asa

• surprisingly charming after magnus chase #1 !
  + apollo-bias
  + apollo's relationship with meg and his kiddies ;___;
  + percy's retirement and his CONFIRMED BABY SISTER and role reversal with apollo
  + hooooooooly hell the scenes where apollo is solo and desperate and lonely
  + robbie daymond was awesome to listen to and possibly the reason i was forgiving overall about the negatives that follow
  + no diversity bingo
  
  - everyone other than apollo and will and meg are boring
  - even meg is pretty boring
  - even nico and percy are boring, especially if you treat this series as a new one, which by the way seems hard to do because it's not interested in explaining continuity
  - hella repetitive (we get it, human brains are small, come up with a new way to complain about your predicament)
  - the sense of urgency that came with the river styx has been destroyed, as with many pre-established things in the pjo universe... packing things on top of each other is getting too convoluted
  - i hate riordan's fandom-based memes more often than not
  - i also continue to hate many of riordan's choices from the previous series, including our travelling companions for the next book, although from a technical standpoint i understand WHY that hasty hook-up was thrown in at the end of BOO :
  - no (tasteful) diversity at all, unless you count apollo's constant “Have I Mentioned I Am Bisexual Today?”
  
  a good travel companion on a 10 hour road trip, though!

2.5/5

A book with a lot of heart and mostly good friendship and familial relationships. Unfortunately I began to find the protagonist annoying about halfway through, largely because of what I felt was the bloated sense of importance she gave to herself meeting Blue 55 and the absolute need to play her song ASAP, to the point of running away from her family when they rightfully refused to send her to Alaska. It broke my immersion with the otherwise realistic story.

2/5

finished this series mostly for the sake of completion; the first book was fun and charming and the other two had their moments, but the fun there was probably spoiled for me by watching the movie first. the heart of lara jean's life continues to be her family and her sisters and i love that, as well as her friendship with chris and the other friends she has made, but overall i grew bored of lara jean's hobbies and concerns. (there's a 50% increase in stress baking. i ended up making brownies. chubby lara jean agenda 2k18.)

what brought this down to 2 stars is: overabundance of referential humor/gestures (hamilton and old romantic movies) + the wedding planning + the part where lara jean forgot her phone charger and neither she nor chris thought to purchase one at literally any gas station (no way their tank lasted for 6 hours on the road) or convenience store (in. a. college. town).

i'm waaaaay too excited to leave a composed review right now, all it boils down to is 4212515/5 STARS BEST IMPULSE READ EVER? elizabeth wein's CODE NAME VERITY was recommended to me at a creative writing workshop at uni, and lacking that at the library i picked a title at random, decided to start reading today, and HERE I AM 8 HOURS LATER? i could go on for hours about all the artful things that she does and all the moments that weighed and lifted my heart and how so many themes seem to cater directly to my favorite literary tropes (and my mordred bias, which was a wonderful surprise because i literally didn't even know i'd picked up a book on arthurian legend) but UNFORTUNATELY the sequel is on my shelf and i have a life i must briefly attend to before i can crack it open

2.5/5

[cw: homophobia, abusive parents]

SpoilerI wasn't sure whether it was the right time for me to read this book due to my personal experience with parents' reactions to my wanting to move and chosen partner, but I kept going because it felt therapeutic to have my poor experience with toxicity in South Asian/Muslim culture validated. Rukhsana's increasing emptiness at her parents' insane actions was heartbreakingly familiar, and I was proud of her when she recognized that her parents' actions were not okay.

Which is why I was so disappointed when, in the last fifty or so pages of the book, after recognizing that she was abused and what her mother was doing was plainly evil, Rukhsana forgives and continues living with them, instead of breaking the generational cycle of abuse the book illustrates through her grandmother's diary (to those interested, children of abuse are often emotionally manipulated to forgive their parents by “flying monkeys” - those who encourage them to give their abusers a tenth chance).

A healed relationship with her parents isn't forbidden, but it requires time and space to heal. Rukhsana was abused, trafficked, and traumatized. She was lied to, had her privacy violated, locked in a room, drugged, and more. Her school counselor, a mandated reporter, would in reality have had to report this to the authorities, not ask her whether that's something she wanted (her saying no doesn't bother me - that is painfully real and speaks to the level of shame South Asian women are made to internalize). Rukhsana's parents were enshrined in the idea of her gayness being absolutely unthinkable, and the instant switch in their behaviors, not because of seeing how much pain and trauma they are putting upon their daughter, but because of witnessing the pain on another family because of their gay son's death, is uncomfortable. That's not what it should take. That's not Rukhsana's pain, that's not Sohail's pain. That's the fear of their own pain.

And there was room for healing! There was room for something really good. Aunty Meena looking for a “good Bengali lesbian” is cute! Taking them to an LQBTQ+ support group was nice! And if done more dexterously, I would've been all over it.

But dexterity is not this book's strong point. Honestly, I don't think I would have continued reading if not for how much I related. The writing is about what one expects from a teen novel, but mostly Rukhsana is a lesbian that just doesn't read like one. I have no idea why she's into Ariana, or even what Ariana's personality is, but I do know how much Rukhsana likes spending time with Sohail, and what he's like. Weird.

But! It's good to have people putting out books like this and normalizing the conversation.

The cover is gorgeous and the title funny, and casual Muslim rep is wonderful, but this book suffers from intensely unbelievable situations that made me feel disconnected from it. I haven't seen Four Weddings and a Funeral, so I don't know if the weird scenarios are referencing it.

1 - Ladoo the Cat. How are these two teenagers inheriting this cat together? Why didn't the librarian tell them about it in advance? Assuming she is a responsible human being, why would she put that in her will, which she had time to update given her death wasn't sudden? Do these kids ever go to the pet store, take this cat to the vet, etc.? How are they splitting finances? What on earth?

2 -An Islamic Center burning down and there not being an investigation of arson. I grew up in the 2000s in New Jersey. To me an Islamic Center burning down is an arson until proven otherwise. 

3 - Everything around the Islamic Center's replacement. First, the book seems to imply that the city owns the Islamic Center, which is... illegal? Under the first amendment. Presumably this land is owned by the Islamic Center, which would likely have a board made of local community members, which would likely be working to restore it immediately and have insurance. The lack of any adult activity around the Islamic Center literally burning down is baffling to me. No LaunchGood or GoFundMe? No community involvement at all until these two kids come up with it, despite being an active enough community to warrant an Islamic Center? Why doesn't Tiwa have any friends or connections there aside from the one Not-Imam? I feel so disconnected from this supposed traumatic event. 

Also, I don't claim to know Vermont zoning law, but presumably the land is zoned for community use and can't instantly be converted into apartments because the mayor (and only the mayor) wants that, especially because the apartments also wouldn't be owned by the city, so there would need to be a firm involved who is interested in this property and submitted paperwork about it months ago. Which would be weird. And how are we scheduling a demolition within a a week or so of the fire?

Actually, does this story take place elsewhere in the original draft? Both authors are from Europe and the word “knobhead” made it in without anyone talking about it. But then do cities own religious institutions in the UK??

4 - Despite all of the above, bylaws suddenly become relevant at the end.

5 - The large absence of Tiwa's brother from the story is supposed to be important and sad and dramatic but, again, just makes me feel disconnected and not care.

6 - The reveal of what split Tiwa and Said apart was super contrived. Why don't these kids just text each other. What.

I listened to the audiobook, which was okay prose-wise, but not with dialogue; both of the narrators struggled to create clear, differentiated voices for at least the main trio. Tiwa's voice routinely said “Ladoo” wrong, and Said's pronounces Tiwa's name differently than Tiwa does. Both of them mispronounce “Ghibli.”

This could have been really cute, but these glaring errors were in the way. 

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to listen to the audiobook ahead of release.