Renata Sancken
OK OK so I'm not a big mystery reader but I like Stacey Lee's historical fiction and I like Old Hollywood type stories, so I was in for this. And I loved the Chow sisters so much and all the Hollywood details. BUT like. On the rare occasions that I do read a mystery, I'm not usually one to pick up clues or like, try to solve along with the mystery. But this one REALLY ANNOYED ME because.
in literally the first chapter, Gemma talks about Lulu's famous Noir Red lipstick and how she had to have it specially made for her because of her shellfish allergy! The girlies all know about this! Then when she's dead they make a point to be like "wow her lips were puckered like a kiss when she died, how mysterious"! And like if your thing is going to be, 'teen girls solve the case bc white adult police don't care,' I'm so on board with that premise but c'mon the teen girls would have cracked that lipstick clue WAY SOONER!!! Frustrating!!!!
However everything aside from that was enjoyable.
hmmm I respect the IDEA of wanting to depict Constance Wilde/Holland's rich inner life as a human aside from Oscar but I also feel like this didn't really....do that....
I feel like maybe it should have shown more of her pre-Oscar life or something IDK. Like it hints at her feminist work but doesn't go into it? Maybe it assumes that the reader has more knowledge of her life than I do. But I think like...that most people don't know a lot about her which is sort of why this book sounded intriguing??
And I didn't really love the five act structure. IDK I think this book spread itself too thin. I think I'd be better served by reading a good biography.
I did like everyone's very bitchy dare I say Wilde-ian dialogue though.
ok Nora! On one hand I was happy for the cute friendship between Breen and her gay bestie Marco. I did feel like Marco consisted mostly of like cliches and Drag Race catchphrases held together with glitter glue, but, ok, we had a good time. And I did think her relationship with the drag queens at Sally's was really sweet. Hag representation matters.
I liked the portal fantasy aspect a lot and I am stoked that at the end, Breen told Marco about all of the magic stuff and also that he jumped in the portal too! I am excited to see Marco take on magical Tulum or whatever the fantasy land is called.
Overall based on what I've read I think I prefer Nora's contemporary romance but ehhh I'll prob keep on reading. Gotta chase that cliffhanger!
I was rooting for u Anna Marie but man I just don't know about this. Like I know when her memoir was first announced a lot of people (myself included tbh) were like “oooh she is gonna roast John Mulaneyyyy” but a) she doesn't directly talk about him at all (fine, tasteful even), just a few references to “going through a divorce”) and b) like...if anything before she wrote this I think my understanding was like “ohh JM got too famous and cheated on her with a more famous woman and abandoned his wonderful artist wife and their beloved dog, how could he?!” and now I'm like “man I kinda get it.”
I didn't know too much about her as a person aside from hearing about her in Mulaney's comedy. Like here on GR the description of her book describes her as “popular artist Anna Marie Tendler” and I was like, oh, IS she a popular artist?? And I guess yeah she's a photographer but one of my main takeaways from this is that as much as she has endured bad treatment from men/the patriarchy/SOCIETY...also she has definitely financially benefitted from a series of wealthier boyfriends who supported her art/grad school/etc. Like it doesn't seem like she's ever had a true JOB. And not to channel my inner Puritan or whatever but like she's almost 40 and maybe like...get a job????? sorry babe
The title is so interesting and provocative because I mean it does sound like she has dealt with pretty serious mental illness for most of her life (which like yes could also be something preventing her from getting a job but that's not really a concept being explored in her book). Which it sounds like bad treatment from men has contributed to her state but not fully caused it? And she also specifically had maybe the worst experience with one of her female therapists so it's really not as simple as “men think she's a crazy bitch because she dares to have emotions!”
Like this is sort of a backdoor argument for better social safety nets in the US, I suppose. If we had UBI maybe she could just work on her lampshades and recovery without relying on her boyfriends/husbands' money. But mostly I felt like my sympathy and my feminism were being SORELY tested by this book. I wanted to root for her but I am kind of just like...get a job?????
I think perhaps a better book might have focused more on her time in the hospital and less time on her past boyfriends? Like I had wanted to read more about her because I was like “ok yeah it's not cool to just define her as JM's ex” but it sort of seems like she defines HERSELF as an ex. Which again is sort of you know the PATRIARCHY but if you're going to write a book about it maybe like, go a little deeper??
mostly I think this could have just been for her group chat.
It was a pretty quick read, though, so I did finish it.
I enjoyed this and found it extremely readable–the oral history format is really breezy to get through. I don't actually know a ton about Fleetwood Mac's history so I'm not sure how 1:1 the characters mapped to that drama but it worked fine for me as a book without a lot of backstory.
I think it's hard to pull off fake songs in a book but I liked these! I'm interested to watch the TV adaptation now.
Reading this book gave me like ASMR brain tingles I think??? It just like activated me. I love pretentious fictional teens. The premise is so like over the top but I was along for the ride. I think a certain flavor of teen could make this book their whole personality.
I am docking one star because it's supposed to be set in an American “small town” where “everyone knows everyone” but it has a bus that runs every 30 minutes? This is stolen small town valor.
Hmm like [b:Nicked 200555176 Nicked M.T. Anderson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1708658984l/200555176.SY75.jpg 205322389], this is a work of historical fiction that I probably wouldn't have picked up if I weren't already a fan of the author. I don't know a lot about Arthurian legend-and I think a lot of what I know (beyond the very basics that are soaked into American pop culture) is actually from the [b:Legendborn 50892338 Legendborn (The Legendborn Cycle, #1) Tracy Deonn https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1598382979l/50892338.SY75.jpg 61991309] books which have their own spin on things–but I did really enjoy this. I think I see the some of Arthurian influence on the Magicians books now (sidenote I know the Magicians books are not everyone's cup of tea but I still fuckin love em).Anyway a fun weird read! I was along for the ride! People who know more about Arthurian lore might like this less? Or more? I have no idea.
whew this was super fucked up and kind of hot. I liked the unexpected ways the characters connected to each other but I was a little like...ok well, now I see on GR that it's flagged a “thriller” which wasn't what I'd expected. like there are a lot of assassins in this sexy party book. is this how rich people live? MAYBE IT IS
omg I never read this far in the series when I was a kid! And then I started reading [b:Stacey and the Bad Girls 523638 Stacey and the Bad Girls (The Baby-Sitters Club, #87) Ann M. Martin https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1387736978l/523638.SX50.jpg 511511] for the podcast and it was like “Stacey left the Baby-Sitters Club so now–” and I was like “wait wait she did WHAT?” so I went back and read this and I was like “aaaa”Like it does make SENSE character arc-wise but also AAAAA
I was sooo excited to get an ARC of this because Ruta Sepetys is such an amazing writer of historical fiction and Steve Sheinkin is so good at writing compelling nonfiction. Dream team!!
Also like a lot of people I am intrigued by the Bletchley code breakers. So just like, a lot of great stuff going on.
That said I sort of...wish this weren't middle grade maybe? It was hard to keep feeling like, why is Lizzie being so immature, this is so serious?? When like...yeah because she's 14, right right right. Anyway that's more a me problem, I am sure it will hit for middle grade readers.
That said I really enjoyed this overall, I loved the clever plot element of the missing mom mystery (I was also like, “surely this isn't going to imply that children cracked the Enigma code??” and it doesn't, they have their own thing going). I also appreciated the minor appearances from Alan Turing as like, kind of a weird guy but nice to the kids-which like, was a complaint from historians about the Benedict Cumberbatch version of Alan Turing that portrayed him as like an isolated genius weirdo when apparently he was well-regarded by everyone as being really kind (but weird). And the story of the Polish codebreakers!! Really cool and I appreciated the end note saying that one of their goals with the story was to highlight their bravery since it hasn't gotten as much press as Alan Turing etc (who ofc only somewhat recently got public notice himself...bc of the Secrets...)
anyway, great book but also for me? I hope Ruta gets back to writing YA that makes me cry soon!! xoxox
I didn't know much about this book when I picked it up-I was just like, “Oh, new Kristin Cashore book? I'm IN” and then I was like “WHOA it's set in my backyard!” and then I was like “uh oh it's set in 2020??” And skimming through the GR reviews I saw a bunch of people like, “I don't want to read about 2020, it was bad” and like. Yeah. It was bad. But this is such a good emotional time capsule of things that were not that long ago but I'd already forgotten stuff like, when everyone was taking 6 feet apart really seriously and like going for a walk and putting your mask on if another person approached, and just the deep anxiety of feeling the slightest potential symptom of anything.
And then the dread of the election, and the days before it was announced, and how unseasonably hot it was that day (in the Boston area anyway)... yes, this is how it was. I mean I didn't have any magical realism encounters with talking birds or anything, myself, but other than that, that's how it was.
And adding in the teen-ness of it all and how extra awful it must have been to miss out on those high school/college times...oof! Powerful.
And I loved the non-linear narrative and getting to see Wilhelmina's past moments.
Just a really powerful coming of age, coming of COVID story. Not going to be everyone's cup of tea but whew. I have to imagine it will especially mean a lot to young adults who were in high school during COVID.
I'm not usually a person to pick up a volume of just poetry, but I'd loved Morgan Parker's fiction and essays so much I decided to give this a try. (Also the title is, obviously, compelling–although in one of her essays she mentioned wishing she hadn't given it this title because everyone sort of reduced their reviews to cheap Beyonce jokes rather than engage with the work itself, which.....fair)
anyway I'm still not much of a poetry reader per se but these are beautiful.
I'm drawn to stories about movies/Hollywood (both old and modern day) so I was excited to pick this up, and there was definitely a lot to like here. But mmmmmm I feel like...this would have functioned better as a more straightforward historical fiction without the intergenerational present day aspect? Like most readers are going to pretty quickly gather that Kitty was their secret grandma... so why make it a ~big reveal~ toward the end?
Also I just found Kitty's Old Hollywood storyline much more compelling than the present day St James sisters. Like I understand the parallels being drawn between Kitty needing to pass as White to succeed and Elise needing to delete her Black Lives Matter social media post but also like, IDK, did we need all 3 sisters and and also the publicists and also the boyfriends? A lot going on that didn't necessarily all contribute!
The thing I was maybe most interested in was the concept of the Blair House secret society for Black women passing as white to secretly help each other and help darker skinned women too, and I did some googles to see if that was a real thing and it seems like no? Or if there was...it's still secret? Anyway I would have loved a book that focused more on that and dropped the present day stuff?
Anyway...I'll keep an eye out and see what Crystal Smith Paul writes next because I think there's some good stuff in here but it's maybe a little too much packed into one debut novel?
I struggle with Anna-Marie McLemore's books bc like, they are such a beautiful writer and their prose is always so lovely, but the magical realism just doesn't like, hit for me ? Like I just can't wrap my head around like what...exactly....is happening????
I felt like with this book I came closer than usual to understanding it. The gems are a great metaphor.
Anyway 5 stars for having a cool character named Renata who is beloved by all
