Megan

I highly recommend reading this in its entirety and following it as closely as possible BEFORE you get a puppy. You'll thank yourself later.

Merged review:

I highly recommend reading this in its entirety and following it as closely as possible BEFORE you get a puppy. You'll thank yourself later.

This was the book that made actually understand symbolism, which was a tough thing for my math-oriented mind to wrap itself around. Thank you to my high school English teacher for helping me get there with Fahrenheit 451!

WHAT IS THIS BOOK

Edit: Omg it was written by a 12-year-old. Okay, I get it now, but I still stand by my original comment.

This world is absolutely amazing, and I love Lyra and Pan with all my heart. The descriptions of the land, the characters, and emotions are incredibly vivid and powerful.

Barely related personal note: I started reading this years ago and couldn't remember where I stopped. I have a bind up of all three novels and had seen the movie, so that made it even more difficult. After finishing the book, I still have no idea how far I originally read, but I can say it's a definite possibility I had actually finished it. If I did, that means I got to do one thing people always say they wish they could do: I read it for the first time again!

It's just okay.

The author has a serious issue with repeating the same phrases, and even situations, quite a bit. When you compare all the books to each other, you realize there's a pretty specific formula to each. There's a serious lack of action, and we only later hear about some of the more interesting things, and descriptions of many parts of the story are also lacking. I'm not even going to get into the ick factor controversy, mainly because it was completely predictable.

I wanted so much more from this series unfortunately. I felt like I wanted to love the characters, and I found the world incredibly interesting. However, so much fell flat or wasn't given enough attention that I ultimately can't say I care. Also, Shaun is awful. George is a much more interesting character, especially when Shaun isn't part of the equation. Codependency isn't cute.

This book is so outstandingly illogical and poorly paced that I don't think I noticed anything else about it. It's also at least 300 pages too long.

This is a good back story for big fans of The Expanse series. It's not necessary to read, but it's worth it if you have a little bit of extra time. It doesn't leave a huge lasting impact though.

I never thought I'd say this, but Stuart Little is a sulky, immature jerk. I don't think I've ever read a children's book where the main character gets progressively more unlikable and learns absolutely nothing throughout the entire story.

I read the first few books in this series years ago but never finished it, so I'm rereading the first few volumes to finally finish the series. I watched the HBO show too, but I know it's very different from the books.

In this volume, the dialogue is really cheesy, and the pacing is super off. It had two completely separate plots, one shoved in the middle of the other, that didn't have anything to do with each other. The beginning and the end are about a murder and mythological creature, but the middle is about a trip to Dallas and a missing vampire. It's like pausing in the middle of one novella, reading a different novella, then returning to the first. I don't think I like any of the characters yet, except maybe Eric and Pam (though who knows if that's just cause I liked their characters the most on the show), and I find the way certain things are addressed to be problematic at best. Bill is so boring, and Sookie is fairly obnoxiously written.

But it's a fast and easy read. I remember liking one of the later books a lot more than this, so hopefully I get to that book soon.

This book is seriously so silly and clever. Talk about quotable in day-to-day life too. Highly recommend if you'd like a laugh and enjoy British humor, or if you like sci-fi and want to read something that sort of pokes fun at some of the classics in a clever way.

It was cute but it was cheesy. I don't think it's a necessary read or even one that really adds to the experience. It's fun if you have time and already own the story in a collection, but don't seek it out.

I really enjoyed this as a kid, and I think it holds up really well. It doesn't shy away from the hard topics. The only thing I'd say is Leigh's voice seems a little young for his age.

Any true crime buff will tell you that you must read this book, but no one ever says why, at least in my experience. It's on every list as a true crime classic, and it definitely deserves that spot. Bugliosi goes into extreme detail of the Manson murders, the investigation, the formation and dynamics of the Manson family (which I find to be a fascinating study of human behavior), and the trials. There is basically no answerable question left unanswered. Bugliosi even provides an in-depth “Cast of Characters” and timeline at the start of the book, so you may refer to it at any time to help remember who anyone is or where you are in time, even if it's been a while since you last put down the book. The length can be daunting and is the biggest criticism I have, if you can call it that.

Orc Grove (a book that is gory, gruesome, or gritty) read for the Quest for the Bookie Grail in The Book Junkie Trials 2019. Magi for the win!

This totally fit the prompt, but I don't think I'll ever be on board with a true crime book that actually considers the idea that a serial killer was influenced to kill by the moon.

The artwork is outstanding, and the story is quite engaging. The pacing was a bit off, and I have a few hang ups about the dialogue in general. Overall a good read.

Very straight forward writing, feeling a little formulaic and slightly amateur at times. I think it suffered from “too many cooks” with four authors. Overall I was intrigued by the detail about the relationship between the media and the police, and how the events were placed in whatever the current crime environment was in Kansas. I think it painted a fairly complete picture and provided an interesting perspective. I feel more focus could have been placed on bringing the victims to life, but I think the lack of that is simply due to the writing being very “this happened then this happened.” I really liked the detail that went into how they communicated with BTK via press conferences and how they planned his arrest. I believe this was the strongest part of the book. It really picked up and created a feeling of tension, stress, triumph, and relief leading up to, during, and after the arrest.

I thought this book had so much potential at the beginning, but then basically nothing happened and I didn't care about the characters. Love triangle? No. Boring triangle. All three of them. Boring.

Reread #394, forever 5 stars.