Reviews and Comments

Beatrice Sparks was evil incarnate.

I picked this book to read after reading Go Ask Alice last year and then learning that it was fake and not even based on a real person's diary at all. Sparks just completely fabricated it to try to discourage drug use in teens. It brought up the interesting point that there is no official labeling system for books and it's ultimately left up for the authors and publishers to decide, so Alice was labeled as nonfiction even though it was completely falsified. Another example of this is A Million Little Pieces, which was titled and advertised as a memoir until someone happened to realize that at least one portion of his story was not possible and everything tumbled down after that.

After reading Go Ask Alice and finding out the truth, this book happened to pop up on a random search through catalogues for books I wanted to try to read this year. I had no idea how deep everything would run. I saw the title and chuckled to myself a little because it seemed like such an odd thing to be tying so many topics together. But it all does tie together. Go Ask Alice was used to fuel the war on drugs. Spark's other big hit, Jay's Journal, was used to spiral everyone into the Satanic Panic.

For Jay's Journal, Sparks was given a real diary from a grieving parent who's son committed suicide. She wanted her son, Alden Barrett, to be able to help other teens work through issues and hoped his death would prevent others from allowing themselves to spiral so horribly. The problem was, Sparks added a whole lot of fabrication to the journal before publishing it to make it seem like Alden (aka Jay) was into witchcraft and satanism and that's what caused him to kill himself in a ritualistic manner. The worst part is that when Sparks left in some of the actual journal entries, she didn't remove the information that would have made it easy for people to figure out the town that the "journal" came from and circle it back to the poor family that was still grieving the loss. The worst thing is that when people decided to look into the authenticity of Jay's Journal, not a single person spoke to his parents to find out if it had happened and instead just relied on whatever Sparks responded with.

Emerson did a really good job at explaining the parallel lines that connected these "journals" to the war on drugs and satanic panic. If you've ever wondered about what helped to fuel these "wars", this is definitely a good one to pick up. This book had way more than I expected and just kept shocking me with the information. Do recommend.

This book went through a decent amount of tropes without making it boring. There's an age gap (though not in a way that gives you the ick), he is her ex-friend's brother, there's some miscommunication thrown in (in a plausibly believable way that doesn't just make them out to be idiots), and rich man with a woman who is trying to break out in her job.

Having diversity in the main characters is always refreshing, and they are actually quite wholesome together. They're completely respectful of each other and honestly the book dragged a little a times because they were, like, actually working through their relationship like an ideal couple in real life would. There's so much toxicity thrown around in other spicy books, so it was a big surprise to realize that this wouldn't be having that for driving the plot along. Added bonus that it actually made me laugh.

The spice was very very good, too. I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed the narrator. I would definitely recommend this if you want to try out a spicy book without the risk of heavy emotional damage.

I really enjoyed this book. It was quite a fun ride, but the ending was just...not very good. This was written by the same author that wrote Oona Out of Order so it took me by surprise when the book started going. This is definitely more on the thriller/suspense end of things, so it was quite different from the previous book. The books did both have one similar thing: the pop culture references. I think Montimore likes to flex her knowledge in that area throughout her books. Any and every reason that she could find to reference a band or a song was taken full advantage of.

Even still, I did enjoy the book up until the end. The ending just fell very flat and just irritated me. I've read other books that have an ending where you're left questioning how things turned out and not getting an answer but it was done well to a point that it didn't bother me. I'm not sure if she just dragged it out too much, if I was just expecting the ending, or what the deal was. But it did not work for me.

I appreciated what this story was meant to do and how it was meant to convey the horrors of Auschwitz to a younger reading audience. Unless you have a general understanding already of what happened at the concentration camps, though, the holding back and changing of words (from Bruno's ability to understand and comprehend what's going on) could honestly be a bit confusing.

The ending definitely took me by surprise and I was not expecting it at all. Seeing the behavior of the soldiers to the 9 year old protagonist was a surprise and helped add a little bit of tension. I mean, if they treat the children of the man in charge of the concentration camp in this manner, just imagine how horrible it is on the other side of the fence.

However, my biggest gripes concern the young main character. I absolutely cannot suspend reason and believe that a male child of a high-ranking Nazi soldier would not have been raised in a way to understand who was on the other side of the fence and why. It also felt like Boyne wanted Bruno to be on the spectrum, but couldn't bring himself to actually put it into writing. But really, my biggest issue is just that you feel bad for the family in the house because you're learning everything that's going on. Even after the ending, you find out how much the family is devastated by what happened, and it came across like you were expected to feel sympathy for the family that was in charge of the concentration camp instead of those trapped inside. it just felt really icky and put a foul taste towards the book from the get-go.

It feels like it was written to calmly introduce the insanity of what occurred at the camps to a group of people that might not have a good grasp of what went on, but it places a completely fake ending that never happened in real life in any record at all and detracts from the people that were nearly wiped out, and just makes you want to feel bad for Bruno's family instead of feeling horrible for what the people in the camp were experiencing. It's not one that I would ever recommend to anyone to read. It's off the mark for those that don't know much about the history of WWII, and way too lackluster for those that are well-versed in the events that happened.

I found this to be a quick read, despite the length of this book. I listened to the audiobook, and it was a great option to hear the chants and words spoken instead of my mind butchering them. Fantasy is a genre that I haven't really delved into very much in the past but have been wanting to give it another go. This one honestly intimidated me at first, and I was hesitant to pick it up even with so many recommendations coming from readers with similar tastes. I'm sad I pushed it off as long as I did, but I'm really excited to continue on and see where the story goes, especially with so much being established in this one.

The attention to detail in this world-building was great and there wasn't a lot repeated just to fill in space, so each area felt like a new experience with its own difficulties. The characters are also well-built to the point that while they seem fully confident in their goals and desires for the future, they struggle with those decisions when faced with challenging circumstances. It's not just a quick flip-flop and there is constant questioning of what they should be doing in the background.

There were a few moments where I just scratched my head in confusion, but the story and pacing and world-building more than made up for it. This one came across my radar while trying to expand the diversity of my reading, and I cannot begin to describe how much I felt for the characters and how much it reflected into the real world. I absolutely recommend that you pick this one up if it's been on your TBR.

But I digress. This book was alright. I'm not sure if it was just the translator's doing or if it's how it was originally written, but with what should be some heavy moments, it just felt devoid of emotions. This comes across as a cozy book but I've read other cozy books that still have emotional topics that allow you to feel those emotions while still feeling it's a cozy read.

I was sucked into it at first because the premise of it was so interesting and refreshing. You can travel forward or backward in time for as long as the freshly poured coffee is warm, cannot have any influence on what has already happened, and the chair that you must use is only available for a short period of time once a day because it's occupied by a ghost lady until she needs to use the bathroom. Which, I really want to know more about the ghost lady honestly.

I did appreciate the overall flow of the books and the structure of the chapters because it made it very easy to follow along and not get lost, even with new characters being introduced and seeing how the previous ones are utilized. I don't think I'll be continuing with the series, though.

I was really excited to see that we were going to get a continuation of Adunni's story after loving The Girl with the Louding Voice so much. Unfortunately, this one just fell a little flat and required a little more suspending of reality to make it to the end. The ending itself was so similar to the ending of Jurassic Park 3 that I had a really hard time getting through it. That might be a little harsh because at least the ending to this book was slightly plausible unlike that movie.

I felt like the story was torn too much between the stories of Tia and Adunni and it caused both story lines to really drag out. Some more spacing between the chapters to spend in the individual stories for a longer period may have helped this book out more.

Once Tia and Adunni's stories finally intersect again, the plot takes off and everything starts to happen in quick succession which caused it to feel rushed. I still was glad to find out why it is that Tia attatched herself to Adunni so quickly and readily, and it was a good idea to not have Adunni just have a happily ever after with a murder "charge" hanging over her head for her whole life. It was just too much of a slow burn because of the chapter timing.

This was enjoyable overall. A love story unfolds amongst two rivals who are trying to destroy and revive the world respectively. It starts with little taunts left in unusual letters and blossoms into more as the story progresses. I found myself genuinely entranced with the characters and caring about their outcomes. The ending was not exactly expected so it took me by surprise a little.

The main reason I can't rate it higher is because of the world-building. There was both too much and not enough world-building going on. Too often I found myself confused and unable to track what was going on in the background. Once the story ramped up, it didn't matter as much because the information wasn't being handed out as much unless it directly affected the characters. I feel like if the world had been hashed out a little more, or even a little less, I would have found it a lot more enjoyable.

Admittedly, it might also just not be a good one to listen to on audiobook, which is what I did. I found it enjoyable enough that I might see about revisiting it in the future and reading a physical copy to see if it's easier to track what's going on and understand it better.

This is a small book, but it has a LOT of information packed into it. I took my time reading through it because the topics are obviously on the heavier side and I wanted to give myself time to process what I was reading.

Snyder does a fantastic job at drawing the parallels between Nazism and Communism and what is occurring in America at this time. As an American, I felt that this is a very important book. You always hear references to the president pulling from Hitler's playbook, but you don't get much information other than that. This puts a lot of it into perspective. Chillingly, though, this was written in 2017, and seeing everything playing out the same way with more force is frankly terrifying.

This book is not just gloom and doom, though. Snyder talks about his different points, gives you some detail so you understand what it means, and then usually gives you some advice for how to react to or handle these events coming to play in real life.

If you are concerned about what you have been seeing from this presidency, you should absolutely give this a read.

This is a well-done twist on vampires that I haven't seen done yet. The vampires can only feed from a chosen bloodline, those bloodlines form houses, and they are constantly trying to destroy each other. The houses are also magical and have rules that can not be ignored or broken without serious consequences. Kidan, the MC, is the last heiress to one of the houses and reluctantly claims her title in an attempt to unravel the disappearance of her sister. But when she gets to Uxlay, the very vampire that she was told was responsible for the disappearance of her sister is not only there, but also vying for ownership of the house.

This is a true enemies to lovers plot. It is YA so it does not get that risque but the tension is very well done. I'm very much looking forward to the next book to be released. This is one that I'm going to be buying a copy of.