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I just...I expected more from this book. Both in depth and page count. The overarching story is grabbing, but I felt whiplashed with each plot twist. I kept wanting to dive deeper into the many + distinct characters' backstories and psyches. For all the emotional loops and leaps, I felt this book could have been and should have been at least 100 pages to flesh out the truly unique story.

READ :: if you pride yourself in unraveling a plot within the first 100 pages and are looking for a challenge.

SKIP :: If you have a cruise vacation on deck + have been repeatedly accused of being a helicopter parent.

Review to come:

“This I can tell you: when I came to your apartment for the first time, I recognized it. I knew, without knowing how, that I would never leave. These were bricks you had been laying without knowing it; this was the path my flares had been lighting. It was the beginning of a wobbly and joyful and occasionally gross carrying on, learning to come home to you, marked and myself.”

The Missing American is a captivating peek into the underbelly of Ghanaian sakawas, scams and political corruption. Bumpy, yes, but with a compelling setting at the wheel, readers will be captivated by this first installment in Emma Djan's Investigative series.

The Wins:
* Anomoly: With Ghana as the backdrop, The Missing American naturally presents itself refreshing in the thriller genre. Initially, it appealed to me for the same reason What's Left of Me is Yours did — Both centered on a breed of crime specific to a culture. As a series I'll be interested to see how/if Quartey keeps up this unique brand of “sunshine noir”.
* Structure: Though Quartey's time hops show no clear pattern, they intrinsically make sense to the reader. He has a keen sense to snatch and transport at the height of intrigue.
* Twists: A true, unguessable ending. I'll be the first to note Quartey's problematic tendency to toss attention-competing Catch-22s, but the fridge-benefit — we never see the twist coming.

The Opps:
* Dialogue: Most conversations in Missing American seem painfully piped through Google Translator. Instead of revving the plot forward, stilted exchanges and overdone prose stunted the story's pace.
* Cast: Stories set on unfamiliar soil deserve coherency. To add to the Ghanaian lingo, Quartey's laundry list of characters make it impossible to keep up with who's who, who's where, who's good and who's bad.
* Fluff: Internet scams, fetish priests, police corruption, affairs and autism — Missing sends readers' attention in a LOT of directions. While some of these tropes act as clever red herrings, the sum of them feel like wasted threads.

I read this right on the tails of finishing The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronsen. Though not planned, it felt like the perfect warmup read before encountering Oliver. I appreciated how the author focused this story on the slow makings of a psychopath, how nature and nurture contribute to corrode human empathy.

Possibly great story and world, but rushed in telling, and too many characters introduced. All in all, lacked descriptive depth. Magically woven in parts, overall bummed.

Any book that is a whiff of Harry Potterism has my attention. So flying philosophers, bearing similarities to HP's wizards and witches riding brooms was promising.

Perhaps I wasn't fully attentive, but even after reading, I'm still a little unsure of the basic logistics of how one flies. Because a good bulk of the book takes place in the air or learning how to get in the air, I had a hard time following during the action scenes.

However the most intriguing aspect of Philosopher's Flight was the world Miller depicted, one that favors women to be the more-favored, more-talented, more-respected sex in the philosophy world, but still victim to the familiar, violent sexism in the real world. The main character, Tom, had no bitterness towards nor desire to change this societal norm, simply to be the exception. I can't decide if the author was intent on writing a coyly misogynistic tale in the current, feminism-heavy climate or if he simply and genuinely wanted to paint a world where heroines dominate.

Overall: eh.

Convicting. Forward. Touching. I have to put my phone down and hug someone.

👍🏼Pick It: For that familiar, snuggly style that is the phenomenal Sally Rooney
👎🏼Skip It: until you allow three months of Normal People separation and desensitization

I didn't let the back page of Normal People close before putting Conversations With Friends on hold.

And while it was still stuffed with the same Rooney-reminiscent prose, it didn't carry the same emotional pull.

Perhaps I did her a disservice by reading the two novels back to back. Or perhaps what made Normal People the stronger of the two was its multiple POVs. Much of what made Normal People so searing was knowing where both parties stood and their sheer unwillingness to be vulnerable.

On the other hand, Conversations is a one-woman vulnerability spillage and inner rummaging. And when that sole voice is from 21-year old Francis, placing yourself on her carousel of feelings begins to feel like a selfish indulgence rather than possible and resolvable development.

And still, I'd read this book again and again, because Rooney makes it impossible to not feel and feel tied to the what makes us our most-devastatingly human selves.

As lovably-literal as Amelia Bedilia and as dysfunctionally-warped as Meredith Grey, Eleanor is one of the most unique character voices of any book I've read. This story had me giggling. This story had me grieving. Honeyman's writing reveled in fineness.

I wanted this story to work more than the author wanted to write it. I loved the premise, but felt it was stretched too long and unclimatically landed. Would make a great movie though, yes?🤷🏼‍♀️

I'm struggling to rate this book, because I want to separate the writing from the story. Lacey crafts her words exquisitely. However, the actual story felt a bit disorganized and incomplete, as though the last half were written for time.

I found the PAKing bit an unnecessary tangent of the story about The Girlfriend Experiment and feel both could've had stand-alone stories.

The Answers posed some important + relevant questions about the impending realities of modern romance. I was intrigued by the similar theories presented in Touch by Courtney Maum.

If I had known this book would be so pricking for the place my head and heart are currently confined, I probably wouldn't have picked it up.

But I'm glad I did.

Patrick Ness resurrects the art of Story. Connor's narrative is written simply, not overdone nor excessively ornate. Ness' talent + confidence is evident by the ease + accessibility of his writing. Yet, the essence of this story will leave readers with a tongue-biting, tears-welling aftertaste.

I think Jon Ronsen is incredibly talented and applaud his courage to plant himself in the middle of indisputable danger for the sake of a story.

And while I normally enjoy his skippidity-style, breaking his interviews/analyses, this book jumped around too quickly and I found myself wishing he'd dedicate more time to exploring one set of “Thems” than another.

I think the premise of this book is more important than ever and would advocate Ronsen do a second-edition write focused on the “Thems” in our current world.

👍🏼Pick It: if U2's “Sunday Bloody Sunday” is the extent of your knowledge concerning Northern Ireland.
👎🏼Skip It: if thick ‘n' rich journalism bores you.

I initially picked Say Nothing thinking the story of the mysterious disappearance and murder of Jean McConville would coddle my true crime cravings. So by the end of Chapter 3, largely dedicating to staging the developing conflict, I felt duped...but hooked.

The Troubles?
The IRA?
The Stickies?
The What?
The Who?
Here was major period of history reading like a revelation! Never touched, mentioned nor acknowledged in any one social studies class.

Before Say Nothing, I largely type-casted History as regurgitated black-and-white events, contained in dusty books, inked to yellowing pages, shoved on forgotten shelves. This book refreshed the genre with a curiosity to learn about the world around me, over the wall, over the pond.

The magnitude of history is hardly digestible for a fifth grader during a five-month learning frame, so I don't fault my K-18 history teachers for skimming or omitting chunks of happenings. However, this book spoke to the need for writers like Keefe to revive the stories that go unsung.

Keefe's ability to give the in-depth, decades-spanning scoop on the Troubles is stunning. Because of his careful narration, I closed the book with conviction that history class is still in session and happening now.

So to be considered active participants in this world, we must pick up books like this one to develop empathy and to stay cognizant of the shifting landscapes and consequential evolutions of countries and cultures outside our own.

👍🏽Pick it: if The Sinner and psychology is your jam.
👎🏽Skip it: if you're looking for a horror, not cerebral thriller.

I pride myself in pegging the plot twist. Even the best of thrillers tend to follow a loose, but calculable trajectory. When I hit that plot point in Silent Patient biting my tongue on spilling spoilers, I gasped out loud. Not because it's a dramatic reveal, but because the author rolled out the climax patiently, which personally, made this thriller stand alone. I've recommended this book to several who will back up the hype.

👍🏼Pick It: for an intricate and tangled look inside true events that read like a dystopian
👎🏼Skip It: If you're expecting a loud Handsmaid's Tale-esque revolution

Miriam Toews authored one of my 2018 Favorite Reads (All My Puny Sorrows), so I cracked this one open with first-born expectations.

And she came to the story with a full arsenal:
* Firsthand experience in Mennonite culture.
* Matchmaker Queen between readable word and unspeakable pain.

Unfortunately, this was a fumble. I found the plot painstakingly slow with little resolve.

Dubbing a male to narrate contradicted and eliminated her first-row opportunity and responsibility to convey the story of the voiceless.

If You's Joe Goldberg is the prototype for sociopathic creep, Dr. Harding is the primordial ooze from which he sprung. I haven't disliked a narrator so intensely, credit to Jha.

This book takes on so many charged topics, but perhaps too many. Toxic masculinity, codeswitching, racial biases, and more – all set against a backdrop weeks before the 2016 election – WOOF. However, Jha has written an important book here. The Laughter is one to be discussed.

Had I reviewed this halfway through I probably would've gone with a solid 3-Star rating. It seemed to be repeating and circling on and on and on without making any story progression.

But by the end, I understood the purpose a little better. The last section of the book makes a detailed explanation of the historical facts that framed the story of Nefertiti. History does not play out as quickly as a Hollywood plot and to keep the basic integrity of the story, the author had to pause accordingly.

I am always impressed with authors in the historical fiction category, making history richly remembered and facts colorful. This book is a great example of that.

👍🏽Pick it: If you're looking for a refreshing take on the often-exhausting memoir.

👎🏽Skip it: If you're not quite ready to part from your Steve Jobs' shrine.

Small Fry was the best Memoir of 2018. Yeah, I said it. I shy away from this genre because I naively have always believed memoirs either serve as a humble-brag or a woe-is-me rant. Small Fry humbled my ignorance. Brennan-Jobs respected her exclusive position and responsibility to peel back the curtain of the mysterious tech-God, bizarre visionary, Steve Jobs. Instead of using the book as a posthumous bashing of an absent Papa Jobs, she moved me by simply telling her story-unbiased and reader all insight, no fluff. The result: an untheatrical confidence that'll move anyone who has a child is a child, or craves love, no matter how far removed.

A semester-long coding course met my childhood love for spies created my gateway to a fascination in the intricacies and happenings of cyber crime.

What this book accomplishes, is bringing someone like me, a tourist, into the gated community of a complicated topic — a rarity for books in this subject realm. The Ransomware Hunting Team was a perfect balance of technical and profile — adding dimension to the characters behind the screen.

I saw this book described as “chronically online sally rooney” and simply have nothing more to offer with such brevity and precision. Jem Calder has me hand-hovering over a pre-order button for whatever he creates next.

The idea of inheritance fascinates me.
What is the reverb of one family member's actions on the rest?
What traits are passed down?
What buried issues come up through the family tree?
Commonwealth digs in and explores through the different voices of the Keating and Cousins.

Per us, Ann Patchett makes magic of a sentence.

👍🏽Pick it: If you find yourself addicted to optimization and dissatisfaction.
👎🏽Skip it: If you can't stomach conviction.

Cultural criticism is often penned from the throne of a writer who removes himself or herself from the dysfunction they judge. Which is perhaps why I have a hard writer crush on Havrilesky.

She does not excuse her participation in our society's obsessive pursuit for the bigger, the better, the next – anything other what we have, who we are in the NOW.

And it's because she writes as someone in the arena, searching out and screwing up, a reader will not feel threatened by her observations, but feel enrolled to deem the present enough.

Each essay can stand and shine on its own. But thread together, it's one of the most-focused collections I've ever read.

Interstellar meets The Adjustment Bureau in this phenomenal sci-fi, psychological thriller. Crouch asks readers to question the choices of past + future and recognize the consequences of each.

Initially and admittedly, I was intimidated that the physicsscienceatoms jargon would cloud even the most arousing of plots. Crouch manages to create a graspable, mind-bending universe and drop readers right into it.

I hardly remember taking a breath while reading this book. When I did eventually break for sleep + sustenance, I was preoccupied with the world Jason was currently in, fleeing from or the door he was searching for.

What if I had eaten eggs for breakfast instead of cereal?
What would happen if I pursued Job A over Job B?
How would my life be altered by a moment of uncharacteristic boldness?

Post-Dark Matter, questions about the mundane and major still hound me.

👍🏼Pick It: If you're a therapist, in therapy or refuse think you'd benefit.
👎🏼Skip It: If you're content with a life forever half-felt and never shared.

I have been to therapy off and on since I was a little girl. My uncle is a therapist. I'm familiar with the couches, the wall of first-session silence, the tissues that sop up the debris when it crumbles during your fifth.
I feel fortunate to find myself in a family that has always made space for treating the emotional self, no taboos attached. It's because of this proximity, I didn't expect to extract much novel insight.

What she offered me instead was the catalyst to consider my own recent refusal to get back on the couch.

I think part of therapy's stigma is derived from this image of a double-degreed lord or lady upon his or her throne, collecting your raw fears solely as ammunition to dish at the water cooler with their fellow Freudians.

“I've got ten on Patient #783 bolting before the session even starts.”
“Wanna hear about the train wreck I've got at 2?”

Gottlieb has done a service to the world of therapy by acknowledging this general misconception and sitting on the floor with readers instead.

How much did I like this book, you ask?
I Amazon Primed it to my porch the hour I finished my library copy. And every since I've been a missionary on a pamphlet route, shoving it into arms because I believe her account needs to be heard.

Read it.