Ash
I devoured this book in two days. The characters and short story format kept me engaged. The interludes and ending were the least interesting part. I wish the “twist” was more compelling.
some parts were creepy. moved very quickly. good Sunday afternoon read.
Merged review:
some parts were creepy. moved very quickly. good Sunday afternoon read.
It took me a while to get into the writing and like the main character. But I stuck with it because the writing is easy to read, and the plot moves quickly. In the end, I liked the main character and writing a lot more.
This was a great book. Read like one of the better X-Files episodes. Some things held it back from being a five star:
There was a lot of unexpected and food and body shaming in the book. Lots of judgement of what people should and shouldn't be eating. It makes sense that the author would focus on this given her prior written. However, it added little to the story. There is an entirely scene body shaming a person shopping at Walmart just because they exist in public in a fat body. It was gross and fatphobic.
The pacing feels off. The supernatural elements of the story don't take off until 200 pages in. Then there's a rush to conclude the story. If there was 100 more pages to build to the final battle, it would feel better. As a result of the rush, some of the secondary plots felt abandoned, like the abduction story. There could have been something more interesting there but instead it was hastily abandoned and the women were limited to being silent victims.
Both terribly sad and joyful. So glad that I read it. About 100 pages into the book, my family suffered a loss. This book helped me make space for my own complex feeling of grief.
Brilliant and seductive and very queer. This is a magical realism novel. Not a fantasy. Great example of the genre.
Really great gothic horror novel. Read a book with a similar concept recently and this one is far superior. The use of modern swearing does take me out of the story sometimes.
I am sorry about the tragic circumstances discussed in this book but I could not appreciate the constant whining that somehow could be misinterpreted as prose. There are much better memoirs out there about young people raising children that don't involve as self-pitying of a narrator.
For a both of this length the story is very unclear and the really fascinating details of the story are dropped in favor of less interesting plots.
This book is very long. Parts of it made absolutely no sense or contributed nothing to the plot. But I rooted for these characters. I cried when one died. And it's pretty sexy.
The first thirty pages were rough. But the book really began to pick up with the investigation. Reminded me of what I hoped the Buffy college years would be.
3.5. The concept was very interesting. I would have loved for there to be more of an escalation in the first part of the book. It felt like the most interesting developments were described in the narration and I wanted more scenes. I also didn't love the romance storyline. It seemed out of place and fairly cliche.
3.5 stars. The story had good pacing and an interesting plot. The references to the satanic panic were well placed. But the writing didn't stand out, and Hendrix continues to disappoint me with the depictions of people of color.
This book was uninteresting and tedious to finish. The characters and plot weren't compelling. And the documentary style was off-putting. I actually rolled my eyes at the “twist”.
Its a good chick lit read if you're into that kind of thing. Not good if you want to know about what it means to be a woman in a Muslim society.
A great book of poetry dealing with topics such as the military dictatorship in El Salvador, wanderlust and romance
A quick read that is at time entertaining, heartbreaking, and incredibly annoying. I was half way through the book when I learned it was nonfiction rather than a novel full of stereotypes about the ghetto. Not the best read for learning about urban life but a pleasant read for summers and long bus rides.
It was an interesting twist on Alice and Wonderland and definitely had strong Buffy vibes. I liked that friendship and finding confidence in your power played a larger role than romance.
If you liked the Percy Jackson series you'll like this even more. Great writing, great characters.
Brilliant. Characters are captivating. The stories take you so many places and make you feel so deeply.
