Elli

OH MY GOD CAN EVERY VOLUME BE WRITTEN BY TOBIAS!? Just kidding, I like the multi-perspective thing. I just feel like Tobias is the most interesting character to read about from a “adult/mature” perspective. Like he's always going through an existential crisis and some of the things he goes through mentally can be disturbing. Anyway, let's talk about Volume 3. I feel like this one was a lot more epic than the last one (not that I don't like Rachel). This is mostly cuz of Tobias's freakouts and the do-or-die ending. I enjoyed the wolf-pack morph, it's always fun to see what the mind of each animal is like. I'm also really starting to get into the balance of this group. After Tobias, I'm thinking Cassie is my favorite so far. Just picturing her in her overalls I just-d'awwww. The fangirl in me wants to ship non-canon stuff but I just can't because the canon stuff is so cute. Rachel and Tobias have pretty good chemistry (albeit kinda generic). I just wonder what they'll do with Marco, he seems to be the odd one out...I have a feeling his storyline's gonna go dark pretty quickly. I feel like funny characters are usually using their humor as a defense mechanism, know wut I'm sayin'? :I

D'oh! I read volume 2 first somehow?? Oh well. This was pretty shallow. Diary of a Wimpy Kid was better but at least the protagonist in this wasn't an awful person. I just dislike how her life is all about BOYS and POPULARITY. What is this 2005? Also, she doesn't seem all that dorky to me? Coming from a real nerd/dork, this isn't a good representation of what bullied, nerdy kids are like in real life.

This book kind of just felt like something you would read in high school health class. Very after school special. While the eating disorder aspect felt authentic I felt like I didn't really get to know Kaz outside of her disorder so it was hard to be super invested. The romance felt pretty insta-love and Kaz was borderline Mary Sue (such an art prodigy omg!)

There were 3 wtf parts of this book for me. When Kaz stole animal ashes from the shelter I was like “why tho?” I guess we were supposed to be like “oh what an artistic soul” but I was just like “that's gross and disrespectful.” Second moment was when she abruptly was raped and the rapist gave her some meth. That just felt out of nowhere. I guess it was supposed to show her self loathing but I felt like there wasn't enough attention given to the fact that she was raped. It was kind of just shrugged off. Finally, the ending scene where Marin cleaned off Kaz by spitting up water on her. Maybe I'm just ignorant but is that really that much more effective than plain old water?? It just seemed unnecessary.

The story outside of the parts about having an eating disorder didn't amount to much. The characters weren't exactly flat but not super memorable either. I did appreciate the extra info at the end and the disclaimers for people who are actually suffering. I hope this book helps teens who read it. For me, it was just something I've already seen and didn't really bring anything new to the table.

I listened to this as an audiobook. I would say it was half worthwhile and half terrible politically incorrect, shock humor. It's the kinda humor where you're offensive “as a joke” but really you're just perpetuating hate. For example, I didn't enjoy his homophobic jokes and macho “real man” rhetoric. Also talked about being a republican as if it was a good thing a lot.

A lot of the jokes reminded me of George Lopez. The kind of “this is racist but I am that race so I get a free pass” humor. Racist jokes don't magically become ok when you are that race in my opinion. Sure you can joke around with friends and family but when you make a persona out of it, you're giving other people permission to do the same.

Despite all the bad, there were some legitimately interesting tidbits in here. I'm from MA and hardly ever see Mexicans so my lack of knowledge kept me intrigued. I certainly learned a lot of Mexican-Spanish curse words!

So...I really enjoyed this book but would definitely file it under “guilty pleasures.” It was extremely violent, sexual and painfully 90s. Beefcake hero with an eyepatch and “shapely” female lead Krysty. The descriptions of the characters and the extreme sexualization of women were the cringiest parts of this book. Aside from that though, it was a blast to read. I really liked the grimdark world it was set in and how it was built up. The setting was probably the most engaging/intriguing part of the story and aspects of it were genuinely creepy. I don't read a ton of Scifi so it could be that this book is really bad but I'm immune to the cliches.

This is number 52 in a 100+ series, that's crazy! Outside of kids chapter books and comics I didn't really know that was a thing. Would I read the whole series? Probably not, but I wouldn't mind picking up a volume here or there. I'd definitely be interested in reading the first book to have more insight into how this nuclear apocalypse started. It's cool that the cast is built up of people from different eras and races. It seemed weird that one of them was magical (a “mutie”) but if I had had more background coming in it probably would have made more sense. It's weird that this is all I have to compare this to but a lot of this reminded me of dark My Little Pony fanfic (lol). The machine and the tone reminded me of The Rainbow Factory.

Guilty, fun read. Thanks James Axler (or whoever ghost wrote this).

I'm not going to lie and say this wasn't a rough read but I'm glad I stuck with it because I learned a lot and gained a more nuanced understanding of the Holocaust. I knew that the concentration camps were filled with more than just Jewish people but before reading this I probably wouldn't have been able to name all the different types of inmates and their hierarchy within the camps. I also didn't really know about the psychological tactics, with the SS pitting inmates against inmates leading to some inmates becoming as cruel as the Nazis. Most of all I appreciated the academic integrity of this book. I don't think I've ever read something so dedicated to providing an unbiased view of a historical event. Every other paragraph Langbein is judging the credibility of anecdotes of inmates and justifying which sources he uses and which he omits. The book was also organized in a thoughtful manner, giving ample focus to each group of inmates and their role in the resistance. If anyone out there is doing research on the Holocaust, here's a good place to start.

I gotta say, boring and depressing are not a good combo. A lot of this book read like a Wikipedia article to me. Just long, winded descriptions of trafficker after trafficker and laundry lists of all the terrible things they did or witnessed. This is one of those books that tries to convince you that the world is a scary, awful place and we should all be cynical and wake up. Ugh. Not my kind of thing.

I will say it thankfully picked up a little toward the end with shorter, more focused chapters. I wanted to continue crawling to the end of this book because I thought I might learn something. I would say mission accomplished, I did learn a little, but I don't know if it was worth all 380-ish pages. There was one particularly violent sequence that I was I could unread too (had to do with pregnant women which is definitely a weakpoint for me).

The weirdest part of this book to me was that it was a fiction-nonfiction hybrid but BARELY. The fiction made up such a tiny part of the book that it felt out of place and unnecessary. Whenever it would switch over to first person I was just like “Who's speaking again??” Bizarre. Whelp. Onto the next one.

I LOVED THIS BOOK. I have too many thoughts so I'm gonna use bullet points:

-I adored all the 80s references. They made me nostalgic even though I was born in the 90s. They made me: A. Want to read/watch/play all the things B. Realize that if they make a movie out of this properly they'd have to pay like 9 billion dollars to get the rights to things.

-Wil Wheaton did an excellent job reading and it was pretty hilarious to hear him read about himself in Wade's voice

-Awesome use of the “real self” trope you see in MMORPG stories. Interesting commentary on sexism and racism. Loved the reveals for everyone's real self and loved that Wade was mature about said reveals.

-I, of course, wish The Oasis was real. Loved how it was not just an RPG thing but a world kinda like Second Life that even non-geeks participated in. Found the idea of the accessories that allowed you to smell and feel you surroundings super cool and creative.

-The HUGE access to every pop culture thing ever Wade had made me extremely jealous

-I was surprised to hear stuff about masturbation and simulated sex in a book for younger readers but approved of the author not talking down to his readers

-Good to see it wasn't “YOU DIE IN THE GAME YOU DIE FOR REAL” but rather real life murder (which was aptly disturbing).

-Though it was hard to hear (lol I'm an escapist) the “real world is the only place you can find happiness” bit was an important message and the last sentence of the book was the perfect ending

-I liked the Japanese character but found them to be a little stereotypical, always talking about what is “honorable.” Maybe the fact that they're nerds justifies it but I've got mixed feelings.

-LGBT AND black character automatically makes this book awesome. Also enjoyed the port wine stain thing.

I'm off to look into all the allusions mentioned in this book!

Woah. That was powerful. The only thing I didn't like about this book, and this is nit-picky, is there were parts that seemed hipstery/pretentious to me. Some of the characters reminded me of the obnoxious kids my age that think they've got “everything figured out” and sit around their rooms listening to music nobody's heard of, doing drugs and philosophizing. There was also a lot of name dropping of classic literature and such that made the characters seem a little egotistical. But when I hit the “After” part of the book I slowly began to really get into it. I dunno why, but I usually respect a book, show, or movie more when they take a turn for the darker. Soon what I found pretentious, started to become interesting and I ended up really liked the second half/the ending of the book. Part of me would like to see this as a movie (mostly to see the pranks played out haha) but another part of me says that would just be hipster-fuel on tumblr. Also, it'd probably be a major tear jerker and I dunno if I could handle that...

Disneeeeeey 8D Yay. I liked this book. Mostly for the accurate (though somewhat dated) representation of the parks. Pearson does a good job setting up locations and thus letting readers go to Disney World whenever they want. I enjoyed mentions of Walt, specific attractions (not just the most popular ones), and nods at the hidden areas of the parks. You can tell the author is a huge Disnerd.

I also enjoyed the Park-comes-to-life at night plot. It seems off to me though that so far everything that has come to life has been malicious. I wonder if any of the park's characters will be allies in future volumes instead of everyone trying to attack the kids? Although, I did enjoy the image of evil It's A Small World dolls.

The weak point of this first book was definitely the characters. They seem rather flat unfortunately, and I couldn't quite get into them. I couldn't even really develop a mental image of them because there's so little focus on developing their appearances and personalities. From what I can tell: Finn is the everyman, Willa leans more toward being a tomboy while Charlene is more girly is nervous, Philby is probably more nerdy and Maybeck is a tough guy?? I don't even know. And then there's Amanda and Jess/Jez who were basically just plot devices. I got kinda creeped out by Finn's mini-harem, all the girls (except maybe Willa) seemed to flirt with him at some point. It seemed like the author was trying to force chemistry when there was none. I would have really liked it if he spent more time developing the protagonists in future books.

Also, I enjoyed the fact that he chose Maleficent as the antagonist but her being defeated by pens was rather silly. Also, the fact that the book shies away from mentions of death and explicit violence tells me this is going to be a pretty vanilla series. (As expected from Disney I suppose). This disappoints me a little bit because I'm a strong believer that kid's can handle the dark stuff, just look at Animorphs.

Anyway, I look forward to being transported back to Disney again in book 2. This time, I hope, with stronger character development.

The Golden Ass was listed in my 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die book so I figured I give it a chance and...I really enjoyed it. Apart from it being recommended by that book my East Asian Literature professor also suggested it after I told her I enjoyed Kafka's Metamorphosis.

What really surprised me about this book is how smooth and easy it is to read. For something that was written so long ago, the language used is very accessible to modern readers (of course it might help that it's a translation...). I didn't get deep into analyzing this book but I did notice some outstanding themes about infidelity and religion.

The book barely focused on the main character and was more a collection of short stories a la Arabian Nights. I think this fact helped me enjoy the book because it's impossible to get bored when there are so many different plotlines. My only complaint about the short stories is that a good deal of them seemed to be about the wickedness of women (some main female characters are evil as well) and I questioned the author's fixated hatred of my gender.

My favorite part of the book is Lucius's journey as a donkey. It was interesting to see an animal's fate from that animal's eyes. He gets tossed around from owner to owner and some are cruel and some are kind. I even got a little emotional when he was being abused by one of his owners (stupid kid!) There's even bestiality which I think was supposed to be some kind of social commentary but since I wasn't analyzing...it just kinda creeped me out. (I think the message was basically “rich people be crazy”).

The ending of this book seemed, at first, out of place and clumsy to me. Then I realized “ohhh this was the point of the whole book.” Religion doesn't get a whole lot of mention until the final chapters where it's all Lucius cares about. At first I was annoyed by a “religion solves everything” ending but then I realized this is ancient religion we're talking about and the mythos aspect became interesting to me. I liked how the Goddess mentioned all her different names in different cultures and how the Egyptian name was her true name. I've never heard it explained that way and I thought that was clever (as in, all cultures believe in her but some just call her the wrong name).

All in all, this was a pretty easy and enjoyable read. I'm glad I read it for pleasure and not for school however because it's very dense. I am a little curious to the meaning of some parts so I might just ask my friend google what the scholars are saying.

I loved this book! Why didn't I read this as a kid? My favorite thing about this series so far are the designs of the aliens and Tobias. Tobias is my favorite character and the Andalites have such a creative design. I can't wait to read the rest of these books they're pretty well written for kid's books. I feel like they do a good job taking their audiences seriously and even have scenes that could be disturbing for some ages. The characters aren't just like “animal powers sweet!” they all kinda have mental breakdowns and there are many parts that demonstrate psychological trauma very well. Some parts are very 90s which is my only critique. But it gives the series a kind of narm charm. Like the characters talk about video games and make stupid pop culture references a lot. Also, their names are kinda dumb (Jake, Rachel, Cassie etc.). I unfortunately got spoiled about what happens to Tobias :( I'll try to keep out of the animorphs tumblr tag til I'm a little further into the series. I can't wait to get more volumes out of the library!

Another fantastic Animorphs book despite the spiders -shudder- Here's what stood out to me in this volume:

-Everyone making fun of Marco's haircut was funny and him getting all self-conscious about it was cute.
-I liked that Jake and Marco used their dog morphs to sneak into a concert. It's good to see them using their powers for fun every now and then. Cuz, c'mon that's what we would do amirite?
-More moral issues about violence getting personal vs. just fighting to save random innocents.
-Loved the backstory of the Chee it's nice to get another ally/alien species in the books. I thought the whole “they have never killed” plotline was very fascinating. Also enjoyed the bit about dogs and when Marco pointed out that the Pemalites became extinct BECAUSE they were nonviolent. More questioning of big picture issues.
-I liked the bit at the end where Erek decided to never fight again and pointed out that, because he's an android, he can never forget anything.
-Brutal bits like Marco bursting out of the crow's neck and the Gorilla's insides almost pouring out were a nice touch.

I miss Tobias :C he's not in the books enough! I get the fact that he's a hawk is very limiting but c'mon! I want more interaction with him.

New morphs this time around:

-Wolf spider
-Irish Setter
-Bat

This book was very...okay. I feel like I would have liked it a lot better if I had read it in middle/high school but I'm just clearly not the audience for it. It also kind of felt like a “guy” read with all the fart/butt jokes and focus on sports. Other than that, I'm really glad I read this because I think I've read maybe 1 other book with a native American protagonist? (Yikes). As for what I did like about the book, I really enjoyed that it didn't play it safe despite being for young adults. It's not afraid to confront topics like death, systemic oppression, alcoholism, racism, and sex. I bet this book has been challenged by Christian, white moms before and that's kind of a badge of honor. I liked the characters, although some of them felt a little unrealistic to me. I had a tough time believing that Roger, the jock character who is introduced saying the N-word, automatically becomes the nicest guy in the whole book just because Arnold punched him. I felt like his introductory line was so evil that there's no way he would just be completely normal after that. Other things that felt a little out of whack were the teacher who gives Arnold the impassioned speech in the beginning and some of the dialogue written for Gordy. I think the strongest characters were Arnold's family members and Rowdy. Maybe I've just been on tumblr too long, but I have a headcanon that Rowdy is a closeted gay. He's got a homophobic dad who beats him, he's extremely defensive/aggressive, shows no interest in girls, and I dunno...I just got a vibe. Speaking of gay, this book had a lot of great nuggets about native American culture that I didn't really know about, like how gay people used to be considered super powerful by native Americans because they were both male and female. I would say it's the authenticity/representation of native American culture that made this a worthwhile read. That, and all of the great illustrations. Some really cracked me up.

-SPOILERS-

This book was weeeeeird. I don't understand what the point of it was? It has three perspectives but when it gets to the third it kind of just goes “screw those first two perspectives, this 3rd dude is the REAL main character!” and the first two characters basically are cut out of the story. I'm also not sure what the overall message I'm supposed to take from this is. It was vaguely anti-smoking/drinking, vaguely Catcher in the Rye wannabe, and WEIRDEST OF ALL it had incest. Like, completely out of nowhere, in the last few chapters. I did not sign up for that.

I really disliked the Lily and Noah characters so I was relieved when the last half was about Simon who I found way more relate-able and likable. Lily and Noah were typical burnouts which, I don't like those kinds of people to begin with, but on top of that they were mean? Lily was the type of female character that hates other girls for existing. The writing for her was also the cringey type of writing where you can tell a male wrote it (nobody thinks about their own boobs that much). Noah was an irredeemable pervert and I feel like his abuse plotline went nowhere.

I enjoyed Simon's perspective the most of the three because he reminded me of myself, quiet and awkward in public but a completely different person around his family. I really enjoyed seeing a male character showing so much affection to his family members...UNTIL THEY HAD TO GO AND MAKE IT CREEPY WTF. I kept thinking “well okay, that's kind of weird but it's just family love” but at the end Simon is kissing his sister passionately and their dad just died!? Honestly, what was the author thinking? What is this supposed to teach the teens it's aimed to?

I was just kind of in disbelief the whole day lol. What a weird book.

That was really stupid but I'd be lying if I said I didn't crack up every now and then.

My favorite Harry Potter book :)

This one was fun but not my favorite of the Sherlock stories. I feel like the plot got a little too convoluted and my suspension of disbelief took a hit. That being said, I think it's a really nice change of pace to get a mostly Watson-only story where he can't lean on Sherlock's brilliance. Watson's sleuthing is definitely clunkier, but he's relatable that way.

Coming from BBC Sherlock, I was surprised to find that the hound is really just a hound. I really thought there would be more of a twist to it than that. I liked seeing Sherlock and Watson in a spooky scenario though, especially with both of them being horrified when the hound finally appears. Sherlock is either smug or cool/nonchalant so it's always fun to read about him getting flustered. I was also legitimately shocked when he showed up in the hut. I really enjoyed his appearance in that scene where he tells Watson to be careful his gun. It was also cute how they were both really excited to see each other and Sherlock was apologetic of his ruse.

Now that I've read the original novel, I'd really like to see the other adaptations of it. The BBC plot was pretty much completely different so I wouldn't mind watching one that's more faithful.

Wow. I actually didn't see that ending coming but it was probably the only appropriate ending for a Holocaust story. I'm still not sure who this book is aimed at but it sure is haunting. The fact that Bruno never understood what was going on made it even more disturbing and interesting to read. The whole read-through I was waiting for a big reveal but it never came. I almost feel like it would have been more merciful if it did. Even though this looks like a children's book, as the dust jacket says, it is definitely not for nine year olds.

Okay, this is the third time I've “experienced” this story. I saw the film, I read the manga and now this (apparently there's a live action version, so I guess that's next?) This is, hands down, the best version of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas yet. In the movie I was distracted by awkward animation, the manga is limited by its medium and kind of generic artstyle, the light novel, however, is able to explore the characters inner monologues and make them feel more fleshed out. This is a very character-heavy, dialogue/thought-heavy story so I guess it's obvious that it would work best as a novel. However, I wasn't expecting much because light novels are usually written pretty poorly, as if they were scripts for anime. This felt like legitimate YA lit and could definitely stand on its own.

All three versions of the story had me choked up by the end (I had to stop myself from crying on the train) but it was only in this one that I really appreciated the relationship between “name would be a spoiler”-kun and Sakura. I really feel like this is an amazing introvert-extrovert relationship and both characters are so realistically realized. Protagonist-kun reminds me of me and Sakura reminds me of my sister or my mom. At first the novel tricks you into think it's going to be a “fix it” plot for our introverted hero but then it reveals that Sakura is jealous of what makes him special just as much as Protagonist-kun is jealous of Sakura. Sakura's explanation of being unable to define herself outside of her relationships with other people and being impressed that Protagonist-kun is able to do so felt really profound. I feel like she didn't turn the hero into an extrovert but just taught him to open himself up to other people and realize he had the power to shape his own world. Equally, he taught her how to be alone and to love herself. Ahhh...it's just a really beautiful story.

Wow...okay. I can see why people really like this book. If I were to write a illegitimate review it would probably take me an hour so I'll be brief. I had a hard time getting into/reading this book but overall it blew me away. I generally don't like super gritty stories with tons of mean spirited characters which is one reason I had trouble with this one. I also am really bored by explanations of strategy and war tactics which was like 50% of the book. HOWEVER, the way OSC delves into the psychology of all the characters and the meaning behind all their actions was fantastic. I don't REALLY wanna make comparisons (cuz I feel like people will get mad) but I'm going to anyway. This book felt like a combination of Divergent, Doctor Who, and Neon Genesis Evangelion to me. Divergent, because it is young kids forced to grow up very quickly and they are both strengthened and harmed by “tough love” and training. Doctor Who because the book is all about empathy and how no life is unimportant. And finally Neon Genesis Evangelion because it's one big mind screw and the adults are ruthless to the kids (and sometimes the kids are ruthless to each other). Okay, done making pointless comparisons, I loved this book and nothing is quite like it. I have no idea how the heck they'll successfully make it into a movie but I look forward to seeing them try.

It's just a shame Orson Scott Card is an ignorant piece of crap.

Wow, I didn't really expect time travel to be a thing in this series! Okay here are my thoughts on this volume:

-I liked Jake's angst over being the leader but I wish he would do something about it instead of just whining. He needs to have a heart-to-heart with his fellow animorphs.

-This volume built up some good suspense with the “FLASH” gimmick and the time at the beginning of each chapter. I guess it's only natural there be some sort of time-rip plotline in a scifi series...

-That thing Cassie said about humans getting a sense of dejavu because of old memories from evolution was pretty interesting.

-Intro to Marco knowing a little bit of Spanish. Also, first time South America is mentioned.

-The description of the rain forest in Brazil as both horrific and beautiful was great. More scary ant scenes.

New Morphs (Not that they get to keep them):

-Monkey
-Jaguar
-Snake

New Info:

-Sario Rip
-Lerdethak
-You can't acquire a morph from a friend's morph

Sorry I haven't been writing reviews for these but there's so many volumes and yeah X_X.

Two things stuck out to me in this volume:

#1 OH MY GOD THE SKUNK THING WAS ADORABLE. How they all worked as a team to save the skunk babies and how the baby skunks followed Cassie when she was the skunk-mommy. I just...I can't. So cute.

#2 I loved the moral dilemmas Cassie suffers through in this one. It delves pretty deep for a kid's book. It basically boils down to something we all think at one point in our lives: If we are all going to die and if nature is full of killing then what is the point of saving anyone/any creature? Cassie is forced to think about these things when she kills the termite queen and later when she has to confront the fact that Tobias kills animals all the time but then helps to save the skunk kits. Very deep thinking right there. And Jake has a good response when she looks to him for comfort. Guh this series can be so thought provoking and that's why I love it.

New morphs this time: Termites and skunks. I liked how the termites were similar to the ants but different. This time the problem was less cannibalistic enemies and more a loss of self. It's smart how the author uses how naturally f'd up animals are to create a new kind of horror. The skunks on the other hand were pretty funny. I've never been skunked or been around someone who was skunked so I don't know how bad it smells. I was impressed that it worked in the end against Visser three, I would have never thought they would use stench as a weapon against him haha. Also, apparently Andalites can smell? That's actually pretty interesting since smell and taste are so linked.

I kind of wish I could give this 4.5 stars but I guess 4 will have to do. I'm a sucker for a good origin story so “A Study in Scarlet” will always be one of my favorite Sherlock Holmes stories. I love getting to see how Holmes and Watson met and, in the case of the book, how Doyle initially characterizes Sherlock. I guess he's supposed to be about college age in this which totally threw off how I was picturing him. I've been picturing him as more of a 40-ish gentleman but now I'm not sure. Also, what's the timeline of these stories, do the characters age? Ah well.

I was really surprised to see how close this book was to the BBC adaptation, down to the culprit being a “cab” driver (I suppose cabs were pulled by horses back then though). Of course everything does a complete 180 in the second half and we get the cab driver's entire life story, making him one of the heroes all of the sudden. (I'm pretty sure in the TV show he was just some crazy guy). We didn't get anything like this in the other two compilations/novels I've read so far so I wonder if this is early installment weirdness? Anyway, I didn't dislike the second half but I was a little eager to get back to Holmes and Watson. The book suddenly turns into a survival-action-cult-avenger story which was entertaining, but not what I signed up for. It felt weirdly modern because I literally just watched a True Crime video about the Latter Day Saints and a recent missing person's case they're involved in. For some reason, I've always thought of cults as something that started around the 60s and 70s so I was really surprised to see them show up in a novel written in 1887.

Hope dedicating his life to vengeance felt kind of like a cheesy action-movie plot. Like, what is this, John Wick? Really, I cared less about the mystery and the back-story in this one than I did character interactions. Mainly, I liked seeing Sherlock playing off Lestrade and Gregson and also Watson and Sherlock's getting-to-know-you phase. The scene where Watson trash talks Sherlock's writing without knowing it's his was great, I love how calm and cool Sherlock is in the face of criticism. Watson realizes in this book that Holmes loves being praised (his face flushes and can't stop himself from smiling-too cute!) and I feel like that's why he does it so much in all the stories. What an adorable friendship :) I look forward to continuing on!

THAT CLIFFHANGER THO.