Jasper

Fun middle book to this series, though it felt more like an ending, apart from, like, the last line which implied that there's more. It felt very wrapped up, so I will admit I'm a bit more hesitant to pick up the next book. But this one was creative and cleverly written, so I very likely will.

It was...alright.
The worldbuilding was alright and the characters were alright; nothing really stood out to me.
There was only one flaw I could find, which was that Vilcot was kind of reasonable to be suspicious of Plenthy and Greggin? Plenthy took his and Greggin's money without telling them what he was doing (which really wasn't that hard he couldn't literally just asked) and then when he got trapped in the human world someone might have actually cared to look for him, meanwhile Vilcot wouldn't have been so cruel to the Rollops.
But yeah, apart from that it wasn't bad at all. But, it wasn't really good? It was so, so.

Really good! The pacing was much better than the first Night Vale novel and the whole thing just felt sort of better put together. I think I understood what was going on a lot better than in the first book.

Speaking of what was going on in the book, it was very cool! Lots of twists and turns and incredibly, incredibly strange things happening, as they do in Night Vale, and also many quite profound passages that genuinely make you think. All round, really good! :)

Had I not already seen the show, I would have had no clue what on earth happened in this comic. The characters are poorly set up, and the story goes too fast, with all of the reveals coming too quickly so the reader doesn't get any suspense or shock, such as Vanya having powers. I didn't connect with any of the characters, and didn't entirely understand what powers they had. The art is cool but the story is very badly written and if you're going to consume Umbrella Academy content, just watch the show.

[3.5 stars]

This was definitely better than Alice Oseman's other novella, Nick and Charlie. While I do this she is much better at writing full novels, this one was good and I enjoyed reading it. It did fall into some of the same pitfalls as Nick and Charlie I felt, with a lot of the book being explaining context rather than telling the actual story, but other than that, it was good. The illustrations were also really cute :)

This is just not it. The art style is awful and this book doesn't actually tell us why Tigerstar fell in love with Sasha. Not worth reading.

I love this book. The Hotel New Hampshire is one of the strangest books I have ever read, but it is so wonderful. Over the course of the book you come to love all the characters as they get into all sorts of weird situations! I will admit, this book does use some terms which are very outdated now, I'm not sure how okay they were back when it was written, but if you're uncomfortable with the word m*dget used for people with dwarfism or themes of rape, underage sex, or incest then I'd maybe steer clear of this one. (As for the incest, it is fully consensual and does not last long.)
Aside from all that, this book is just brilliant. 5/5 stars, I loved it!

I LOOOOVE ALICE OSEMAN'S BOOKS!!!! The emphasis she puts on friendship makes me so happy!!

An absolutely wonderful little book filled with incredible imagination from the author, shown by the setting of the moon and the sea. The moon especially captivated me; it just seemed like an amazing, beautiful place to be! And (almost) all of the characters were utterly delightful, Roverandom and his moon-dog and mer-dog friends most of all! I can't believe I've had this book simply sitting, unread, on my shelves for years, being completely unknowing of the marvellous little story that lay inside!

[3.5 stars]

Absolutely horrific, definitely scarred me for life but it was great, can't wait to read the next one!

This book was different to a lot of what I read, as it was a true story. While the writing wasn't fantastic, and some of the lines were a bit questionable, the fact that it was a true, entertaining story kept this book from being less enjoyable.
I found it fascinating to read about James's life, how he became addicted, and how he managed to get his life back on track through busking and selling the Big Issue. I learned a lot through this book that I had no idea about, such as a lot about how selling the Big Issue works, and the disappointing, yet unsurprising hostility from a lot of other people in similar positions to James himself.

Reading James and Bob's story together was heartwarming, and a little devastating, knowing what happened in 2020. Bob was a delightful character and its amazing how he helped James and its truly a shame that's he's no longer with us now.

Very in depth and informative.

I liked this book. I thought the relationship between David and Tucky and Mr Reynolds was really sweet and the ending was very wholesome.

I did think that David and Tucky's reasoning for helping the Germans was a bit disappointing. It would have been interesting to see them help them simply because they are people rather than out of a debt, but I can understand that it is easy to write a simpler reason since this is a kids' book.

I still don't really understand why the injured German man hid that fact that he could speak English very well, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book.

I cannot honestly explain why I loved this book so much. It's miserable and grim and the cast of characters is filled with abhorrent people who toss around slurs like it's nothing. [tw for f slur and r slur]

But for some reason it really captivated me. The twisted games that Andrew played and the determined desperation of Wymack to make his team great and Neil's navigation of this whole world purely for a game he loved was amazing to read. There were scenes that made my blood boil and my heart race. Though I would give a trigger warning for people with extreme body issues as Neil faces several situations in this book where he is has to reveal his body where he doesn't want to. As a trans guy, those scenes particularly made me quite anxious, though this really helped me to connect with Neil's struggles. (I too would hide a binder at the bottom of my bag haha)

The end of this book was so intense, while also being very calm as well. It made me so excited to read the sequel, and I can absolutely see why everyone says it's so good.