Megan

This genuinely made me uncomfortable. If you're wondering if you NEED to read it and aren't someone who has to consume every side story that isn't essential, don't read it. You really don't need to. It's just uncomfortable.

I think the writing style and perspective works really well for this kind of story. I was thoroughly icked out the whole time. Joe is a disturbed human being.

This ended up being exactly what I wanted and needed this story to be! As someone with zoo experience and current studies focused on the illegal wildlife trade, I can say this is such an accurate portrayal of all things zoo, conservation, and wildlife related. It's cozy yet has a good plot with tons of emotion and great character moments. A keeper struggling to conquer the public speaking demon is so real too. No one gets into such a low-paying job because they love talking to people - it's definitely the animals!

I disagree with everyone who says this writing style is lyrical and beautiful. I personally found the book overwritten and the style was distracting. I pushed through because I was interested and had a good enough time. There was quite a bit of repetition of super odd phrases (ex: pebbled skin, organ in my chest) that, again, was incredibly distracting. Despite that, I did find myself enjoying the story and wanting to read more. It's no more than what I expected it to be, and that's okay. I just hope the second book is edited more thoroughly and the MC has some distinct character growth. I can't handle the same amount of “everyone I love dies so I can't have love” inner monologue as was in this book.

I almost DNF'd this book and am glad I just stepped away for a few weeks. I was getting really annoyed with the time jumps and was frustrated at how long it was taking to connect parts of the story. I did not care about the lives of the characters before everything went down. Once things picked up I enjoyed it a lot more and flew through the end. It was predictable and the villain vanquished without much fanfare, but I wasn't disappointed. However, I wish there had been a tiny bit more insight for the reader about the lights at the end. I think I just wanted an extra dash of hope in my mind for the characters before closing off their story.

I said to myself about 50% of the way through this, “I should dnf this book, but I'm dumb.” There's nothing bad about this book, I was just wildly bored and uninterested in the neverending soulmate talk.

This book was extremely thorough and well researched. I appreciated the breadth of topics covered and felt uplifted that I had a split basis in everything covered. I wanted to read this partially for book club and partially for grad school.

This was an extremely fast read for me, and I really enjoyed it. It's a book about people who have private business that they think (or are told) they should keep private, and how those secrets affect their lives. It's not going to change my life or anything, but I really liked it and had a great time while reading it. Of course, it had some issues that you would expect from a debut novel, like the somewhat rushed ending, overly cheesy dialogue between Ruth and Hank, etc. It easily needed another 25 pages in the Fall/Winter sections.

But honestly it was an excellent debut as far as writing style goes, which I really liked. I particularly appreciated the no-fuss time jumps that let us skip to important parts of the year without slogging through every day in between. There are multiple perspectives, and I kept track of them pretty easily. There was a list of characters in the front of the book that I only had to refer to twice. Overall, I thought it was a really heartwarming and sweet story. I think it would be an easy book to recommend to a wide audience that most people would like.

The ending was a little eye-rolly, but I chalked it up to it being a debut. I also think the small Alaska town vibe made me less annoyed by how it all came together. It was a feel-good movie ending, and honestly I was totally fine with it. It was cute, and sometimes you just need a cute ending.

Nimona was both very cute and very sad. I wasn't expecting to feel so many things at the end. I really enjoy Noelle Stevenson's humor and the characters she creates. I think Nimona's story is particularly interesting because of the many possibilities and layers of her origin. I think the only major critique I have is one Stevenson herself shares, and that is the romantic relationship was far too subtle and easy missed by some people. It definitely should have been brought to the foreground of the story in many instances.

This is a 3-star book that I wanted to knock down to 2 because it includes a female character lying about being raped, a lot. I'm not okay with fictional stories including the narrative that women can easily make false rape accusations. But I'm going to stick with 3 stars after a day of waffling, mainly due to the intent of the author.

The rest of the book was okay. All the characters are unlikable, which works for the story. It was pretty predictable and unsurprising (which I was disappointed by) and the last half was a bit boring and uneventful. I kept waiting for a second twist that never came. I was intrigued enough throughout the story though, so that's why I lean toward 3 stars. It just wasn't as exciting as I was hoping it would be.

I get that this book is supposed to pit the misogynist against the misandrist. However, I didn't find the characters particularly complex, so this battle fell very flat for me. Instead, it landed in a weird spot that dangerously resembled fuel for misogynists. Maybe it's because cheating husbands and misogynists are less villainized in society, especially compared to women who lie about rape or “trap” a man with pregnancy. There was not enough discussion on these points to prevent it from easily fulfilling a misogynist's wet dream of a “feminazi” or evil women. Couple that with Nick being a mostly-innocent, framed husband whose only crimes were cheating and calling his wife names in his head. It's not hard to see which character is more “right” and sympathetic, at least on paper. When the goal of the book is to portray the clash between misogyny and misandry, but the misogynist commits lesser and fewer crimes, there's a foregone conclusion. Combine this with Amy's own internalized misogyny, plus other flat female characters, and I ended up very frustrated. I just needed much more complexity than there was, instead of walking stereotypes.

Like I said, these unlikable characters worked for the story, and I would be fine with Amy doing all the stereotypical “evil woman” things if there was more commentary on it. Same with Nick and his stereotypical “bastard husband” behavior.

Finally, I understand the love for the “Cool Girl” speech Amy writes and how women identify with it. I think it resonates strongly with a lot of people, and not many excerpts from thrillers accomplish that.

I didn't hate it, but I feel like I need to go to the dentist now from the over-the-top sweetness. And the last few chapters irritated me immensely.

I knew it! This one feels like I earned it.

Absolutely bloody fantastic. I have no other words.

Malerman mastered the atmosphere here and really had me nervous at times. I sort of wish there had been more of a conclusion, but I also believe that would've made this book lose rereadability for me. As it stands, I think I could reread it and still feel unnerved.

In my opinion, The Good Nurse is one of those thriller-style true crime books. Perhaps that's because I listened to the audiobook, and this was while I was also reading a huge stack of children's and middle grade books for Believathon. Honestly, I understand the comparison to Truman Capote's writing style. It's clear the author's writing was heavily influenced by In Cold Blood. Now I loved In Cold Blood, so this didn't quite measure up to the bar Capote set in my mind. However, I still think the author accomplished something similar, at least when you listen to the book. I couldn't stop listening and finished it in less than two days. I found it gripping and chilling. I really appreciated the additional perspectives too. Truthfully, there could have been more analysis, but overall it was worth the read. I'll probably read it physically in the future to see if I have the same problems other reviewers had with the writing and grammar. It's definitely a different experience when you listen to a true crime story, and I'm curious if I would rate it the same.

What a cute book and great way to introduce young kids to the idea of role-playing games and isolated, closed-circle mysteries. I honestly couldn't keep the characters straight though, so I don't know if a kid would be able to. The reveals were pretty fun though and the story was interesting. The pacing seemed slightly off in the second half of the book but that could just be my preference with how the story was structured.

As with all short story collections, I really liked some, really hated some, and the rest were somewhere in between. My average rating for the book as a whole was 3 stars, but I decided to go with an “It's okay” rating of 2 stars because of the repetitive stories. There was not enough variety in the retellings, with 2 of the 18 being about finding Rumpelstiltskin's name, and 3 being about how Jack (of the Beanstalk variety) is a murderous piece of crap. Of those three stories, two were set in a court room. Beyond that, the seven dwarves and Hansel and Grethel show up A LOT. There should have been more thought given to the overall composition of the collection to avoid this. It became tiresome reading about the same set of characters in different ways. There are more than enough fairy tales out there to avoid any sort of overlap at all.

The stories I most enjoyed were How I Came to Marry a Herpetologist, Gilly the Goose Girl, and Baron Boscov's Bastard. I absolutely hated Wolf at the Door and The Emperor's New (and Improved) Clothes.

Everything about this books suggests that I should hate it. Magical realism? Yup, hate that. Contemporary? Ew, why would I read about people who could be my neighbors unless it's true crime? Yet somehow The Crane Wife found its way onto my list of favorite books of the year. I connected with Amanda on a molecular level (despite having vastly differing opinions). Surprisingly I also really loved the variety of writing styles used and feel they affected the tone in an appropriate and noticeable way. In the end, did I get it? I don't know, but I loved it.

I struggled trying to rate this. It was hard to get into at first, but it was a quick read. I figured out the ending on page 67 and felt like I was trudging through a lot of unnecessary and repetitive descriptions of the people and history of Wind Gap just to get to the end. The main character is incredibly flawed, understandably so, and - though I love a flawed character - I'm so bored with the “unreliable alcoholic” trope. The sexualizing of 13-year-old girls was just uncomfortable too. The pacing at the very end was rushed, and it seemed like Flynn didn't know how to put the ending she wanted on the page. The reveal of the twist was a textbook example of telling instead of showing. I can still enjoy a book if I figure out the end as long as it is done well, but the emotionless telling led to a very anticlimactic reveal that didn't pack the punch the author was aiming for.

Well apparently I'm a sucker for ‘stranded in space' stories - anything that reminds me of Apollo 13 just gets to me. Watney's monologue was too absurd for me with all the yay's, and he was such a bro sometimes it was painful. But I had fun with the overall story. The science was incorporated well and super easy to follow.
________________Reread #1: This is still super fun and addicting. I didn't even mean to read it again... I just couldn't stop listening to the audiobook after I put it on for background noise just before bed.________________

Reread #2 : Accidentally listened to the whole thing again in the minutes before bed over a few days. Look, it's just a fun book, and apparently I love it.

Definitely a first edition. Needs to be proofread again.

I think this book is an excellent crash course in the elephant and rhino poaching crisis. It's a tiny bit dated now, unfortunately, just 5 years after being published. So much has happened in that short period of time, and it's important to look up more recent information as you go. For example, the last male Northern White Rhino passed away not long ago, so the section that discusses problems with inbreeding for the remaining seven NWRs is, sadly, irrelevant now.

Allie's blog got me through some dark times. I couldn't rate her book any less than 5 stars and love having a bound version of some of my favorite posts of hers. I've cried so many tears of laughter from while rereading “Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving” that I think my neighbors were probably concerned for me.

I consider this one of the most important books for first time dog owners or any owner who has little experience with positive reinforcement training. Read it before you get a new dog or puppy. It will help you set realistic goals and expectations. These folks are the people we should be listening to when it comes to dog behavior and training, not some fraud tv personality who has no formal education (and perpetuates disproven and dangerous myths).

I really wanted to like this book, and everything about the premise should have been a win for me. I find well-developed unreliable and unlikable characters extremely interesting. Reading from the POV of a killer or stalker (e.g., You by Caroline Kepnes) can be wonderfully disturbing and morbid. I like reading crime novels and true crime, and I find the psychology of serial killers fascinating. Unfortunately, I was severely disappointed in this whole book.

First let's talk about characters. Dexter is wildly inconsistent. He doesn't have emotions, but he has emotions. He doesn't have human desires, but he does. He's a sociopath, but he's not. He “isn't human” and doesn't care, yet somehow he cares about kids and has a moral code. It felt like the author didn't really know who the character was, or what serial killers and sociopaths are like. It may have been an attempt to create dimension to the character, but I don't think it worked and just left me confused.

That being said, I found Dexter's stress about his lost time compelling. It ultimately added to him feeling inconsistent, but the emotion itself was better described than in other books. Where it falls flat is on the follow-through. I wish his emotions had been more explored instead of him just thinking, “Woah I am feeling an emotion. That's weird. I don't have emotions.” Then he'd do something that was extremely emotionless. I'm pretty sure I have whiplash from all the back and forth.

Moving on, the female characters were awful, and it was apparent from the second chapter how bad it was going to be throughout the whole book. Dexter's sister was worthless, argumentative, and wanted him to do her job for her yet never believed him. Somehow she felt she deserved a promotion, though it was clear she'd make a terrible detective and couldn't do her own job without Dexter spoonfeeding her. His boss was a useless detective who was described as “outwardly feminine” but definitely couldn't have slept her way to her position, oh no, because she has a “masculine” personality. Somehow she's a stupid person who falls for a lot of bullshit, yet she's the only one to think about tailing Dexter. They were all useless characters and were so one-dimensional that they became caricatures. Across the board, the character development was lacking.

I started highlighting every instance that women were described as stupid, irrational, or in that ridiculous way male writers tend to describe female appearance, but I stopped after 41 highlights (many of which included whole paragraphs). I don't know why male writers can't write real women. I'm not saying every woman has to be smart and likeable, but write them in a realistic way. Maybe we were only seeing women as Dexter sees them, but if that's true then he also isn't consistent in that. He both thought sex workers didn't deserve to die but also thought they were “just prostitutes” so it didn't matter if they died. In the end, I don't believe these were simply Dexter's views of women because of how characteristic the descriptions were of male writers in general.

As for the plot, I always find dreams to be a weak plot-moving device. I also don't find lost time very interesting at all, in any book. It always feels like a cheap way to create suspense. I wasn't aware this book had that, otherwise I would've skipped it altogether (definitely my bad, given the title). It was obvious Dexter wasn't actually the murderer, and we had to go through most of the book waiting to find out who it really was, but not in a suspenseful way. It was more boring and dragged out than anything. The reveal was nothing short of lackluster.

I can't get on board with one traumatic event making two brothers (who were raised separately) serial killers. Nature vs nurture is incredibly complex, and they not only have different genetics but majorly different upbringings outside of one awful event. We're supposed to believe they're basically the same and the only difference between the two of them is that one kills with a moral code. It's a stretch.

The humor was okay sometimes, occasionally making me chuckle, but severely tone deaf other times. I don't personally find sex worker or race jokes funny, but they may hit the mark more with other people.

The alliterations and Dexter's inner voice grated my nerves. It was okay at first, kind of like personality quirks you find endearing in a new partner that you start to hate after the honeymoon phase is over. It became cheesy and annoying very quickly. It's definitely a personal preference, so your miles may vary.

I think because I read so much true crime, this book never stood a chance. It was so interesting at the start and had a ton of potential. The author could have delved so much deeper into the mind of a serial killer, but ultimately it felt really surface level and boring.