Lindsey Ziegler
4.5 stars. Full of heart and emotion and fully realized characters. It's almost like a warm hug in a book.
A wide variety of topics, all with John Green's emotion and research behind them. It gave me hope for the future.
2.5 stars.
It made me a bit angry, because of all the Paper Towns, they chose Agloe, which is already in John Green's novel. But beyond that, the plot dragged a bit and nothing much really happened.
Predictable and flat. It felt more like a creative writing exercise for a teenager than a true published author's work.
Jillian, the main character, was at times so naive that you would justified in thinking she was ten, like with Raf (I mean, we had no more information than Jillian and if you couldn't tell that he loved her from page like two of the book, I don't know what you were reading). And she kept saying that Miles was not great because of their interactions... as if she wasn't a willing participant.
And then the “twist”, where the women were actually practicing witchcraft. Well, duh. When the cover tells you that it's going to have a twist and they make jokes about witchcraft... hmm, I wonder?
The worst thing is that it had promise, but the characters were all caricatures of tropes. If the author would have leaned a little more into that, then it could have reached satire, but as it was, no.
An intriguing story with plenty of twists and turns. I had hoped for a bit more development between the two main characters, but it was still a very realistic relationship.
Far too much exposition. Instead of anything natural, it's was much more like word vomit to tell the backstory of every single phrase.
There wasn't enough difference here to keep the lives straight and I just didn't get the feel I expected
I just couldn't get into this one. The main character didn't have enough to him to carry the book.
The writing style was very non-linear and it was difficult to understand what exactly was going on at any one moment.
The subject matter was interesting and the characters were fine, but the ending was abrupt and incongruous with the rest of the book.
There wasn't nearly enough world-building or character development to be this long of a book.
The whole book was just tension upon tension, waiting for the worst to happen. And then it does...it is barely a blip.
Alex gets over the death of his brother like it is nothing. And to the reader, it is nothing, because it is never acknowledged. In one day, in the book, a boy is killed in Alex's neighborhood, a concert he is attending has a mass shooting, and his brother is run over by a car. And the next day, he just goes on. Not grieving, not anything.
Then there's the repetition of the ‘cancelling' each vision. He grabs a wallet, cancels the vision of pulling out his id, pulls out his id, cancels the vision of sliding it across the counter. This is the phrasing that happens every time Alex has a vision.
Two stars because the premise is so good and some of the beginning is strong, but it just fails.
There was no editing and too much description. I don't need to know that your cat was ugly in very specific ways. Every sentence doesn't need a thousand descriptors.
The secondhand embarrassment is high here. If that's something that is hard for you, you'll not be able to finish this book.
Andrew was a very relatable character and the story unfolds in a nice way.
Too much going on here. And none of the characters had a distinct voice, so they all blended together.
3.5 stars. At times very funny, but not really much beyond that. Some of the more interesting stories were just brushed over, while some boring stories were drawn out over many pages.
A strong memoir. As is appropriate in a book about food, there were recipes gathered by Ruth over her life. If I told a story, it would be through books, but hers is through food.
A good read, interesting characters and interesting plot. Almost like a slice of life on...Mars.
The two main characters were mostly - large woman who is into fanfic AND very attractive movie star who is into fanfic.
It has my least favorite trope of all time, which is secret identity.
And as a person into fanfic, the fact that they only write one-shots is weird to say the least.
Dark and depressing. Add to that a main character who at best was unlikable and it just didn't bowl me over.
It's an unflinching look at poverty and addiction and former inmates. However, the kid has a safety net, even if no one else does and it hurts to see him suffer without it.
Ultimately, it's focus on the adult here takes away from the meaning.
A broad look at how racial policies were developed and their meaning, as well as how they affect everyone in the US, not just minorities.
I liked how it ended with some hope, but it's only 4 stars, because each section was limited in scope.