism that everyone should read, particularly those who think all feminists hate men.
While this didn't introduce anything new on this subject to me, I feel it's a perfectly concise introduction to feminism that everyone should read, particularly those who think all feminists hate men.
Malerman mastered the atmosphere here and really had me nervous at times. I sort of wish there had been more of a conclusion, but I also believe that would've made this book lose rereadability for me. As it stands, I think I could reread it and still feel unnerved.
Malerman mastered the atmosphere here and really had me nervous at times. I sort of wish there had been more of a conclusion, but I also believe that would've made this book lose rereadability for me. As it stands, I think I could reread it and still feel unnerved.
The Fellowship of the Ring is a classic epic fantasy that made the genre what it is. You'll see elements of it in pretty much every fantasy book that was published after. The most unexpected thing for me when I first read it was just how much humor there was.
The Fellowship of the Ring is a classic epic fantasy that made the genre what it is. You'll see elements of it in pretty much every fantasy book that was published after. The most unexpected thing for me when I first read it was just how much humor there was.
The writing style of Room is very hard to get through, and I highly recommend the audiobook which is actually narrated by a kid and feels much less awkward. The story is difficult and heartbreaking.
The writing style of Room is very hard to get through, and I highly recommend the audiobook which is actually narrated by a kid and feels much less awkward. The story is difficult and heartbreaking.
I honestly don't get the love for this series. It's super repetitive and the only character with any actual personality is the narrator. The Baudelaire children's dialogue is exclusively exposition. We're told everything about them. It's just boring. And the vocabulary lessons! The constant inclusion of definitions is grating. Given the mature themes of the story, this is a serious disconnect. The author seems to both think that children don't know much and need to be spoon fed and that they can handle death, abuse, and neglect. Maybe I give kids more credit than most adults, but I believe most kids don't need the definitions. I understand it's kind of a joke, but if that's the main purpose of the definitions then it's far too repetitive. However, definitions done like the one on page 74 are great. And finally, the poor communication trope is frustrating. I understand the charm in this series, and I plan to finish it out, but it really does it's best to irritate me.
I honestly don't get the love for this series. It's super repetitive and the only character with any actual personality is the narrator. The Baudelaire children's dialogue is exclusively exposition. We're told everything about them. It's just boring. And the vocabulary lessons! The constant inclusion of definitions is grating. Given the mature themes of the story, this is a serious disconnect. The author seems to both think that children don't know much and need to be spoon fed and that they can handle death, abuse, and neglect. Maybe I give kids more credit than most adults, but I believe most kids don't need the definitions. I understand it's kind of a joke, but if that's the main purpose of the definitions then it's far too repetitive. However, definitions done like the one on page 74 are great. And finally, the poor communication trope is frustrating. I understand the charm in this series, and I plan to finish it out, but it really does it's best to irritate me.
Pros:
- Effortlessly diverse: There are bisexual, lesbian, gay, and asexual characters without those labels defining them. The discussions of these were handled so delicately as well. The main character is mixed race which contributes to her life experiences, again, without becoming her only identity. Depression and social anxiety are alluded to very authentically. I know I'm missing more forms of rep in this book, which is incredible to say because I'm usually hard pressed to find even one of these in some books. It was extremely well done, probably one of the best books in this regard. If this were all the book was being rated on, it would absolutely be 5 stars.
- The teenage characters felt very true to life, with the uncertainty of the future, the extreme waves of emotions, the way everything feels so hopeless at times and you feel like an imposter. These characters are trying to find themselves while trying to understand their friends as well.
- Most of the characters are very well developed, with their own motivations and desires that make sense. They were real people, even when they did asshole or selfish things.
- The dialogue was natural and realistic which I feel like is rare in YA.
- Excellent portrayal of academic pressure.
- Frances was able to reevaluate her assumptions of who Raine was and recognized that she was wrong about Raine, finally seeing her as the loyal, trustworthy, and selfless person she is. Loved this so much.
- The depiction of fandoms and internet culture was absolutely spot on. The invasion of privacy “YouTube famous” folks go through, the fan art/shipping/story theories that is constantly discussed and shared, and disgusting comments from internet trolls felt incredibly realistic. Kinda wish it had been explored more though.
- If I was allowed only one word to describe this book, it would 100% be “RELATABLE” (yes, in all caps).
- The authentic Englishness was fantastic. Reminded me of my family and our hometown in England!
Cons:
- Writing style: It was too casual and inconsistent for me. Sometimes it felt like I was supposed to be in Frances's head and other times it was like she was telling me her life story. I'm not one for random run-on sentences either unless the whole book is written in a stream-of-consciousness style. I also felt a disconnect with the more emotional parts of the story because of this.
- Carol Last is a fairly cartoonish antagonist. With how well developed the other characters were, I felt let down by her. She seemed a bit ridiculously villainous, specifically with her Scooby-Doo-esque “not so fast you mangy kids” arrival at Aled's uni. And the dog death... It was unnecessary and the same result could have been accomplished differently (she could have let it run away or dropped it off at a shelter, or the major issue could have been his room and destroying deeply sentimental items).
- Pacing: I think there could have been a little bit more trimming in the first half of the book in particular. More time could have been spent developing the main conflict and resolution. The end was very abrupt.
- The transcript excerpts of Universe City were throwaways for me. This is absolutely a personal preference, as some people will love the fiction-within-fiction aspect. I don't like when I have to reread a book for something to actually make sense.
Random thoughts:
- I loved the platonic male-female friendship, but I wish I hadn't known about it going in. I think I would've cheered more when I read the chapter in which Frances straight up tells the reader they weren't going to get together. As it was, I was like, “Yeah I know.”
- I usually don't care for Contemporary fiction. I find it boring reading about people who could be my neighbors. I find I get that feeling of escapism better from other genres in fantastical worlds or settings. However, I enjoyed this quite a bit.
- I have an issue with how people nowadays, which truthfully Alice Oseman captured perfectly, ending their declarative statements with goddamn question marks (ex: “i have a jumper from the same website?? i'm literally wearing it right now?”). This isn't a critique of Oseman, I just hate it. To those of you who do this, please stop. I'm begging you.
- I feel like I'm too old for this book to really impact me. I've already done the whole “omg what is my future?!” thing, made my mistakes, and learned from them. As many people have said, it would've been better to read it in high school.
[Edited my review after the Papercut Book Club live discussion cause everyone made excellent points that made me think!]
Pros:
- Effortlessly diverse: There are bisexual, lesbian, gay, and asexual characters without those labels defining them. The discussions of these were handled so delicately as well. The main character is mixed race which contributes to her life experiences, again, without becoming her only identity. Depression and social anxiety are alluded to very authentically. I know I'm missing more forms of rep in this book, which is incredible to say because I'm usually hard pressed to find even one of these in some books. It was extremely well done, probably one of the best books in this regard. If this were all the book was being rated on, it would absolutely be 5 stars.
- The teenage characters felt very true to life, with the uncertainty of the future, the extreme waves of emotions, the way everything feels so hopeless at times and you feel like an imposter. These characters are trying to find themselves while trying to understand their friends as well.
- Most of the characters are very well developed, with their own motivations and desires that make sense. They were real people, even when they did asshole or selfish things.
- The dialogue was natural and realistic which I feel like is rare in YA.
- Excellent portrayal of academic pressure.
- Frances was able to reevaluate her assumptions of who Raine was and recognized that she was wrong about Raine, finally seeing her as the loyal, trustworthy, and selfless person she is. Loved this so much.
- The depiction of fandoms and internet culture was absolutely spot on. The invasion of privacy “YouTube famous” folks go through, the fan art/shipping/story theories that is constantly discussed and shared, and disgusting comments from internet trolls felt incredibly realistic. Kinda wish it had been explored more though.
- If I was allowed only one word to describe this book, it would 100% be “RELATABLE” (yes, in all caps).
- The authentic Englishness was fantastic. Reminded me of my family and our hometown in England!
Cons:
- Writing style: It was too casual and inconsistent for me. Sometimes it felt like I was supposed to be in Frances's head and other times it was like she was telling me her life story. I'm not one for random run-on sentences either unless the whole book is written in a stream-of-consciousness style. I also felt a disconnect with the more emotional parts of the story because of this.
- Carol Last is a fairly cartoonish antagonist. With how well developed the other characters were, I felt let down by her. She seemed a bit ridiculously villainous, specifically with her Scooby-Doo-esque “not so fast you mangy kids” arrival at Aled's uni. And the dog death... It was unnecessary and the same result could have been accomplished differently (she could have let it run away or dropped it off at a shelter, or the major issue could have been his room and destroying deeply sentimental items).
- Pacing: I think there could have been a little bit more trimming in the first half of the book in particular. More time could have been spent developing the main conflict and resolution. The end was very abrupt.
- The transcript excerpts of Universe City were throwaways for me. This is absolutely a personal preference, as some people will love the fiction-within-fiction aspect. I don't like when I have to reread a book for something to actually make sense.
Random thoughts:
- I loved the platonic male-female friendship, but I wish I hadn't known about it going in. I think I would've cheered more when I read the chapter in which Frances straight up tells the reader they weren't going to get together. As it was, I was like, “Yeah I know.”
- I usually don't care for Contemporary fiction. I find it boring reading about people who could be my neighbors. I find I get that feeling of escapism better from other genres in fantastical worlds or settings. However, I enjoyed this quite a bit.
- I have an issue with how people nowadays, which truthfully Alice Oseman captured perfectly, ending their declarative statements with goddamn question marks (ex: “i have a jumper from the same website?? i'm literally wearing it right now?”). This isn't a critique of Oseman, I just hate it. To those of you who do this, please stop. I'm begging you.
- I feel like I'm too old for this book to really impact me. I've already done the whole “omg what is my future?!” thing, made my mistakes, and learned from them. As many people have said, it would've been better to read it in high school.
[Edited my review after the Papercut Book Club live discussion cause everyone made excellent points that made me think!]
Rereading this as an adult definitely reinforced the love I had for it in middle school. It's always dangerous revisiting childhood favorites, but this was a fantastic experience.
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This was assigned reading for my 7th grade Language Arts class, and I remember liking it so much I breezed through the 3-week reading schedule and finished the first weekend. Hoping to reread soon!
Rereading this as an adult definitely reinforced the love I had for it in middle school. It's always dangerous revisiting childhood favorites, but this was a fantastic experience.
————————
This was assigned reading for my 7th grade Language Arts class, and I remember liking it so much I breezed through the 3-week reading schedule and finished the first weekend. Hoping to reread soon!
Jurassic Park is a fast paced, action packed, plot driven story full of fairly flat characters and annoying children. There is way more death than I expected, but honestly I was there for all of it. The short chapters are typical of what I consider “fast fiction” and help you fly through the book.
Jurassic Park is a fast paced, action packed, plot driven story full of fairly flat characters and annoying children. There is way more death than I expected, but honestly I was there for all of it. The short chapters are typical of what I consider “fast fiction” and help you fly through the book.
