Ywa

But sometimes remembering isn't for yourself, sometimes you do it just to make someone else smile.

They would soon realize that The Seep had already infiltrated their city's water supply. They were already compromised, already bodily hosts to their new alien friends. It was through that connection they could hear one another's thoughts, feel the same emotions, overlaid with the all-consuming adage that Everything Will Be All Right, No Matter What. The softest invasion had begun.

Grief is a houseWhere the chairsHave forgotten how to hold usThe mirrors how to reflect usThe walls how to contain usGrief is a house that disappearsEach time someone knocks at the doorOr rings the bellA house that blows into the airAt the slightest gustThat buries itself deep in the groundWhile everyone is sleepingGrief is a house where no one can protect youWhere the younger sisterWill grow older than the older oneWhere the doorsNo longer let you inOr out.

I'm conscious this could be rather burdensome to hear, but you remain the thing I have most chosen for myself. The thing that's most exclusively mine. The one thing that brings me the deepest joy.

“My pain was never more valuable than his potential.”

This is not only an important book but so well written. Her voice lingers around me, even now, a good while after I finished the last page. It feels like I was there, next to her, experiencing everything. So powerful.

Sometimes we are all so afraid to be honest with ourselves because we know that honesty will lead to somewhere.” I wrote this ten years ago. “Can fear walk us to something better?

Why do we desire, above all other things, that which has the greatest power to destroy us?

If you think the story has a sad ending, it's because it's not over yet.

It's just that the magic of someone new never lasts long enough. We only want those we can't have. It's those we lost or who never knew we existed who leave their mark. The others barely echo.

Compelling from a thematic standpoint: an honest exploration of identity, trauma, family, acceptance. Less so from the delivery perspective, for me. I was hoping for a cohesive story but what I found was a series of disjointed essays that felt bound together from magazine articles. It felt more like a collection of manifestos than memoir to me.

I'm sure young adults will benefit from this book a great deal though.

And I know then what I've always known: Campbell is never going to make a space for me to fit. I'm going to have to demand it.

Irby is a funny woman. And her mussings are so honest and raw.

“He came. He left. Nothing else had changed. I had not changed. The world hadn't changed. Yet nothing would be the same. All that remains is dreammaking and strange remembrance.”

No one's universally liked. Beyoncé isn't universally liked. Has that stopped her? No. Be like Beyoncé.

It was a striking reminder that they all bore crosses when it came to their respective careers, some heavier than others.

“Often think it must be very tiring, being Tiffy. Even in note form, she seems to expend so much energy.”
This was cute. Based on the first half, I would have given it 4 stars. But after that, I lost steam with it and no longer cared very much. The heroine is bubbly and quirky in a bearable way and the hero is kind of stiff but opens up towards the end. They get to know each other slowly, through notes which I find adorable, it's a favorite trope of mine. The part with her ex was done very well, great addition.

However, apart from Leon's brother and the search for Johnny, I didn't care for any of the side characters or events, especially anything related to her work. I'm not into crochet at all, working at a publishing house that focuses on DIY books seems like one of the most boring things in the world to me.

“I'd found my person.She was the foundation. She was the thing that all other things are built on. Everything was secondary to being with her. It didn't matter where I worked or if I liked my job, where I lived or how many kids I had. My happiness, my sanity, my well-being – it all started with her. And now that I knew that, I didn't want to just be her boyfriend – I wanted everything.”

On top of Kristen and Josh being special snowflakes and not like other peers of their gender as way to explain what's so great about them, their relationship moved too fast. They went from having a scuffle about the accident to supposedly being best buds because of so many convenient plot devices. Their interactions are always superficial at best but somehow we're supposed to believe they would die for each other in a matter of weeks? And how convenient that Tyler broke up with her in a voice message even though he didn't actually do it? He said he reenlisted and she said in the past that's a no go for her but they didn't actually have a conversation to discuss it and make things clear. And this whole time she was emotionally cheating on Tyler until the point of even ignoring his calls to hang out with Josh. In what world this constitutes being loyal?

Then what she does next is despicable. She's hot, then cold with Josh. Pushing and pulling, jerking him around without any explanation. I'm not a fan of Josh but it's not ok how she treated him. He basically used him because she was attracted to him while refusing to acknowledge how he feels when she keeps rejecting him, then reeling him in, then it's off again. Sadist move. If it were a guy doing this to a woman y'all be up in arms about what a douchebag he is.

No matter how hard it was for her to talk about it, she should have told him from the begining that she thinks she can't have kids. It's not up for debate. You don't hold critical information from someone you're involved with if it concerns them, even if it's just a hook-up.

Another thing that was absolutely icky was when Brandon got into the accident and died they still made it about them. I could not have it in my heart to be cheesy and spew declarations of love when my best friend is in the hospital between life or death. And then they got married when his body was barely cold.

The cherry on top, Kristen, who's womb was supposedly distended from the fibroids, who bled non-stop got miraculously pregnant and carries it full-term? What a slap in the face to all the women out there who have infertility issues. I have a friend who has one fibroid, 7 cm, and she's had 4 miscarriages because of it. Yes, miracles do happen, it's not the norm. This book is an F-u to so many women out there who will never be biological mothers because they either can't or they chose not to have kids.

What a strange little book. I didn't know where this was going for a good while but I ended up invested in the characters by the end.

Well-written with thorough research and compelling arguments. A must-read in my book.

Hard to get into at first but overall fun. I enjoyed the hero/villain stereotype turned on its head.

The artwork is gorgeous but I didn't really connect to the story.

What I'm saying is that my life, like the lives of most people, lacks an origin story. I mean one with any explanatory power.

almost

Didn't hit me as the TV series did. Nonetheless, a worth-while exploration of how the unit came to be and its importance.

We're good for each other, I think. You bring me down to earth and I make you dream big.

“I know, it's like I'm a tiny bit interesting or something.”

Ah...so boring. It was painfully obvious who the caller was and that he was talking about her and not her friend. The entire book was paint-by-numbers.