Jane

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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Given the foreword written by the author of the book, I can understand why this book was off to me, especially if I compare it to the 1st book. Though, to be honest, I’m not quite sure if the foreword actually set up my mind to notice the difference of the vibe or if the vibe was really just different. Regardless, this 2nd book in the series fell short of what I expected.

I am not saying it’s bad. It was good enough for me to consider it okay but I had quite a few issues with it.

The pacing was slower this time. For one thing, the homicide didn’t happen immediately. The whole thing started off with a threat towards the local teen beauty pageant. So, I thought this will somehow follow the trajectory of the movie Miss Congeniality. I expected Lila to embed herself in the pageant activities to ferret out the culprit and then have humorous scenes sprinkled here and there. But it did not go that way.

What I got was a good dose of Lila reflecting about her relationship with her mother. How she felt like she couldn’t get her mom’s approval if she wasn’t out there winning medals or something. Normally I’d feel a good amount of sympathy during such scenes. However, I couldn’t get into it because I kept on wondering if a child of eight could remember such slights so vividly especially since her mom died soon afterwards. Also, the slights were…slight. Relatively speaking. Always fixing her hair. Telling her to do her best. Were those actions and comments that trauma inducing? Could such things, that weren’t even reinforced after her mom’s death, be really that impactful?

I don’t know. It all felt…forced and unnecessary. Lila was already dealing with PTSD from the events in the first book. Why not focus more on that? Setting up Lila to have issues with her mom just seemed like a reach.

I was not that happy with the characterization of some characters.

1. Amir was just blah. I was hoping he would be fleshed out some more in this book but he has become more of an afterthought in this book. This was probably because the author was setting up the end of the love triangle but, in my humble opinion, it could have been handled better.

2. Dr. Jae was also not that fleshed out. Beyond him being sweet and cute, what was he? I still can’t understand what makes him interesting enough for Lila to want to be with. Was he more accommodating than Amir, sure. But so could a lot of other people. So why him? I will concede, though, that fleshing him out to the point that he had distinct quirks was not important since the book was, first and foremost, about mystery and not romance.

3. The characterization of the Calendar Crew, Bernie, Lola Flor and Tita Rosie were believable. However, it was so believable to me that it made me mad.

The whole ‘forgive and forget’ trait that a lot of Filipinos adopt is, quite frankly, unhealthy. Tita June’s and Bernie’s habit of talking shit about people, who were supposedly their friends and family, was sadly typical. The fact that they were welcomed back into the fold later on was also typical. Did they apologize, sure. Will they probably do it again. Fuck, yes.

I could forgive Bernie though. She was pitted against Lila since they were kids. Then in this instance, her life was on the line and people didn’t seem that to care about her. Sure, they were investigating the murder which does help her out. But no one seems to be checking up on her well-being. On top of that, Bernie had been actively trying to be a better person. Unlike her mom.

4. Lila becoming friends with Yuki just struck me as weird. Didn’t that woman cheat on her husband? I found it hard to believe that a person who got cheated on would become friends with a cheater.

Last but not least, I could not get invested in the effort to solve the homicide. The guy was a douche. I really couldn’t care who killed him. And in the end, I was kind of sad they caught who did it.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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As much as I don’t shy away from Celebrity Gossip, which should have made this right up my alley, I am not raving about this book. It’s a good book, don’t get me wrong. But it just wasn’t for me.

Why it wasn't for me?

For some reason, I felt no connection to the main characters. They were boring to me with the exception of their douche dad. We were given their sob story, which made me feel sorry for them, but I just could not get invested in them.

Maybe it’s because there was no clear goal in the story. To me, this was like having a friend who just wanted to rant but you thought they were asking for advice. So, for most of the time they’re talking, you’re wondering what exactly were they asking you to do. That’s basically how I felt when I was reading this.

Why did I give it this rating?

Well, as I said, this was still a good book.

1. The pacing was good.

2. The characters, though flawed, were not annoyingly contradictory which was something I’ve seen in the past books I’ve read (cough - Of Jade and Dragons - cough).

3. The party in the story really captured the 80’s vibe. The cocaine being offered around in serving trays was exactly what you’d picture you’d see in those kinds of shindigs.

Other notes

These aren’t bad for the story but if the story/characters were real, I’d be concerned.

1. As a person who struggled to buy their own place, reading the house burn down, messed me up. I know this is fiction and plot wise, the house burning down was very symbolic of leaving your past behind, but it was so upsetting to me.

2. There were so many beautiful women in Malibu but Hud could only fall in love with his brother’s ex? Really? Did he not have eyes? Was he just that lazy in finding a partner?

3. Jay was, in some ways, becoming like his dad. His interest in women were fleeting. He didn’t even like his ex, Ashley (the woman Hud fell in love with) that much. He was just hurt she broke up with him. Then he’s pursuing this woman, Lara, who he didn’t really think was that attractive. He seemed to be pursuing her because she wasn’t throwing herself at him and was, therefore, a challenge.

4. Their mom, June, was selfish and a hypocrite. She had too much pride to go after their dad for child support but named the diner after him to make money from his name. She should have swallowed her pride and went after Mick. The child support would have spared the children hardship and Nina wouldn’t have had to drop out of school.

Maybe an Unpopular Opinion

Casey was an unnecessary addition to the story. There was no real purpose to her that I could see. She wasn’t even needed to give Nina an incognito car to the airport. Nina could have just taken any of the other cars left parked at their house since so many party guests got arrested.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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I was all set to rate this book a 3.5 as I read it.

1. Prose was good.

2. Pacing was good.

3. World building was not extraordinary but it was ok.

4. Characterization of the characters seemed good.

Then, starting at around Chapter 21, characterization fell apart. Let me explain.

1. Lorelei wasn’t consistent. At first, when she did seem to change a bit, it was still understandable given her past or her need to be pragmatic about the circumstances they found themselves in. However, the way she flipped flopped from admitting she loved Sylvia to selling her out was just weird. I tried to rationalize her actions given how she was essentially backed into a corner. But then she flipped flopped again when they reached the Vanishing Island. And yes, she felt guilty. But come on.

Another thing I found annoying was how some of Lorelei’s actions caused drama for drama’s sake. She’s a smart woman but would do small dumb things. Then she’d get in her feelings and pout. For months. Which all felt unnecessary and was just written to create filler.

2. My issue with Sylvia’s characterization was the opposite of my issue with Lorelei. She was too consistent. She didn’t change. Even after Lorelei sold her out to Adelheid, she was still professing how much she loved Lorelei.

She’s a beautiful and accomplished woman. For god’s sake, she’s a princess. Can’t she have some self-respect and standards?

I truly believe that Sylvia’s character, despite some sad background, was very one note. It felt like such a waste of a potentially great character.

3. The characterization of Wilhelm also did not sit well with me. He was congenial enough to be friends with the heirs of rival territories but those same people regard him as a person who will betray them at any moment.

That’s fine. He’s a king who’s trying to hold on to power. I understand how he can be viewed as opportunistic.

But then later on Lorelei was thinking that he was basically giving her a “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” when he was handing her letters from Sylvia. Would a power hungry monarch do that?

So why did I rate this as such?

While it might seem like I have a lot of notes for this, it’s really just one big issue for me. Characterization.

Other items are just minor issues such as:

1. The overuse of metaphors. But those metaphors didn’t take you out of the scene unlike in ‘Home Is Where the Bodies Are’.

2. Some creatures’ names are so close to each other that I got confused but I put the blame on me because for some parts of this book, I was listening to the audiobook version.

Editor Issue

I found a mistake at Chapter 3 - page 42:

- In all fairness, she had hidden on a balcony until Ludwig coaxed her into his carriage at the end of the night, but she would not concede he point.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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I was all set to rate this book a 3.5 as I read it.

1. Prose was good.

2. Pacing was good.

3. World building was not extraordinary but it was ok.

4. Characterization of the characters seemed good.

Then, starting at around Chapter 21, characterization fell apart. Let me explain.

1. Lorelei remained pretty consistent and when she did seem to change a bit it was still understandable given her past or her need to be pragmatic about the circumstances they found themselves in. However, the way she flipped flopped from admitting she loved Sylvia to selling her out was just weird. I tried to rationalize her actions given how she was essentially backed into a corner. But then she flipped flopped again when they reached the Vanishing Island. And yes, she felt guilty. But come on.

Another thing I found annoying was how some of Lorelei’s actions caused drama for drama’s sake. She’s a smart woman but would do small dumb things. Then she’d get in her feelings and pout. For months. Which all felt unnecessary and was just written to create filler.

2. My issue with Sylvia’s characterization was the opposite of my issue with Lorelei. She was too consistent. She didn’t change. Even after Lorelei sold her out to Adelheid, she was still professing how much she loved Lorelei.

She’s a beautiful and accomplished woman. For god’s sake, she’s a princess. Can’t she have some self-respect and standards?

I truly believe that Sylvia’s character, despite some sad background, was very one note. It felt like such a waste of a potentially great character.

3. The characterization of Wilhelm also did not sit well with me. He was congenial enough to be friends with the heirs of rival territories but those same people regard him as a person who will betray them at any moment.

That’s fine. He’s a king who’s trying to hold on to power. I understand how he can be viewed as opportunistic.

But then later on Lorelei was thinking that he was basically giving her a “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” when he was handing her letters from Sylvia. Would a power hungry monarch do that?

So why did I rate this as such?

While it might seem like I have a lot of notes for this, it’s really just one big issue for me. Characterization.

Other items are just minor issues such as:

1. The overuse of metaphors. But those metaphors didn’t take you out of the scene unlike in ‘Home Is Where the Bodies Are’.

2. Some creatures’ names are so close to each other that I got confused but I put the blame on me because for some parts of this book, I was listening to the audiobook version.

Editor Issue

I found a mistake at Chapter 3 - page 42:

- In all fairness, she had hidden on a balcony until Ludwig coaxed her into his carriage at the end of the night, but she would not concede he point.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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I have been stressed these past 2 months so I picked this as one of the last things to read this year because I needed something easy to read.

It might seem weird that I rated this higher than some books that were objectively better. But it’s about expectations.

From the summary of this book and the reviews I’ve read, I knew that this wasn’t something deep and meaningful. I have been forewarned on the problematic scenes scattered in the story. I also went into this without expecting a lot of character development or world building.

This was supposed to be a fairly run of the mill fantasy. It will have some monster fighting. It will have “spicy” scenes (some of which are questionable by today’s moral standards).

So given those, I can say that my expectations were met. There were no surprises. There were no unexpected disappointments. What edged this to a 2.5 instead of a 2.0 was because it didn’t have any weird and annoying contradictory actions from the characters (cough – Of Jade and Dragons – cough).

Would I recommend this to others? Probably not especially if I don’t know them well. I also won’t recommend this to the younger audience. However, this does fit a certain niche of interest and I don’t see a problem with reading this book or books of the same ilk. I mean, we don’t always have to read award winning books. As I said to the girl who rang this book up for me in Coles: We don’t always have to eat vegetables. It’s ok to eat some junk food. And this the equivalent of junk food in the literary world.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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I was really stressed during the time I was reading this but couldn’t take my sweet time to read it because it was due to be returned to the library in just 2 weeks. I supplemented my reading with text – to – speech to finish it because I was too tired to “read” it. Given the circumstances, my rating of this book could go up or down later after I do a re-read.

This was the 2nd Emily Henry I’ve read and I can’t help but compare them. Overall, this was a better read than Book Lovers. Here, it’s more believable that they fell in love with each other.

1. The characters of Poppy and Alex were more fleshed out so we could see what about them made the other person fall in love with them.

2. Their affection for each other was cultivated through years. It wasn’t something that happened suddenly.

But despite the fact that this story avoided what I consider the major flaws in Book Lovers, I still felt like something was missing. That, while I could see them falling in love, I felt like it was wrong for them to get together that quickly after such a big conflict. The conflict being, Poppy basically asking Alex to perform boyfriend duties when he wasn’t her boyfriend, causing problems in Alex’s own relationship because he failed to set boundaries with Poppy.

There was so much time spent telling us about the different vacations they went to. Which was ok because it laid the groundwork for their bond. But I would have loved it if the story showed us how they repaired their relationship after Poppy made the grand gesture of coming back to her old high school and professing her love for Alex. I wanted to see what happened immediately after that. But what we got was them months later, happily living in New York. It seemed too convenient and I felt robbed of the angst I was looking for in this book.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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As much as I don’t shy away from Celebrity Gossip, which should have made this right up my alley, I am not raving about this book. It’s a good book, don’t get me wrong. But it just wasn’t for me.

Why it wasn't for me?

For some reason, I felt no connection to the main characters. They were boring to me with the exception of their douche dad. We were given their sob story, which made me feel sorry for them, but I just could not get invested in them.

Maybe it’s because there was no clear goal in the story. To me, this was like having a friend who just wanted to rant but you thought they were asking for advice. So, for most of the time they’re talking, you’re wondering what exactly were they asking you to do. That’s basically how I felt when I was reading this.

Why did I give it this rating?

Well, as I said, this was still a good book.

1. The pacing was good.

2. The characters, though flawed, were not annoyingly contradictory which was something I’ve seen in the past books I’ve read (cough - Of Jade and Dragons - cough).

3. The party in the story really captured the 80’s vibe. The cocaine being offered around in serving trays was exactly what you’d picture you’d see in those kinds of shindigs.

Other notes

These aren’t bad for the story but if the story/characters were real, I’d be concerned.

1. As a person who struggled to buy their own place, reading the house burn down, messed me up. I know this fiction and plot wise, the house burning down was very symbolic of leaving your past behind, but it was so upsetting to me.

2. There were so many beautiful women in Malibu but Hud could only fall in love with his brother’s ex? Really? Did he not have eyes? Was he just that lazy in finding a partner?

3. Jay was, in some ways, becoming like his dad. His interest in women were fleeting. He didn’t even like his ex, Ashley (the woman Hud fell in love with) that much. He was just hurt she broke up with him. Then he’s pursuing this woman, Lara, who he didn’t really think was that attractive. He seemed to be pursuing her because she wasn’t throwing herself at him and was, therefore, a challenge.

4. Their mom, June, was selfish and a hypocrite. She had too much pride to go after their dad for child support but named the diner after him to make money from his name. She should have swallowed her pride and went after Mick. The child support would have spared the children hardship and Nina wouldn’t have had to drop out of school.

Maybe an Unpopular Opinion

Casey was an unnecessary addition to the story. There was no real purpose to her that I could see. She wasn’t even needed to give Nina an incognito car to the airport. Nina could have just taken any of the other cars left parked at their house since so many party guests got arrested.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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I considered DNFing this book.

1.

The summary basically sold this to me as a murder mystery. Well, there were murders and who committed them was a mystery however this was really more of a family drama.

There was hardly any investigation. Most of the book was about their family problems. It felt like the murder mystery plot was shoe horned in.

2.

I was not a fan of the writing style. At 1st it was fine. However, the inner monologues were too dramatic and long. I would have understood if it was just Nicole who has like that. But Beth was the same.

Example:

There was a scene were Beth saw her high school sweetheart at the door. Between seeing him and finally opening the door, she had this long inner monologue that made it seem like minutes passed. I kept picturing that guy seeing Beth see him and waited for minutes before she opened the door.

3.

Another issue with the writing style was that the author had a fondness for metaphors. I’m not opposed to that usually but it was over used. It also popped up in places where it seemed inappropriate because it took you out of the scene.

Example:

There’s a scene where they were all grabbing for a gun and the author wrote that they were fighting over it like it was their favorite toy.

The whole scene was supposed to give the readers this sense that things were frantic. That description pulled me out of that. It was so annoying.

I tried to get myself to finish this book by listening to the audiobook more. But I think it made things worse. The performances in the audiobook were not great.

If there were fewer inner monologues, I think I would have enjoyed this book. Personally, I think this might have worked better as a screenplay.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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Given that this book was about one of the most engaging characters in the MCU, it’s really boring.

I get that Loki lost his ability to sew chaos while in exile, but he would still have his usual charm and wit. Those were sorely lacking here.

Tony’s descent into obsession with avenging Happy was also not great. Plotwise, it would have been fine however I don’t think it was well executed. I believe he can get obsessed but not to the point that he’d kidnap a kid. He’s a douche but he’s not totally depraved.

The timeline was also problematic.

The whole thing happened in just a few months. The significance of Loki’s “redemption” is undermined given how he was only exiled for a few months. Heck, it hasn’t even been half a year. How changed could he be in just a few months?

On top of all this, we don’t even find out the identity of the person who tricked Loki and masterminded Thor’s death.

The only saving grace here was the scene between Loki and his mother, when he asked how could he hold up his arms to receive his parents love when his arms were loaded with the feeling of shame.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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I was torn about giving this a 3.0 or 3.5. The reason I settled for 3.0 is because, while I think this is well written and an enjoyable enough read, there was nothing really outstanding about it. I didn’t get particularly irritated when reading it. But I wasn’t exactly at the edge of my seat either.

Pros:

1. Prose is good.

2. Pacing is good.

3. Characterization is good.

4. Audiobook performance --- Great.

Cons:

1. The title was a bit misleading. I thought this book was going to go into how women related to the house were getting framed for crimes. Turns out a big part of the story was about a woman in a painting. So, it was a woman is a frame in Ardmore House.

2. I expected there to be more clues to lead to the actual perpetrator and that person’s motive. However, there were only quite a few of those so the ending was a surprise but not in a good way.

Would I read sequels to this book? Maybe. I don’t consider myself a “Mystery Girlie”, despite the fact I seem to be reading mysteries since the start of the year. But this was an okay book.

Side Note:

- This is the 2nd Book Club pick where the house burned down. As a person who pays a mortgage, it was very upsetting.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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The book was both an easy and a hard read. It’s easy enough to read however the events in it just makes me want to put it down due to frustration. People were awful, including Ji-won, and I felt the need to just hit some of them. Credit to the author for being able to evoke such strong feelings in me.

While all the men in this book were pretty much scum, I feel the real villain here was Ji-won’s mother. Instead of helping her children cope with having been abandoned by their father, that self-centered, attention craving woman sacrificed her children’s comfort, self-worth, and safety just so she would feel attractive and wanted. She’s also training her children to be doormats for men. I can’t even see the mom’s action as cultural conditioning because Asian women are conditioned to sacrifice for their family even if it’s to their detriment. Her actions were all about her. There was no thought to her children, to the family. And she did it all for a man that was mooch and treated her like shit. Arghhh.

Given her parents’ actions and beliefs, I’m not surprised Ji-won was messed up.

The many rage inducing scenes in this book made the end very satisfactory to me despite it being open-ended. If it didn’t end that way, I may have thrown my book at someone.

Audiobook Critique:

I am peeved how the voice talent, in the audiobook, would speak slower for 2 of Ji-won’s former friends. They sounded like they were pre schoolers learning to talk instead of college students.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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This was a well-done story. If it was longer, I would probably love it as much as Song of Achilles. But, alas, it is just a short story.

Despite the length, it did give us a compelling look into the life of a woman so trapped by her “husband”. The man was not only controlling, he was a woman hater who sees value in women so long as they fit in the extremely narrow parameters he sets for them.

This book was not just a retelling. It’s a commentary on the wild and harmful rhetoric and philosophy of the red-pill movement. This isn’t just about incels. It’s about men who use women and then blame them for being used.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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While I might not really say, I love this book so much, I did, however, enjoyed it immensely. I was quite saddened that this is a litfic and will not have a sequel. Or at least not with Marcellus. If he’s not a part of it, then I probably won’t want to read it.

Pros:

1. I loooooooove Marcellus. I was already thinking about borrowing this book when it was chosen as the Book Club pick for the month. The draw was the octopus.

2. Though the story did stray far from Tova’s interactions with Marcellus, very little of it felt unnecessary or filler. I’m not saying it’s devoid of it. But I can only think of 1 scene that I think this book could have done without or reduced.

3. The title of the book insinuates that it’s talking about the octopus or all octopi. But in the end it it’s about people as well.

Cons:

1. Not enough Marcellus.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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What was supposed to be a book that focused on mystery with sprinkles of drama became the reverse. And I am supremely annoyed by it.

As expected, there was a death. And sure, I was invested to find out who did it and why. But there was so much family drama going on and other shenanigans that I forgot why they needed to solve it. I mean, yeah, the death should be solved but why it had to be solved by them kinda got lost.

In the 1st book it was clear why. In the second book, Bernie was the suspect and the pageant contestants could be in danger, so I could understand why they felt the need to get into it. But here? Why couldn’t they let the cops do their jobs for once? None of them were even the locked in suspect. Sure, Ronnie’s business was in danger, but again, I was not convinced of the urgency to solve it immediately that they had to wade in. And just to make it clear how fast the timeline of events was, the dead person didn’t even get buried yet when the whole thing happened.

Since the book went into the family drama more than I thought was necessary, I felt that there was not enough bread crumbing of the clues about the real culprit and the motive. They had only a little bit of it in the latter chapters but by that time, I was exhausted from reading the family drama that I didn’t really sign up for.

The family drama had its pros and cons.

Pros:

1. It gave us more background on Auntie Rosie.

2. I, again, thought that the portrayal of Lila’s family was believable. Unfortunately, there are families like that. The guilt trips, the demands to be in your private business, etc. are sadly very common in Filipino families.

Cons:

1. I learned more about Auntie Rosie, and it didn’t really paint that great of a picture of her.

2. The portrayal of the family was believable and like with book 2, it made me mad.

From what I understood, Auntie Rosie’s husband was a bastard. But she refused to kick him out or leave him. I’m not surprised her kid, Ronnie, was screwed up. She held on to his father, so he probably mimicked her and held on to him too only to be left behind. And in typical Filipino way, they probably never really talked about it. So, his acting out, while infuriating, was understandable.

The fact that her husband was a douche was not Auntie Rosie’s fault. But the fact that she didn’t grow a spine, stand up to him, divorce him, and show her kid that the way his dad treated them was not right…that was on her.

I did not doubt she did her best to show her son love. But Tita Rosie also showed him, by accepting her husband’s ill treatment and remaining married to him until this day, that it’s okay to be treated like shit

Ronnie’s comments to his mother were rude but he did have a point. He said she picked the wrong man and I agree. She essentially picked the wrong man everyday that she didn’t divorce his father. And since she was not divorced, Ronnie, again, was right. She was still a married woman.

What infuriated me the most was scene when they finally learned that about Ronnie’s kid. Tita Rosie’s first reaction was, ”Did you really hate me so much that you couldn’t even tell me about the birth of my first grandchild?” Uh, lady, the world does not revolve around you. The decision to not tell you about any aspect of his life was not about you.

There were so many parts in this book that had me thinking it was stuff from the AITA subreddit. In which my verdict for all of these was ESH (Everybody Sucks Here).

So why did I rate this a 2.0 instead of a 1.5? :

Despite the fact that I got so mad at so many parts of the book, my anger kept me engaged. So, I guess that was it’s redeeming quality.

Side Note:

The fact that the mother of Ronnie’s kid is Izzy’s cousin, and it seems like he and Izzy are going to be a thing…it gave me the ick. The same with having Lila and Tita Rosie being in a relationship or possible relationship with brothers. It gave me sister-wives vibes.

Audiobook Critique:

That is NOT how you pronounce "tuyo".

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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This book was doing too much. It’s a story within a story that also included an excerpt of another story.

The main reason I didn’t DNF this book was because I really wanted to finish my Book Club’s pick so that I can have a meaningful discussion when we do meet up. If I had picked this up on my own, I would have abandoned it within the first 100 pages.

Basically, there are 2 main stories.

1. A mystery novel that had the last few chapters missing.

2. The search for the missing chapters that bloomed into trying to figure out what really happened to its author.

This book started with the mystery novel. It progressed as stories usually do.

Frankly I could hardly get myself to be invested in solving who killed the so-called victims in the mystery novel. Both seemed like awful people. To me, they had it coming.

Then as things in that story finally got me invested, it abruptly halted because the succeeding chapters were missing. The story of this book suddenly shifted to the current day story about the missing chapters and the author of the mystery novel.

The current day story was even more boring than the story in the mystery novel. There were so many long-winded red herrings thrown in there that trying to scrutinize them for clues, as to who killed the author and why, was basically pointless. They all, in the end, didn’t matter other than to hammer home the point that the author was a <b>BIG HONKING DOUCHE</b>.

Were the missing chapters of the mystery novel found? Yes. Honestly, it was an interesting end to that story.

However, the rest of the book? Ugh. Self-indulgent. I should have just skipped all the chapters related to the current day plot about the author of the book. As for it’s ending, it was not really that interesting. It was similar to the movie Gattaca.

<b>Side Note: </b>

<spoiler>This is the 3rd book from my Book Club where a house/building burned down.</spoiler>