Megan

I finally re-read this as an adult, and wow I completely forgot everything that happened in the second half. It was fun to experience it again like it was new. There are a few moments that reinforce rigid gender stereotypes that I could obviously do without, but otherwise it's an extremely charming story. I started reading the physical book but borrowed the audiobook from my library to make some progress while running around town. Boy was that the best decision ever. The audiobook is absolutely fantastic. The narrator really brings the characters to life and makes you feel like they are real people talking. I also found myself completely dying at the posh accents. I listened to The Royal Breakfast chapter twice cause it was that well narrated. There is so much whimsy and imagination on every page. Somehow the giants speak wildly nonsensically, making up words as they go, yet it's so easy to follow along. Not to mention the BFG exclaiming “Oh, Ruler of Straight Lines!” when meeting Queen of England had me in stitches. Overall, I highly recommend this book for both kids and adults.

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Another childhood favorite that I remember fondly but definitely need to reread.

The author doesn't even know her own characters' names! How am I supposed to care about them?

As usual, the pacing is atrocious. I couldn't even tell you what the main plot of this book was either. I liked having a break from at least some of the forced romance Sookie has with every single male character, but I could do without the rehashing of every plot point from every previous book. I don't need every character's back story every time Sookie interacts with them. I obviously already know, having read the books. It's like Harris thinks all her readers are Eric when he was under the witch's curse. She does it with everything too, not just the characters! It's all so dang repetitive.

Apparently Sookie's only character trait is her word-of-the-day calendar.

Please, please stop with Bubba. It wasn't even fun in the first book. It's just so dumb, and it adds to the repetition. Every time he pops up we get the whole explanation again about the morgue, how it didn't go quite right, his name, his living situation, cats, his singing, the sightings, etc. Just stop.

I liked learning about the pack rules and ceremonies, and I thought it was interesting seeing Sam deal with the consequences of his injury. I chuckled at him finding ways to still watch over the bar and be the boss even with a bum leg.

Beautiful prose and incredibly immersive. It's widely known that Capote embellished and made up conversations or situations, which will matter more or less depending on what you want from the book. Different people involved have differing opinions on just how much is true or not.

In Cold Blood is considered a non-fiction novel, meaning it's written like a novel (with character development, flow of events, and inner monologue) and not a textbook presenting facts. Ultimately I loved the writing so much that I found myself overlooking the embellishments. I just went along for the ride and loved every minute.

Extremely thorough victimology. Worth a read for anyone interested in criminal profiling. I hope these murders don't remain unsolved forever.

Removing my reviews cause this series isn't even good and JKR can suck it.

The first story was silly, overly dramatic, and a good teen holiday time. And the good times ended there.

John Green's short story was incredibly, horrendously awful. It's dripping with misogyny. I hated the whole thing. It's never okay to have a female character say she's happy someone called her a slut because it means they view her as a sexual being instead of “one of the guys.” Plus everything felt forced and lame. The pacing was terrible. I hated everything about it. There are so many misogynistic moments that I almost threw the book away, but instead I rage-finished it. It was probably the wrong choice, but oh well.

The third story was somewhat forgettable, but I remember the characters buying a tiny pig. There's no such thing as a 5 lb fully grown pig. I hope people don't read this nonsense and think it's true.

I'm thoroughly annoyed at myself for listening to this entire series while packing, moving to a new state, unpacking, and decorating my new house. Sure, it was mindless noise that required zero mental space to consume. My mind could wander and I wouldn't miss a single thing because everything gets repeated eventually anyway. But I regretfully didn't read anything else in between and was pretty sure I hated all books by the end. But that means I can tell you exactly how much of this series is comprised of repeated information Harris has already told the reader: 7 entire books. I'm serious. This entire 13 book series could be condensed into 6 books, easily, just by deleting every time Harris tells the same backstory or uses the same joke or descriptor. You could fill an entire book with references to Sookie's word-of-the-day calendar and another one with all the repeats of Bubba's backstory. I truly hoped Sookie would die at the end of this final book, but that was clearly wishful thinking on my part.

I'd give every book in this series two stars if the only problem was the horrible repetitiveness, but all of the characters are the worst, the writing is clunky and juvenile, there is no logic or consistency within the world (or with the characters' personalities and even names!), and there is serious misogyny and racism that is never challenged or called out. Sookie doesn't seem to like other women and is a classic religious hypocrite. With a series that has a fair amount of sex scenes, the main character sure isn't very sex positive when it comes to anyone but herself, and she seems to like slut-shaming. It was gross.

This book (and series) was bad, but hey, it got me through my move. And now I know who Sookie ends up with, which is apparently the only point of the series I guess.

I absolutely hated this stupid, stupid book. It's partially my own fault for going into it knowing nothing about it other than it being immensely popular. I never would have read it if I had done a very quick Google search. Zero stars, and I think I'll be throwing the book into a fire pit the next time I go camping so I can get some sort of use out of it.

Misogynistic, derivative, and formulaic.

For more eloquent reviews, click the links below.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1143151488

https://alltherabbitholes.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/the-red-rising-trilogy-and-lip-service-feminism/amp/

This book is a thorough recollection of the police investigation and trial of John Wayne Gacy told from the point-of-view of the lead prosecutor Terry Sullivan. It's factual, to-the-point, and a very fast read with little to no literary flair. I found it quite interesting how Sullivan illustrates the importance of each police action, question, decision, etc. and how they built their case. At times, especially in the first half, it was a bit drawn out and reads like a police report, though I have to admit that it sort of mirrored how boring police surveillance work can be. The trial portion is very detailed, and while some people may also find it boring or too long, I thought it was fascinating to hear about the prosecution's strategies and thoughts over the course of the trial.

Sullivan doesn't delve into the psychology of JWG beyond what is covered in the trial, and there are passing statements about his childhood without any analysis. He does not attempt to answer why JWG did what he did, he simply shows how JWG was caught and convicted.

I believe it's hard to bring life to every victim when there are least 33 of them while keeping the book at a reasonable length for most people, however some true crime books accomplish this very well. Sullivan did his best to humanize some of the victims within the scope of the crimes committed against them and the effect their deaths had on their families.

Some people may find the gruesome detail that some of the crimes are described (particularly by the living victims) to be too much. I don't recommend it if you prefer true crime books that gloss over those details.

The update felt a bit all over the place.

Given how desperately people seem to love this story, I don't think it's really my vibe. The TV head folks genuinely confused me. I seriously don't get the hype.

Ann Rule has a unique perspective having known Ted Bundy AND being a seasoned true crime writer, and this combination gives The Stranger Beside Me something no other true crime book has. While it may be lengthy at times and suffers from the addition of multiple “end” chapters, it's a must read for any true crime buff.

Dealing with Dragons was fun but predictable for an adult. I think I would have given it 5 stars when I was a kid, as Cimorene was the heroine I wanted and needed in the early 90s. I was that “tomboy” who wanted to see a princess who acted like me!

I listened to the audiobook but would recommend reading it instead. I'll give that a try when I pick up the second book in the series.

This is the best example of shock porn I've come across while reading books for a book club. It's like Laymon sat down and deliberately included the most disturbing things he could think of just to be edgy.

As another reviewer said, this book is somehow both utterly boring and completely disgusting. The characters are one-dimensional, the plot (if you can call it that) is contrived, and the whole thing is beyond stupid, predictable, and full of clichés.

When I say this book is disgusting, I'm not referring to the general gore, which doesn't bother me at all. It's disgusting because of the author's insistence on providing graphic detail of the bodies and sexual desires/arousal/etc. of the 12- and 16-year-old heroes both from their point-of-view and the point-of-view of a pedophile. I returned my typo-ridden Kindle e-book and got my 99¢ back, but I'll never get back the time I wasted reading this trash.

My review is just going to be my reading update from about the 3/4 mark:

“Kind of the same as the first one. Almost nothing is happening, only a lot of waiting for something to happen. And Alina is just so confused why all the boys are so interested in her when she's so very plain.”

That pretty much sums it up.

I read this in high school with one of my classes. Why my teacher picked this book of all the books out in the world, I'll never know. I can't even stand by my star rating because I don't remember this book at all. What I do remember is the experience of reading it and how much my entire class couldn't wait to talk about the assigned chapters when we got to class. It was such a fun time.

I had to think about this one. I loved that the magic system is influenced by folklore and that the consequences of Ged's actions follow him throughout the whole story. And boy are there consequences. There's no easy moral victory, and he has his fair share of growing pains throughout. I found the pre-Harry Potter “How do old, grey-haired, long-bearded wizards become who they are?” quite interesting. The classic style takes a bit of focus if you're just coming off a fast-paced thriller or YA fantasy, but it's worth the effort.

Reread #394, forever 5 stars.

Short stories aren't really my thing, so I've been trying to adjust my rating criteria to be less strict than I would for a full novel. Everything you'd want is there in The Emperor's Soul, and then some. What can be accomplished in 100 pages is accomplished superbly. Would I have loved a full novel? Absolutely. But honestly I felt all the emotions despite only knowing the characters for a short time. I felt stress and urgency, and I really understood the motivations of the main character. Sanderson seriously has an interesting mind and excels at creating magic systems too.

This is a very well researched memoir by someone trying to make sense of how his friend from high school became a serial killer. It provides a level of insight that other true crime novels often lack, especially considering the amount of misinformation this particular case has floating around out there.

I think Backderf could've been as critical of his own behavior, and that of the “Dahmer Fan Club,” as he was of all the adults in Dahmer's past. At times it felt more like Backderf was trying to show his distance from Dahmer but ended up showing how he and his friends behaved cruelly and treated Dahmer like an object. This likely had as much of an impact on him as many other anecdotes that were included from other parts of Dahmer's life, and it would've been very interesting to see Backderf acknowledge it and dissect the effects of damaging teenage relationships.

I could've done without Backderf's monologue about Dahmer's mother in the back of the book. It came across very asshole-y and felt unnecessary. Perhaps he was trying to justify portraying her a specific way that she adamantly disagreed with, but it didn't sit well with me.

The art is fantastic, the pacing is perfect, and the chosen anecdotes paint a vivid picture of a tortured teen heading down a dangerous and depraved path.

This was my first introduction to Stephen King which I read sometime in high school. Secret Window, Secret Garden was okay (and I enjoyed the ending), but it ultimately put me off of the “lost time” trope forever. I distinctly remember actively hating The Sun Dog and having to drag my way through it. I still don't understand why that kid kept taking pictures. Maybe one day I'll try it again to see if I missed something that explained that part.

Sweet, non-problematic, straightforward story. Honestly though, I was bored the whole time.

I was enthralled. I really was. I told everyone about the stories in this book while I was reading it. I don't even remember why I didn't give it 5 stars. Maybe because of the out-of-order timeline, which I think messed with the pacing a tiny bit. Or maybe it was the life story of the astronaut that slowed it down (and was a tad boring, but I get why they included it). I was absolutely fascinated with the history of the space program though and would highly recommend this book. I'm definitely going to reread it in the future.

This story felt a little too all over the place for me, though it was quite an interesting read.

Damn was I entertained with the plot and characters in this book. I could not put it down and needed to know what was going to happen next. And that ending! I think having the world and backstory established really helped with the pacing for me, and not having Miller's POV was a welcome change. Plus the new female POVs was also a nice addition. I agree with people who say this is like a blockbuster movie in book form. It was thoroughly entertaining and a fast read.

It's the writing again, like in the first book, that brings the rating down for me. There are a few bits of repetitiveness (in addition to the writing style) that I couldn't overlook. The authors sure do love to mention that humans still have gestures and motivations and other things that are “primitive” in the future. And primates. They LOVE to mention PRIMATES. I get why, but I really don't need the reminder that humans made it to space but are still humble creatures of Earth. We're two books into this space opera series, we established that a loooong time ago. It's a little irksome sometimes but generally not too hard to gloss over. I still think the writers squash each other's voices/personalities when editing rather than make them better, which is sad. The final downside to the writing is that it's just so obviously written by men. It's very noticeable throughout. But the plot kept me so entertained that the writing ultimately took a backseat and didn't really hinder my enjoyment too much this time around.

One major negative I have to mention though... I'm extremely frustrated by the two male authors' choice to make a female character publicly and falsely accuse a male character of sexual abuse. Though it's fiction, I feel it will feed the fire for people who love to not believe rape victims. It felt exploitative and very pointed, like the authors included it because, to them, it would be believable... because, to them, that's what women do. And that just a gross viewpoint. These are the kinds of stories that silence real life rape victims. Stop implying women cannot be taken at their word. Stop showing perfect men who are victims of women accusers. Just stop. That's not the story that needs to be told.

If it weren't for the false sexual abuse claim, I would rate this book 4 stars. I thought it was more entertaining and had better characters than the first.