Sam

I enjoyed the language in this book, but I have to say it felt fairly anticlimactic to me. Things built too slowly, and then we found out about too many interesting plans and conversations after the fact. The baddie never felt that threatening despite everything he had done. Beautiful writing when it came to descriptions and emotions, but the tension just wasn't there for me.

Very enjoyable book!! Love the dogs, and they were well included without being overly cutesy about it. Great chemistry between the two leads. Unexpected elements to the story. The author's knowledge of and fondness for that region of France was very apparent. Would definitely recommend as an escapist weekend read!

Could have been brilliant but was SO. NOT. Did this book have an editor at all?? What kind of fantasy book reveals the existence of ghosts 90% of the way through in a way not at all relevant to the plot up until that point???? (Not a spoiler, just a fact - and evidence that it's terrible, because what kind of book has a reveal like that so close to the end without it being significant in any way to the events up until that point?!)

Deus ex machina after deus ex machina left me frustrated and exhausted. 2 stars for the concept and the descriptive work at the beginning, but zero stars for the characters, the romance or anything past page 150 for that matter.

I wanted to love this book, but I just didn't. I know it's essays and not a memoir, but you would expect some personal history. Instead, there's an assumed familiarity that has an effect of contrived relatability and inappropriate intimacy - why should you be telling me about your episiotomy when I don't even know where you're from? How you met your husband? What your career path looked like?

Really, I don't need to know what Freud has to say on burnout or consumerism or empathy or intentional political ignorance or whatever other topic is being tackled. What I want, and what I bought this book for, is the Pandora Sykes take on these things, or at least a bit more insight into her experiences with them. Instead, she insists on maintaining journalistic objectivity, which may work for her other writing but falls short in this format. Without the thread of Sykes's life to link them together, the essays feel like a randomly compiled series of articles rather than a cohesive narrative of any kind, despite the fact that they were all clearly written specifically for this book.

Insightful? Sure. Sort of. But compelling? Not for me, I'm sorry to say.

There were a few good moments in this book, but mostly it felt disjointed and I'll conceived. The plot tries to combine a hard-hitting murder mystery (someone secures a spot on a reality TV show in order to find her mother's killer) with a high school story (they go on a weird retreat that has very little to do with the story at hand). The television storyline exists solely as a plot device in order to create a couple of connections and felt ignored the rest of the time. Character motivations, including the Magpie Man's, felt flimsy at best. And there was an attempt at making her a “modern protagonist” with little interest in the romance of most YA, but she still managed to have two kind-of love interests.

Mostly I was left with questions. Why did she think she would ever be able to do better than the police? Why would she agree to be on a reality show - actively apply in fact - and then not do anything with it for her “cause”? Why would the other contestants concede to her? There were attempts at answering these questions, but they felt flimsy at best.

The premise was promising, but this needed a lot of editorial direction that it did NOT receive. I'd skip this one personally.

This book is beautifully written, and while I struggled to get into it, I think it's worth powering through as all your discomfort and reservations about Vanessa are more than rewarded in the narrative. Full of TWs though - if you have a trigger, it's probably in here, even if just mentioned in passing. So be mindful of that.

Victoria Stevens may be my new favourite YA author. I can't wait for this gorgeous book to be on my shelves next to Jandy Nelson and Nicola Yoon... February can't come soon enough!!

The thing I was most surprised by in this book was how great the minor characters were. Hazel is the main character, but she's not the only POV character, and even the characters who don't have POVs are well rounded and likeable. It really seems like an ensemble cast.

I also loved how insightful the characters are without being unbelievable as teenagers. For example, the kindness Hazel shows Luca and the way she feels about her friends. Also, the letters from Hazel to her mum are especially moving and may be my favourite part of the book. I haven't personally experienced anything close to what Hazel has experienced with her mum, but I felt that tension and that emotion so acutely while reading the story. Even her emotional and sometimes irrational behaviour relating to the subject made sense for her character and what she was going through.

Also, I'm obsessed with the JS Starling poem used at the beginning... it is wonderful. I've been doodling it everywhere. It's so perfect for this book, too.

I can't wait for the next Victoria Stevens book, whatever it may be! Really hoping we get to see more from Red, as well as Hazel's other friends :)

This book was not what I'd thought it would be - I don't fault it for that, though it took me a while to get into it as a result. I also don't understand or particularly like Marianne, though I certainly don't fault the book for that. It wasn't the best book I've read, with unrelatable characters whose motivations at times feel almost too well explored, and who were sometimes a bit unrealistically self aware, but it was beautifully written. I don't often deface my books, but there was a sentence on page 221 that I couldn't help but underline.

A worthwhile read, especially with the show now available, and I will certainly look for more from Sally Rooney.

This was a tough one for me to review. Usually I really hate when books/films/etc embrace the whole “the end justifies the means” thing when it comes to cheating. Giving the characters a happy ending makes the cheating seem okay and worth it. But ultimately I felt that this book explored enough of the guilt and conflict that came from the indiscretion that it avoided this problem.

Some things I loved about this book: it wasn't obnoxiously Christmassy. Sarah and Laurie's friendship. The handling of Laurie and Oscar's relationship and divorce. Also, there's something to be said for the fact that I couldn't put it down and stayed up until 3am reading it.

Things I struggled with: how much time passed, yet how little of that passing we got to see. Hard to help, I know, but it affected how I felt about the characters. They didn't FEEL 30 at the end. And also I didn't particularly like Jack at any point. I don't like to hold unlikeable characters against the author too much as it makes it more real, but he is the romantic lead, so it's not ideal.

So, 4 stars from me. Objectively I think it was probably 3 stars, but reading isn't objective, and I think the author managed to hit that subjective sensibility inside me and make me care even if I wasn't always happy about it. Props for that.

My partner asked me what it was about, and when I said real estate fraud he looked at me like I had two heads. But I was utterly gripped. Despite the fact that there are major crimes happening, this is a story where the tension is in the details, and the stakes feel massively personal. I also loved how self aware an examination it was of upper middle class ambition and social dynamics.

The same clever writing and wit as The Martian. A bit overly explanatory about the science in some parts - whilst the Martian pulled this off, inserting it into the dialogue felt clunky in some parts. But the story was good, the characters were likable, and Rosario Dawson was excellent on the audiobook.

Gah I'm so conflicted about this book. If she had broken up with him halfway through and then gone on to do something interesting, it would have been an easy 5 stars. The writing is witty, incisive and painfully honest. I saw more of myself in Tori than I care to admit. But instead, the rather anticlimactic breakup with absolutely no rhyme or reason came right at the end, and the conclusion was forced into a few short pages. The payoff, her new book, was tacked onto the end in a 100-word email.

Anyone else a bit let down by this ending? I understand the hype around her relatability, but that doesn't make up for an astounding lack of resolution.