nico
4.5 ★
rip charlie, you would've loved gross by hitgs
ok, but fr though, i have been waiting for so long to read this book, i pre-ordered it months ago, and it finally arrived just 2 days ago, and i had to start reading it! honestly, it's everything i was hoping for. it's cute, it's fun, and it's great! for some reason, i actually thought this was in uni, and not high school, so it caught me off guard when suddenly they were only sixteen.
i do have a few other stuff i wish were different; like, i wish we could've gotten this written in a 3rd person's pov just because i NEED to know everything jasper was thinking as well, charlie is great as a main character (more on this later), i just think i would've gone insane (positively) if we had also gotten to know more from jasper. and of course, the fact that this was set in high school just felt a bit too lacking to me. yes, high schoolers ARE that dramatic, and honestly, annoying me with the amount of stuff they think is so important when it's not is very accurate, and the whole hating romance makes sense for charlie because of course a 16 y/o would think that after ONE failed experiment, but i think their romance could've been more impactful if they were older
now, charlie! he was dramatic and anxious and honestly just a complete enneagram 4; unfortunately, e4s are not my favourite people. as a trans guy who is older than charlie, but behind him in terms of transitioning, sometimes i felt some of his fears were a bit much (though i can excuse him since he's a teenager). like, there's NO WAY i would make myself suffer through 1 hour of pe every day ???? (also, whose high school only has 6 classes, and it's the same schedule every day? what?) besides all this though, after my therapy appointment today and the fact that she made me talk about my feelings, which i can't (i get you charlie) i realize that maybe everything charlie's feeling is still what i feel even if i try to push it down and pretend i don't. so haha you know, fantastic...
anyway, i really liked this! i think the first half was my favourite, and more towards the end it started feeling a bit too much. mostly with charlie's lack of confidence and low self-esteem and thinking no one likes him, because i've gone through that when i was his age, and technically i only really accepted i was trans when my depression wasn't so severe, so seeing him be so far ahead with his transition and still have these fears was a bit disquieting to me.
i don't know, i've said a lot and expressed too much of my feelings...... this was great btw! love it when characters only get together at the end, and the humor was also very nice, i just really really liked it
3.0 ★
joana and i have started a new fun game in which we choose a random 1€ book for each other, and we have to read it. she got me this one, and i was interested since it was basically the fake dating/fake marriage trope! it ended up not being quite that, but it was fine nonetheless. this was a very fast and light read, and the plot unravelled rather quickly in a short window of time. not a lot of development nor depth, you're just thrown into the middle of the plot, but it works ok!
4.4★
i watched the movie less than a week ago, and i really liked it, so of course, i had to read this. it was so good. stephen king you are so amazing
3.2★
i only started reading this because it was the only queer book available to read on the new portuguese library app, and i can't say i'm opposed to reading adam silvera's books since i loved the only other book i read of him. unfortunately, i was a bit disappointed with this one.
i wasn't the biggest fan of these characters, and i know they're teenagers, but griffin was ... a difficult character for me to completely like. i did cry several times, and i found this a very emotional book that forced me to think about my own grief which is something i usually try to ignore or push away.
the problem for me was the way the story was written; it felt too 'teenage-y', which, again, i understand, but i couldn't help to roll my eyes at some of the characters' actions and thoughts. and while the "dealing with death" part was very good, i didn't really care for much of the plot besides that. and this is more of a personal taste, but i don't care about established relationships, so having the main characters already together at the beginning of the history was a turn-off.
i guess i only have myself to blame, because i completely misunderstood the summary of the book and i was expecting something entirely different to play out, and so when i read this and realized what the actual story was about it fell short
1.8 ★
i was hoping i would like this, but unfortunately virginia woolf's writing style (especially stream of consciousness) is just not for me
3.8 ★
this is such a difficult book to rate, because .... man i don't even know. i am very excited for our discussion in class tomorrow, and i really wanna hear more about this. i found the second 'kidnapping' a bit meh, and i didn't really enjoy that part of the story as much; even if it's supposed to be a mirror of the protagonist, it fell short, to me. it is kinda crazy how much the writer (humbert, not nabokov) tries to manipulate the reader, and does his best at trying to gain sympathy, because if we weren't aware of the severity of his actions and be able to tell apart what he really did from how he tells us, someone could really be tricked into understanding and justifying his actions
4.25 ★
holy shit. i have no words to describe what i'm feeling right now. this was so good, so amazing, so wow!!! it had everything, from the callbacks to iconic pieces of horror media, to a great supernatural plot, down to the originality and unexpected twists. this book does exactly what the scream movies do, it takes the clichés and uses them in their favor, which works so well. i don't read a lot of horror books, so i thought this would be a great start since it falls a lot more under the murder mystery and thriller genres, and i'm so glad i chose it. another thing i absolutely loved was SPOILERS the owl society !!! listen listen listen, as a dc comics reader and lover, i loved the similarities! i don't know if it was on purpose or accidental, but seeing the owl society being used in a way you never see anyone use dc's owl society was groundbreaking. i am going insane with how much i loved this book.
2.50 ★
i was just gonna read issues 3 and 4 for jaime, but decided to try and read the whole run... not sure it was the best choice
4.0 ★
aw i love their friendship<3 but i'm kinda confused about that random man ??? and even la dama ? but tbh i've read way too many dc comics to not be used to being confused all the time. also THE BABS AND DINAH CAMEO
