yumna 🌙

i got a 30 day free trial of audible so i could listen to [b:Yes Please 20910157 Yes Please Amy Poehler https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1402815435s/20910157.jpg 40098620] for free, which also included access to two audible originals, so i downloaded the last days of august on a whim just because it was under the “thriller” category. i didn't know anything about it - i even thought it was fiction for the first 2 chapters lol. when i looked it up and realised it was non fiction, i enjoyed it even more. this is an “audiobook” but is really reminiscent of serial-style true crime podcasts - aka my favourite genre of podcasts. the story of august ames was really interesting, sad, and intriguing. it gives you insight on what really goes on in the porn industry. some big name porn stars are even featured in the audiobook! props to [a:Jon Ronson 1218 Jon Ronson https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1428023511p2/1218.jpg]!!! this was really well done and i'd gladly listen to his other work :)))

im running away to the osmanverse and never coming back

15/02/23: this one BETTER be purple

UPDATE 24/02/23YES IT'S PURPLE god it's gonna look so cute on my shelf :3

FINISHED 9/09/23
this was everything i ever wanted and more

when i wanna read a cute, simple teenage romance book THIS is what i'm talking about. this was sooooo well done!!!! i love sweetie!!! i love ashish!!! i read when dimple met rishi last year and enjoyed it alright, but i absolutely LOVED the chemistry between sweetie and ashish - and who knew ashish was such a soft boi, adorable adorable adorable.

first read: january 2020
Did I just sit in bed and binge this until 2am??? Yes I did. And it was amazing.

reread: april 2022
ugh i can never get enough of heartstopper... and i finally read it physically instead of on tapas & i love it so much that i ordered volume 4 right after i finished :3 also the show is killing me i've teared up 179847238 times

reread july 2020
book #3 of the reading rush!!! still 3.5 stars :)

actual rating: 3.5 stars
i did enjoy this graphic novel a lot, but in this first issue there was a lot left to be desired. the whole mystery of the spill zone, with the bizarre and inexplicable event happening within it got me hooked, but absolutely nothing was resolved (and i mean NOTHING) and that really bugged the crap out of me. i guess that means i need to get the next book... anyone care to get it for me?

this was so frickin cute

whenever i pick up a colleen hoover book, i always expect it to be a 5 star read. while i think this was enjoyable, i didn't find it as great as her other books i've read. for me, this book was missing that fast-paced suspenseful plot & passion between the love interests. with 4 stars i think this was still a great read, but it just didn't meet my high expectations for a coho book. BUT there were some great themes such as the exploration of a mother's love, grief, and forgiveness. also i cried a fair bit reading this book. i still definitely recommend it!

oh man oh man oh man i could NOT put this down. if I didn't have to sleep and get up for work I would've read this in one whole sitting. it's so ominous but sexy but disturbing I...... i was not let down. definitely recommend for a spooky thriller read!!!!

damn i really went from thinking the first chapter of [b:Binding 13 40944965 Binding 13 (Boys of Tommen, #1) Chloe Walsh https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1532534949l/40944965.SY75.jpg 63849697] was cringe to wanting to binge every book in the series

before reading>
ok i'm so excited for this and so curious about the chemistry between pinky and samir. enemies to lovers i hope?????

is it me or does this radiate [b:Little Fires Everywhere 34273236 Little Fires Everywhere Celeste Ng https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1522684533s/34273236.jpg 52959357] vibes??? if i didn't just order five books i'd have this baby in my hands already 😩

this book will forever be one of my comfort reads

before [b:Know My Name 50196744 Know My Name Chanel Miller https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567612158l/50196744.SX50_SY75.jpg 73239835], there was lucky. the title ‘lucky' is an ironic one, referencing how a police officer mentioned that a girl was murdered in the tunnel where sebold was raped & that she was lucky in comparison. this also references how sexual assault victims compare their trauma to other victims and minimize their experiences because they are also ‘lucky in comparison.'this was a raw account of alice sebold's rape (tw: graphic sexual assault) and its aftermath. one way sebold actually was lucky was that she got justice & her rapist was convicted for his crimes. (edit: after some googling, her rapist's conviction was overturned. i'm not sure if he was falsely identified - sebold does mention misidentifying her rapist in a police lineup -or if he was falsely exonerated.)i think this is a pretty important read for those that want to learn more about what a sexual assault victim has to go through, especially at a time way before the #metoo movement (sebold was raped in 1981) and talking about being a rape victim was even more taboo than it is now.

I somehow read 95% of this book in a day. I couldn't put it down - it was a fascinating but very difficult read for me, and for me, a really, really important story to read. Really well done and definitely an eye opener for those who haven't experienced this kind of trauma.

first read - nov 2021; 5 stars
man, this book really surpassed my expectations. it really is worth the hype. please take the time to read the author's note at the end, because it really makes you appreciate the plot even more.

also, please check trigger warnings before reading this.

second read - oct 2022; 4.5 stars
still rly good, not as groundbreaking as the first time i read it. still cried tho

actual rating: 1.5 stars
the poetry in this book reminded me of the emo tumblr posts i used to write after my break up in 10th grade that were so embarrassing that i deleted my blog so the world would never see it LMAO.

whew this took me a while to get through. although i think a lot of the info in the book is important for world building & setting up the plot in the next two books, i do think some parts really dragged on and tbh could've used some editing. like 800 pages wasn't really necessary tbh. NONETHELESS, still amazing & still loved

i really, really wanted to like this because i love ve schwab but this one really fell short. it could be because it is a middle grade book that all my favourite complexities of a schwab world was missing, as it kind of felt like a general outline of a great schwab story. i felt no connection to any of the characters and really didn't care what happened to them, and the plot wasn't interesting at all. BUT for the intended demographic (children ages 8-11), this could be a really fun ~spooky~ read. it could be that i was just simply... too old for this book. definitely will not be picking up the sequel unfortunately :(

second read april 2021
ngl wasn't as fun the second time bc i already knew what happened - wish i could read this first the first time again! still loved the story tho & still 5 stars from me!

first read nov 2018
The first time I came across The Knife of Never Letting Go was on my younger sister's bookshelf. She has a collection of less than ten novels on her book and I wanted to read anything and everything at the beginning of my never-ending book binge. I saw this book had amazing reviews on Goodreads and those that I followed gave it a minimum of 4 stars. I read the synopsis and sigh it was a dystopian book.

See, I'm a realistic fiction kind of gal and I love a good romance and mystery book, but I hadn't really considered reading dystopia. During the Hunger Games craze of the early 2010's it seemed like everyone and their mother was writing a “super cool unique” dystopian book. I've read two that I remember in that time, those being Divergent by Veronica Roth and Delirium by Lauren Oliver, the first I thought was okay and the second I thought was kind of... bad. So, I was kind of turned off by the genere. Because The Knife of Never Letting Go had such good reviews and my little sister constantly telling me how AMAZING it was, I decided to finally start reading it.The first 40-50 pages were really hard for me to read. The reason I stick to realistic fiction is that I know the exact type of world they're in, but every dystopian society is different. I found all the introduction prose at the beginning boring and I almost stopped reading - until I got to page 55 and I COULDN'T stop. I loved the diction, I loved how unpredictable and tense the plot was, I loved Ness's word choice in the narration and how we had a faultless unreliable narrator. I also hated how much I loved the satisfyingly unsatisfying ending. I can't wait to read the next book in the series!!!!I also cried a lot while reading lmao: -Todd being forced to leave Cillian and Ben and him having no idea why-Todd hearing in Prentiss Jr's lying Noise about how he shot Cillian and Ben “twixt the eyes”-Todd and Viola floating down the river in boat while Aaron crushed Manchee to death-Todd and Viola finding Ben before finding Haven and Ben sacrifices himself to Prentiss Jr. so Todd and VIola can escapeJust such a good read :””””””(

2.5
holy shit. i finally finished it. thank GOD. now to wait seven more months until lucian x sloane and it BETTER be worth getting through this book bc omfg i wanted to dnf it so badly

4.5
i don't even know how i'm going to survive the next book this BROKE me

book #1 of reading rush DONE!
wasn't too hard to finish all your perfects! it was well-paced and kept me engaged from the first page. amazing love story too :))) gotta pick up more colleen hoover books for sure.

the ratings and reviews for this aren't amazing but i'm 100% gonna buy just because of that beautiful cover

honestly, at first i wasn't very impressed with this book. i found myself forcing myself to read it when i wasn't actually too keen. the beginning of the book was quite slow and none of the characters were interesting. charlotte seemed to parallel the tv version of sherlock holmes and it made her character seem like an unoriginal take on a holmes character. i did like the attempts at making her seem more human than tv sherlock through her sexual assault and substance abuse, but for most of the book she was very unlikeable and had little character development. BUT as i got to the last 10% of the book i found myself unable to stop reading - charlotte had gone soft for jamie AND was finally solving the mystery. this last 10% of the book redeemed the plot for sure, i think the looooong intro of the characters put me off in the beginning. in the end, i thought it was a fun read and i'll likely read the next book in the series.