Meagan
I can't say I understand the hype on this one. The format and style felt off ??? a strange mix of fiction and non-fiction, including footnotes with sources. The shift to the doctor's perspective in the last chapter felt like it came out of nowhere and ended just as briskly. By that point I'd completely forgotten that a doctor was even involved in the story, even though I must have read it in the blurb. Even though we spend the entire book with the main character, I still feel like by the end, her condition hasn't been examined at all, only her role in society. Her taking on the personas of others doesn't feel like a condition or piece of characterisation in its own right but more like something tacked only for the sake of metaphor.
This has been my favourite volume of Heartstopper so far, which is saying a lot because I've loved every single one.
What makes this volume stand out to me is the nuanced way it deals with mental illness in teenagers. It's a frank depiction and it doesn't skim over the ugly parts of mental illness the way a lot of other YA fiction has a tendency to do. I also thought the book did a good job of illustrating the complexities of being the partner of someone with a mental illness.
This one is an easy five star rating as far as I'm concerned.
4.5 stars.
This book was incredible. Highly recommend the audio book, read by Jennette herself. I laughed a lot, I cried a lot, and most of all I very frequently exclaimed, out loud, “what the fuck?!” Because there was just that much crazy shit going on.
Big content warning for parental abuse and eating disorders.
3.5 stars.
This short little book ??? just three hours in audiobook form ??? was interesting, if a little repetitive in places.
Japanese convenience stores have a somewhat legendary status around the world and, having never been to Japan, this setting was a big part of what drew me to this book. I did feel like I got a good glimpse into that environment.
While Keiko, the main character, is never explicitly described as being on the spectrum, she reads as an autistic-coded character as she has difficulty understanding social norms and actively masks to blend in socially. I liked Keiko and found her interesting, but most other characters, especially her group of girlfriends, came off as insipid and two-dimensional ??? though perhaps this is done on purpose, given the book's overall message, which I think is something along the lines of: there may be a “right” and “wrong” way to live according to society, but sometimes this is entirely at odds with what is right or wrong for an individual, and it is more important to follow your own path, regardless of what society may think.
Overall, I would say while I enjoyed this book well enough, it wasn't a standout. Had it been significantly longer I may have bailed before the end of the book, but since it was so short I felt I may as well finish it. Everything was tied up well, although the circularity of the plot made it feel like there wasn't much character development.
2.5 stars.
Having been a huge fan of The Flatshare, I really, really wanted to like this book. But dear God, there was just no reason to root for these two to get back together, even though they were obviously going to. They make each other utterly miserable as soon as Addie leaves France. We're clearly supposed to feel that the characters have grown and matured between “then” and “now” but I didn't see much evidence of that. This was just a deeply frustrating read.
2.5 stars rounded down to 2.
While I was impressed by some of the twists, the writing style utterly killed this for me. The constant overuse of heavy-handed, clunky metaphors and similes grated on me throughout the entire book. They were so cliched that it became easy to guess where the author was going with the metaphor right as she started one. The amount of sentences that started with, “People are like (insert object here)” was truly baffling.
The characters were thoroughly unlikeable. I wasn't able to root for any of them, and I feel indifferent about the ending. Sam's chapter was a nice touch though, and I felt things were tied up fairly well. Still, this book was not for me.
Good god, Frances has to be one of the least likeable main characters I've come across in quite some time. And the ending maddened me.
And yet, Sally Rooney remains Sally Rooney. I adore this woman's writing so much that I happily sat through an eight and a half hour audiobook despite getting more and more annoyed with Frances and how she hurts those around her, and by extension herself, through her needlessly harsh barbed remarks and secret keeping.
Bobbi, on the other hand, I gradually grew to like, even though she is arguably as obnoxious as Frances. I have no idea why this happened.
For me, I think the hype around this book had a negative impact on how I experienced it. I had high expectations and they weren't met at all.
The twist was very predictable, so the 12-hour audiobook felt ploddingly slow at times. Sure, I went back and forth on who I thought the murderer was a few times but wasn't at all surprised at the reveal. It also didn't feel realistic to me that such a pariah of the community wouldn't be convicted regardless of whether she was guilty or not.
I love poetry but even for me the frequent injections of poetry from “Amanda Hamilton” became annoying.
That's not to say this isn't a well written book. There's a lot of beautiful, vivid imagery. But this one just didn't do it for me.
Unsurprisingly, I really enjoyed this book. Sally Rooney is fast becoming one of my favourite writers.
The tone of the ending was a bit strange though, and the introduction of the pandemic very abrupt.
Throughout the book, the emails between Alice and Eileen often felt a little overwrought. The two of them had such a similar outlook on life that at times it felt like someone writing themselves letters back and forth, in the manner that a person might play chess against themselves.
Still, it was well worth a read and most of all I loved stepping back into Sally Rooney's writing. So full of detail yet simple at the same time.
3.5 stars rounded down to 3. I thought some of the clues/details of the twist were good but I did guess early on that Charlie was ‘the bad guy' in some way just because he was presented as being almost too wholesome. I hadn't guessed who Layla was or what had happened to Jamie, though, so points for that. The ending felt off, though, like it was just dropped. Even for a book that's part of a series, that sense of the book just suddenly stopping when you don't expect it to isn't ideal. Still, I'd read a third Pippa novel for sure. Overall I enjoyed it.
This barely scrapes 2.5 stars for me. I almost rated it two stars, but added a half star is for the fact that this book did keep me interested in it long enough to finish it.
I liked the premise and the jumping back and forth between Monica and Jennifer five years ago. But the ending was so sloppy in so many ways that it made the nearly 10 hours spent listening to the audiobook feel like a waste.
There were way too many red herrings here, with no clues given to the actual killer, so when we did find out his identity it was out of nowhere. Plus, because there are all these little details trying to misdirect the reader, I had absolutely no recollection of the small things that turned out to be important to figuring out the killer in the end crucial in the end - specifically the earring and a dog bite scar.
I also didn't feel the motivations for the murder were believable, and there were just too many little coincidences used to explain things. The whole way through there's this sense that you're going to find out how everything is connected and why they died, but it boils down to the most boring explanation possible: coincidence.
A fascinating look at how this era-defining musical came together. I am a huge fan of Hamilton (and Lin) so I pretty much knew I would enjoy this and it didn't let me down. I've read a lot about Hamilton but there was still plenty of new info in this behind-the-scenes exploration.
I listened to the audiobook while leafing through the hardcover. The book itself is a little unwieldy so I found it useful to be able to jump between the two or pick up the book when I wanted to see the accompanying pictures and design. The book itself is a beautiful object well worth owning.
I was kind of hoping Lin would be the main narrator in the audiobook but I see how the structure didn't really allow for that. I did really enjoy the section at the end when he read his annotations, though, as I followed along in the book.