mari
please read TWs!!! body parts are broken in this book that i did not previously know could be broken lmao
take me out of the oven because i am DONE
i think this is where i stop with romance and regency era novels. this wasn't bad, i was just bored the whole time. i think my foray into contemporary has turned into a full-blown obsession and i'm sorry i'm a fraud i'm a FAKE gtg
this is what i wanted out of the percy jackson series tbh
blasted through this in a day unexpectedly because it was pretty much impossible to put down. despite knowing the story by heart, i was completely entranced by this story and how the author retold it. btw, i totally knew patroclus and achilles were gay when i took a greek mythology class and i'm really glad madeline miller is affirming my suspicions
utterly disappointed, but perhaps i had held my hopes out too high for this.
there was a lot of promise initially, but this book eventually evolved into two tropes (neither of which i'm a fan of) and got into some pretty sketchy situations. the characters felt erratic and inconsistent, and i hated literally everyone but the third brother.
i think i'd actually put myself through the pain of re-reading pride & prejudice before re-reading this
as someone who can't get enough of TJR's evelyn hugo-verse books, this hit the spot while also combining nina lacour's poignant writing!!
as predicted, a lot of what hooked me into this novel stemmed from the intrigue surrounding a fictional movie star and his descendants, and how their lives turned out — i guess i'm just chismosa like that? anyway i love that this also had the added layer of set designing and emi's own coming-of-age discoveries while unraveling the mystery behind a letter
i only have one nina lacour book unread till yerba buena drops
400 pages of white people wanting so bad to be oppressed but just being completely incapable of properly communicating and caring for each other
i liked the itty bitty bits of love letters to literature, and how this book made fun of pretentious lit majors. but also this book is for those very pretentious lit majors lol
when i tell y'all i'm devastated...
the hype around lacour's writing is well-deserved, as its simplicity and vulnerability drew immense emotion out of me, and before i knew it i was crying... pretty often throughout this book (but in all honesty, i've generally been in an emotional blackhole where any semblance of sadness gets sucked in and extended). for a 200-ish page book, i went through a ROLLERCOASTER of emotions and felt every single crucial moment so deeply sdalfjsdjf thank u nina lacour for giving me a good reason to cry lmao
i saw reviews that complained about the lack of “deeper meaning” to this book, and i'm a bit confused because the meaning isn't that deep but poignant nonetheless. i think this book could spark important conversation amongst those of us who are well enough to discuss mental health and help those in need. but it's... really not that (much) deep(er).
this book is a story of what happens from an amalgamation of 1) parental emotional and mental abuse 2) poor mental health and mental health stigmas 3) and apathetic fanatacism. these girls were stifled by their parents and then kept at arm's length by the society around them, and y'all are looking for “deeper meaning” than that? uh uh. nope.
i'm especially not about romanticising suicide, so if you're trying to look deeper in that sense, don't @ me. this story is tragic and heartbreaking and a warning signal for those of us still making fun of teenage girls for the littlest things.
my brain was begging for mercy the entire time i read this. needless to say, i wasn't merciful and now lack a significant amount of brain cells because of that.
just read the dugout if you're actually a baseball fan. no baseball, gross male protag, and uncomfortable/cringe-worthy dialogue.
absolutely phenomenal from start to finish. such a difficult read, but one that i enjoyed nonetheless. would love to own a physical copy of this!
why is it that i love american literature but i hate american history
started off fun and promising but became something i really had to slog through, maybe i'll go back and check out all souls?
i am so disappointed and quite frankly upset with where this book took the immigration story.
disappointing but still phenomenal. predictable plot twists and a romance that i didn't care for, HOWEVER the atmosphere and the world itself were absolutely enchanting
tws: death, violent and graphic murders, rape, colonizers
so excited for king of the rising now, this ended AWESOME. very rarely does a book jump out at me like that, but i guess that's a sign i need to decolonize my mind further. some issues with language, pacing, and story telling that i didn't have with callender's other books popped up here, but otherwise fantastic
gripes with the writing style and pacing, but otherwise a fun found family adventure story. reminiscent of the first PJO book but with, you know, diversity.