Lindsey Ziegler
DNF
Predictable, but more importantly, it was a well-trod story with nothing new. You knew what was going to happen, as each “foreshadowing” idea was just telling you want will happen next.
Original review - June 7: Pretty good, but nothing spectacular. There wasn't any information added here that wasn't available elsewhere. Also, the survival of the sailors was very short and vague.
Updated review Sept 26, 2024: This was a hard one to get through. Somehow I read this 4 years ago without remembering any of the details, which is not surprising because it is written in such a strange way. The timeline jumps around, with little reason. One brief mention of McVay's death, but many many details of the young Hunter Smith. And then there were weirdly written parts, an example that sticks out is: Kimo was the partner of Duke Kahanamoku. The way it is written, you cannot tell that Duke Kahanamoku died some 30 years earlier. Especially with the shifting timelines, sentences like this made it even more difficult.
And then, there was very little resolution. We get some trial details, but nothing about the Senate hearings or the next steps.
Can definitely understand why people consider this a classic.
The only bad thing about this book is that people insist that it is a children's/young adult book. But it is not. It is definitely a good sci-fi book for any age.
This was a slog to get through. The characters were okay, but they just didn't go anywhere.
Interesting enough characters, but everything seemed to be too fast. The whole book happened in a few days and involved trips to the Underworld and different parts of the world, with no training for the girls, yet they had the skills.
A little too convenient.
Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons
It started off fairly strong, but definitely was just more of the same as it progressed.
He was really defensive over any critiques, particularly when it comes to people saying that the jokes were mean/stereotypical (like Apu). That definitely didn't endear him to me.
Mia just wasn't developed enough. She was both far too old for a ten year old and far too young.
And nothing in the book was shown, it as all told.
An interesting look at the Ugly Stepmother. Some of the characters were strange and a little one-dimensional, but the main character was fully realized.
I expected more about the pets and the animals, but the focus was pretty heavy on the narrator.
I expected this to be a broader book. It was mostly a bunch of examples and when she did go into the details of the differences, she liked to use speech notation.
Very corny and predictable. The author definitely had an agenda and wrote towards it, making it feel very forced at times.
A good balance of comedy and drama, without being creepy or scary (except in a true-crime type of way, I guess).
The characters had some nice development, although the timeline of all of the events happening in a few days didn't feel accurate.
I just couldn't get into this one. The writing was both too descriptive and not descriptive enough, depending on the sentence.
Very good, but not if you want something light or happy. It's about homelessness and bad parents and rape and two boys finding each other in between all that.
A mostly entertaining look at the common things said and done after a police shooting. Mostly, though, it made me feel a little hopeless.
Strong characters and very relatable. I liked that there were two narrators and that both were well developed.
Really thoughtful and thought-provoking. It was nice to hear from the African American perspective here.
Not as good as The Hate U Give. This one took a little longer to get into and the characters weren't nearly as clear as Starr. A compelling story and a very important perspective. Bri won me over in the end.
I just couldn't get into this one. I think the thinly veiled allegory and allusions to AIDS/HIV were just too preachy to me.