Megan

Honestly, I expected to absolutely hate this, but I didn't! Was it good? Nope, but it was action-packed enough that I can say I had an okay time flying through it. Obviously it's cheesy and derivative (I think if you squint at the cover you can see Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker on the rough of middle building). The amount of girl hate is appalling. The MC is a bland, cardboard cutout and clearly written so the reader can insert themselves into the story. There's nothing wrong with those kinds of stories though if that's the kind of escapism you're looking for. Overall, not my cuppa but an easy read.

Talk about a completely clueless MC, one of my least favorite tropes. She's soooo naive and afraid of everything which irritates me to no end. The side characters are the most interesting, and overall I like the friendship group.

I'm not sure I agree with the people who say this is about putting the responsibility of someone's life on other people. I think it speaks more to survivor's guilt: reliving every moment when you think you could have said or done something differently and wishing you could go back.

Finally! A Seanan McGuire book that I actually connected with and truly enjoyed! I have found her longer fiction to be too repetitive (e.g. Feed constantly referencing blood tests, Coke, and poking things with sticks), despite having intriguing characters and very interesting settings and plots. Every Heart a Doorway did not have that issue at all, and I found the concept to be as unique as all the others. I'm very happy I gave her another shot and will definitely continue on with this series.

ಠ__ಠ NO

Rereading this as an adult definitely reinforced the love I had for it in middle school. It's always dangerous revisiting childhood favorites, but this was a fantastic experience.

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This was assigned reading for my 7th grade Language Arts class, and I remember liking it so much I breezed through the 3-week reading schedule and finished the first weekend. Hoping to reread soon!

Pros:

- Effortlessly diverse: There are bisexual, lesbian, gay, and asexual characters without those labels defining them. The discussions of these were handled so delicately as well. The main character is mixed race which contributes to her life experiences, again, without becoming her only identity. Depression and social anxiety are alluded to very authentically. I know I'm missing more forms of rep in this book, which is incredible to say because I'm usually hard pressed to find even one of these in some books. It was extremely well done, probably one of the best books in this regard. If this were all the book was being rated on, it would absolutely be 5 stars.

- The teenage characters felt very true to life, with the uncertainty of the future, the extreme waves of emotions, the way everything feels so hopeless at times and you feel like an imposter. These characters are trying to find themselves while trying to understand their friends as well.

- Most of the characters are very well developed, with their own motivations and desires that make sense. They were real people, even when they did asshole or selfish things.

- The dialogue was natural and realistic which I feel like is rare in YA.

- Excellent portrayal of academic pressure.

- Frances was able to reevaluate her assumptions of who Raine was and recognized that she was wrong about Raine, finally seeing her as the loyal, trustworthy, and selfless person she is. Loved this so much.

- The depiction of fandoms and internet culture was absolutely spot on. The invasion of privacy “YouTube famous” folks go through, the fan art/shipping/story theories that is constantly discussed and shared, and disgusting comments from internet trolls felt incredibly realistic. Kinda wish it had been explored more though.

- If I was allowed only one word to describe this book, it would 100% be “RELATABLE” (yes, in all caps).

- The authentic Englishness was fantastic. Reminded me of my family and our hometown in England!

Cons:

- Writing style: It was too casual and inconsistent for me. Sometimes it felt like I was supposed to be in Frances's head and other times it was like she was telling me her life story. I'm not one for random run-on sentences either unless the whole book is written in a stream-of-consciousness style. I also felt a disconnect with the more emotional parts of the story because of this.

- Carol Last is a fairly cartoonish antagonist. With how well developed the other characters were, I felt let down by her. She seemed a bit ridiculously villainous, specifically with her Scooby-Doo-esque “not so fast you mangy kids” arrival at Aled's uni. And the dog death... It was unnecessary and the same result could have been accomplished differently (she could have let it run away or dropped it off at a shelter, or the major issue could have been his room and destroying deeply sentimental items).

- Pacing: I think there could have been a little bit more trimming in the first half of the book in particular. More time could have been spent developing the main conflict and resolution. The end was very abrupt.

- The transcript excerpts of Universe City were throwaways for me. This is absolutely a personal preference, as some people will love the fiction-within-fiction aspect. I don't like when I have to reread a book for something to actually make sense.

Random thoughts:

- I loved the platonic male-female friendship, but I wish I hadn't known about it going in. I think I would've cheered more when I read the chapter in which Frances straight up tells the reader they weren't going to get together. As it was, I was like, “Yeah I know.”

- I usually don't care for Contemporary fiction. I find it boring reading about people who could be my neighbors. I find I get that feeling of escapism better from other genres in fantastical worlds or settings. However, I enjoyed this quite a bit.

- I have an issue with how people nowadays, which truthfully Alice Oseman captured perfectly, ending their declarative statements with goddamn question marks (ex: “i have a jumper from the same website?? i'm literally wearing it right now?”). This isn't a critique of Oseman, I just hate it. To those of you who do this, please stop. I'm begging you.

- I feel like I'm too old for this book to really impact me. I've already done the whole “omg what is my future?!” thing, made my mistakes, and learned from them. As many people have said, it would've been better to read it in high school.



[Edited my review after the Papercut Book Club live discussion cause everyone made excellent points that made me think!]

No Stone Unturned is an absolutely fantastic book. It was basically everything I wanted it to be, and I know I'll read it again. The overview of the history of forensic science was thorough and presented well. It was definitely a crash course in the essentials and sets everything up really well. The author did a great job of showing how NecroSearch International became what it is today. Every specific case was fascinating and illustrated a different side of NecroSearch International. If you like hearing about the detective side of true crime or if you like true crime documentaries, you have to pick this book up.

It's possible I connected with the stories a bit more than others will, considering where the majority of the crimes take place and my chosen career path.

There was a little bit of repetition that I think is meant to reinforce certain ideas, but it really wasn't needed and seemed cheesy. The ending didn't feel rushed, but it did seem like it just sort of ended. It didn't necessarily need more, but a longer conclusion might have been nice, if not completely necessary for comprehension.

The first two stories were really good, even as an adult. The third was the most predictable and one I'm pretty sure I would have predicted as a kid. The fourth felt like a flimsy shell of my favorite Goosebumps stories.

I'm honestly surprised that everyone says this book is the weakest of Sanderson's. I read The Final Empire and got so annoyed with the words ‘flared' and ‘burned' by the end of Chapter 5 that I almost DNF'd it. Elantris, on the other hand, had me hooked from the first page and never let go. I loved the characters (especially Sarene), the magic system that needed fixing, and the politics.

Holy cow, what a wild ride. I have no idea how I didn't know about Randall Woodfield and Diane Downs being penpals.

This book suffers from being so old that there have been a number of updates that aren't included. Aside from that, it's well done.

Seriously consider whether you are comfortable hearing graphic descriptions of rape of women and children before reading. It's horrific and disgusting.

I really enjoyed this little adventure with Crow and Melody, and I think the lessons kids can learn from it are great. As an adult, I found the popular kid side characters to be a little over-the-top mean, but I liked how the final two chapters allowed for a little bit of a change there. There was a little bit of repetitiveness that didn't follow the rules that were given to the characters midway through the book (that future challenges would be harder). But honestly that's fine. It was a lovely story with really strong themes of friendship, selflessness, and consequences for your actions. I think it tackled loneliness and family dynamics really well too.

This is a sequel that didn't need to exist in any way. I had low expectations, and it didn't even meet those! Kepnes made Joe such a comedic villain in my eyes. The body count is absurd. Absurd is actually a good word for the whole book. I don't know how Joe expected to make it big time while still maintaining anonymity either... Like I said, absurd.

Okay okay I totally get the hype. This book was a really good YA story: the characters were interesting if a bit predictable, the setting was intricate, the plot was fun, and it was well paced. The characters were wildly unrealistic teenagers though. I had to constantly remind myself that the kids weren't at least in their late-twenties. As long as you can set that aside, you should have a good time. The biggest downfall of the book is that every obstacle or curveball, and there are quite a few, is conveniently overcome. If you just take Six of Crows as a feel good story about a ragtag group of scoundrels who always have the right trick up their sleave to get out of trouble, you will have a blast. I think the end lacked something, but I can't put my finger on what. Having not yet read Crooked Kingdom, my guess is maybe the duology should've been combined into a longer standalone book.

Geez that was basic. Considering the extreme hype surrounding this book, I was painfully underwhelmed. I guess I was entertained enough, but it's a pretty forgettable story overall. I don't think the format added anything to the story. The dialogue was corny as hell, the jokes rarely/barely landed, and the end basically had a little bow on it. I'd say this won't be a beloved book for well-versed (ha) sci-fi fans, but it's a quick read and not a complete waste of time. Just know you've seen it all before, and it's very “I'm 14 and this is deep” a lot of the time.

I liked it enough I'll probably pick up the next book, mainly because I already own it, but I'm not exactly in a hurry.

This is most definitely a history book. It's extensively researched. You need to pay attention while you read it, not just because it's important but because you will become lost in names and in time. Pamela Newkirk unapologetically exposes what actually happened during Ota Benga's life, the lies that were told by the people around him, and how such horrors could happen to a human being not so long ago. She tells a full and complete story and attempts to right some wrongs of the past by giving Ota Benga a voice. Newkirk's research is so thorough, drawing on strong primary resources to provide support for the author's timeline and interpretations. It's particularly interesting how Newkirk found so many instances of people blatantly changing their story to fit whatever narrative they needed at the time. If you decide to pick up this book, just know that it does NOT only follow Ota Benga's life. It is about everything in the world he lived in, both in Africa and the US, and the people who played a part in his life. It addresses important moments in history that shaped the systemic racism of the world today.

The only thing that could have improved this book was a more chronological flow. At times it was a little difficult to remember where we are in Ota Benga's life, especially if it's been a day or two since last reading the book.

This is probably one of my favorite books now. I watched the anime after and didn't like it as much, the characters were too sickeningly, unrealistically sweet and boring. This had me laughing left and right, plus I was really attached to all of the characters. It felt like reading an old fairy tale.

While this didn't introduce anything new on this subject to me, I feel it's a perfectly concise introduction to feminism that everyone should read, particularly those who think all feminists hate men.

All this book is about is the law of inverse fertility. There you go, no need to read it. I don't remember any of the characters or which one was which because they all read the exact same. Also, I'm so bored with alcoholic main characters. There are other ways to make a main character unlikable and/or unreliable. Like their characters, authors need to stop using alcohol as a crutch.

This should've been combined with Six of Crows instead of being a second book. It didn't pick up with the conflict I felt was needed, given how Six of Crows ended. Some of the stuff that was a cliffhanger was basically resolved off-page between books. That was pretty annoying. I lost interest near the end and didn't care for the characters as much as I did in the first book. But it was enjoyable for the most part and definitely readable.

Cute, if a bit far-fetched and totally outdated. I honestly think kids today wouldn't understand what's so weird about Stargirl, and this makes the book lose a lot of its original punch. The tone was more fitting for middle grade, so I kept having to remind myself the characters were in high school instead of middle school. Stargirl is absolutely the OG manic pixie dream girl, but whether that's a bad thing will be a personal preference.

I think I would have loved this book when I was younger. I really liked it, but I agree with the reviews that say the beginning and end are the strongest parts. That beginning was honestly fantastic. I could see what the middle chapters were doing/trying to accomplish, but every chapter felt like its own short story. I wasn't a huge fan of that, but I really liked how some of the relationships were handled. I think Neil Gaiman did a really great job of showing and not telling... He never even tells us big things about certain characters, yet you know those things are true because of what they say and how they act. It's very well done. The end could've gone further than it did, but if this is a middle grade book I'd say it's good where it's at. Overall, I think I would have rated this 5 stars in middle school, adult me is leaning closer to 3 (mainly because of the flow of the middle chapters), so we're going with 4.

While the pacing could use a little work, I very much appreciate the straightforward portrayal of anxiety, PTSD, grief, etc. in this book. Some adult readers may feel the things Peter manages to do are way beyond what a pre-teen is capable of, but I think the target audience will love his journey and find it more believable. There's a tiny hint of magical realism that I feel makes all the more unbelievable things fit into the atmosphere of the story. I liked the end, but I wish there had been just a little more, perhaps one more perspective change.

This book is a very useful tool for any dog trainer. I feel like owners would gain some very important info from it as well, and it can help them understand the complex nature of separation anxiety (meaning it can't be fixed in a couple weeks).

A really good little cozy mystery! Exactly what I expected, but also fun that it was set in Ashland. I found this one interesting because the main character's relationship status is very “It's complicated” right from the start but feels very realistic. I liked how the various conflicts set up the rest of the series. So often with these kinds of series the reader is told why the MC came to, or back to, their small town to start their business (which is the usual trope) at the the start. In this you get to see how and why the MC makes the decision to make the move permanent. I love to mother-daughter relationship too.

I wasn't expecting the DRAMA but I loved it. There were elements of almost every genre that were cleverly interwoven. I wish the end hadn't been spoiled for me, but I still thoroughly enjoyed my time reading this.