Jess

I feel like the cover to this book is very misleading. It's a book about broken women - a mother and her two daughters - and how they struggle to survive in Jamaica. It explores some of the hardest subjects, alternating beautiful diction about the landscape with the complexity of patois. It's an eye-opening piece of fiction, but don't go into it thinking it'll be a happy, cheerful read.

3.5 stars. Beautiful prose, but this book felt tired by about halfway through. Had I not read it so quickly, I probably would have abandoned it. However, the plot is interesting and covers decades, different perspectives, two marriages, and a horrible, life-changing incident. I'd definitely recommend this to others; it just wasn't my particular cup of tea.

This book has been talked about and recommended constantly, and I don't get it. There are parts that are relatable – the word I've heard used to describe this book – but for the most part, it's pretty uninspired. The book teeters between navel-gazing and a complete lack of introspection. The most intriguing vignette of the whole story was “Girl,” and it felt like a rom-com waiting to happen.

Thank you to the author Jen Trinh for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I plowed through this in a single evening, and I loved it.

You might guess from the title and the cover that TAKE ME is a love story. And it is. But what makes this book stand out is how love doesn't exist in a vacuum. It ebbs and flows, and many feelings can exist at once. The two main characters, Cassie and Tom, have to overcome work stress, living on different coasts, and perhaps the biggest unknown – Cassie's marriage, to another person.

What I love about Jen's characters (throughout all of her books) is that they're often going through personal growth in addition to their romantic journeys. They have emotional depth and range that make them, at times, infuriating, hilarious, willful, passive-aggressive, and obtuse. (In sum, human!) TAKE ME is more of a slow burn, but the steamy scenes are worth the wait

Thanks to Libro.fm for the ALC!

Okay, I kept going with this one because the narration was great and kept me entertained, even if the plot and HEA were predictable.

Pros:
- Great narration (Natalie Naudus is now on my list of narrators to keep following)
- Loved the cast of characters on the bus trip

Cons:
- The main character is completely nuts
- MC's friends were a bit boring and kind of unnecessary, also the birthday gift premise felt a bit like mockery
- Given the hype over Zane's voice, it would have been ideal to have a male narrator for his segments

How is this book not being talked about more?!

I know I've used this analogy but this book is like an onion. Each chapter reveals new information in the most incredible and heartbreaking ways. There are ups and downs that left me reeling, and I had a hard time putting the book down. The writing is phenomenal and taut. You see what incredible and sometimes insane lengths we will go to protect the ones we love.

Content warnings: disordered eating, racism, colorism, misogyny (run-of-the-mill sexism, purity shaming, inappropriate sexualization of minors/daughters), inappropriate sexual conduct involving a minor, sex work possibly involving minors, derogatory language towards Latinx and gay people, Asian stereotyping

I'm pretty conflicted about this book; however, I'm NOT Own Voices and that should be to be taken into consideration.

I loved that this book starts in a decade and goes back into time, showing us what life under Trujillo looked like and what led the García family to make decisions they did. I wanted more details from Mami and Papi's perspectives; while Papi frustrated the hell out of me, there were elements of his life that echoed what I loved about Pa's storyline in HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD.

On the flip side, there's a lot of problematic stuff in here about colorism and origin. The sisters talk constantly about beauty as it relates to a Swedish ancestor and they'll reference their Spanish origins. There are sentences that insinuate what an uncultured place the DR was before the Spanish colonizers came, along with repeated colorist references to the Dominican “café con leche” complexion compared to Haitian “blue-black” or “black-black.” It's made clear that being white-passing Dominican is better than being “café con leche.” (All of the colorist references in quotation marks are direct quotes.)

I also think this was a hard book to read following THE UNDOCUMENTED AMERICANS. This novel portray a fairly sanitized immigration story – not without problems or worries, but also not one focused on imminent danger and threat. And while immigration stories don't all need to be about pain and trauma, I didn't think this book contextualized relative privilege well.

In terms of writing, I didn't think the voices of the four sisters were differentiated well enough, but I can't decide if that's purposeful or not.

Books are a certainly a product of time and place, and this book was written almost 30 years ago – much of how we critique and analyze books has changed. And yet while much has changed, I see facets of this book – colorism, in particular – still crop up often, unchecked.

2021 review:
I forgot how bananas the plot gets around page 110 or so. Easy's internal observations especially in the first part of the book are phenomenal, but the action scenes, character development, and sex-adjacent plots were a bit much. Bumping down to 3 stars.

2017 review:
4 stars. If you enjoy Sherlock Holmes or are a more recent fan of Joe Ide's Isaiah Quintabe novels, pick up the first volume in the Easy Rawlins series. Based in L.A., Easy gets pulled into a seemingly simple task that becomes more more involved. The bodies pile up. But what's really at play?

To be honest, I didn't love the actual plot of this story. I felt like it was overly complicated and involved too many nefarious would-be villains but for a seemingly simple end. However, I loved Easy Rawlins as a character - his insights on things, his pride over his home, and his complicated back story in Houston and as a former WWII GI.

Wow! What a book. I absolutely loved it even as the last 30 pages had me stressfully reading passages and then looking at the next page then jumping back because I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen. And the ending just leaves you with your heart in your throat. The structure mimics pulling a bow taut and then letting the arrow fly.

If you're not a fan of unique syntax and punctuation (e.g. no quotation marks, no full stops in certain sections), this book will probably not land for you. Unsure of how the audio will be.

This was my first book by Paul Murray and it won't be the last. Glad I sprung for the UK edition!

I gave this book 5 stars not because I found it to be particularly revealing or unusual. Because this is my field of study, this book had actually little to offer to me. Individuals well-read in the study of Islam might find the author's explanations of certain practices and beliefs simplistic.

But it's a good book, and an important one. Non-Muslims interested in understanding more about Islam from a South Asian Muslim woman's perspective should certainly take a look at this book, which is a quick read. The author does not dumb down any of the concepts, but makes them relatable and readable. She also introduces passages from the Qur'an, which is something that many other books about Muslims in America lack.

Finalmente, he terminado este libro! Me gusta mucho los papeles de Guerrero en Orange Is the New Black y Jane the Virgin, y quería leer más sobre las experiences de los hijos de inmigrantes indocumentados. Guerrero explora el impacto de esta experiencia como adolescente y su desarrollo emocional. Recomiendo leer sus historias.

I completely agree with a previous reviewer who said, “[the book] opens with thirty-something Kate setting aflame the hair of her step-father's mistress Gillian. It's possible the least fucked-up thing to happen in the novel.”

This book is not for the faint of heart, but it's a good one. I would take the back cover copy seriously when it says intergenerational abuse. That being said, this book is really incredible – complex, monstrous characters who create a cycle of horror for each subsequent generation. Fans of the original V.C. Andrews books and Dan Chaon will love this book.

Wow! I haven't read a collection of short stories this good in a very long time. I found the writing to be straightforward but deceptively complex. The emotions were well-developed yet without that saturation of drama that so characterizes many so-called “heartfelt” books. I felt embarrassed, sad, excited, worried, and happy along with the characters. I also think that this would be an interesting book for many people interested in Arabs or Palestinians because many people consider Arabs to be synonymous with Muslims. In fact, in this collection, only one of the characters (and her family) is Muslim; the rest are Christian, or Catholic to be specific.

I'm excited to go back and read Muaddi Darraj's book on Arab writings. I hope that she continues to write more. I can't speak highly enough of this collection.

I can't get enough of this series. The plots are intriguing, gritty, and suspenseful. At the same time, Dixie is a hilarious character with quips, statements, and thought processes that will leave you cracking up. She is wry and smart, though she makes a lot of natural mistakes. It prevents her from being the unknowable narrator, an untouchable character. I thought the mystery in this book was particularly strange and bizarre, with lots of twists and turns.

I loved this book! My mom recommended it to me, so I was a little skeptical. We tend to like very different books, and the cover and plot sounded kind of hokey. But it was actually a well-developed, interesting mystery. I found Dixie to be an engaging and likable narrator (despite her terrible name—who names a child Michael and then Dixie?!), with a developed character and personality. As someone who respects a plural society, it was also pretty neat to see a gay brother and his partner, intriguing family dynamics, and other things that reflect contemporary issues in the U.S.

My only complaint is that one character's name kept changing! (Harrison to Hamilton and back again throughout the book.) That's a major editorial flub.

I received a galley of this book from Riptide Publishing via NetGalley. This does not impact my thoughts or feelings about this book.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love watching competitive swimming, especially around the Olympics. When I saw Santino Hassell's tweet about this book, I was pumped. A M/M romance about two competitive swimmers heading to the Olympics, reconnecting with a second chance story? I am so here for that.

Unfortunately, I thought the book felt a bit flat. There was a lot of build-up and tension at the beginning, but in some ways it felt forced. I wanted more from the characters besides their complicated family histories and inability to move beyond the past. Once they finally got there, some implausible plot points were able to salvage the story, but I was a bit disappointed at how fast and convenient it felt. I think the next book will be about Bas, which I'm looking forward to reading.

I thought this book to be a great piece of nonfiction and a good foil to Tom Friedman's books. I did, however, feel as though Florida made some generalizations that were either unclear or perhaps even outdated (already!).

The combination of planning and psychology is really an interesting one, and I found this book to be accessible and interesting.

2.5 stars. The premise intrigued me as an interesting glimpse into a dystopian future, but the execution was poor. The story plodded along and the characters seemed robotic (with the exception of the narrator). The format of the book tried to emulate World War Z and Waking Gods, but the interludes offered little clarification.

TL;DR - overhyped.