Chloe

An incredible followup to the first book and somehow surpasses it as well. Cannot wait to see what Martine puts out next.

My favorite of the three. Sometimes it feels like queer romance tries to hide from reality a bit, but this book doesn't hide from how hard it can be to be queer, and does it in a way that doesn't feel (to me at least) shallow or used as flavor. It's also nice to see meaningful trans representation. To have two important characters be trans women, one of whom has been around since the first book is really nice.

The exploration of overcoming comphet, especially in the light of something like a hetero focused dating show was interesting.

A meaningful and mostly well written story about a trans girl finding herself and the myriad of consequences that come along with it.


That being said, I have complicated feelings about the author and the allegations against her. They would be a lot less complicated without the way the allegations were signal boosted by TERFs.

I didn't like this as much as the other one (Sorry, Bro). MC was not very likable. The HEA felt unearned too, your love interest can't hate the MC but then show up 3 months later and be fine again. It just felt rushed and didn't make sense.

Learned more about contemporary Armenian culture from this book than from my family so that's something?

Probably the best book I've read this year. Kept me hooked all the way through. 10/10, 5 stars, etc.

Good :) I will be reading the second one for sure.

Better than expected. I'm not a huge fan of first person narration usually but it wasn't bad. There were a few places the writing felt a little cheesy. 3.5/5

Ugh why can't these crazy kids just tell each other how they feel

3.5 I guess

Probably the best book I've read this year.

Cute ending :)

Funny, bittersweet. Worth reading.

Was okay, felt a little rushed in parts, especially towards the end. Might have been more interesting as a full novel.

9.5/10 for star wars, 8.5 independently. Good entry for the new canon, better than a fair amount of the EU stuff.

Best of the trilogy

Beautifully drawn and written

Good sequel to the first, organically introduces new characters and plot while keeping the thread of the first going. I enjoyed some parts more than others but overall worth the read

Interesting, if a bit tropey.

Pretty good, though Tchaikovsky tends to repeat himself sometimes.

Pretty good story, if a bit predictable by the end.

Enjoyable, though not quite groundbreaking. Probably what you'd expect from a post-apocalyptic YA novel, but more interesting than some of the schlock in the same category.

Consider this a review for the whole series. Overall, the art, story, direction etc were good. I genuinely enjoyed reading it, almost in it's entirety (we'll get to that). The characters are developed decently, though occasionally make slightly out of character decisions to move the plot forward imo. The story being told through years, and in the last few issues, decades, was intriguing and it was interesting to watch the characters grow up from teenage killers and turn into regular people (ish).

However.... (spoilers ahead)

The last few issues were a paper thin veneer of neoliberal Gen X simpering for the establishment. The idea that after all of this punk rock/shitty childhood/teenage angst/assassin school buildup we essentially get a “and then everything was good because our ghoulishly evil standin for conservatism and racism was arrested” is just so incredibly toothless I found it laughable. A weird dig about “post-liberals” online, hamfisted “orange man bad” political analysis, the last few issues just felt forced and weak. It's clear that for Remender, its easy for him to look back and decry Reagan and the conservative movements of the 80s, but the whole thing just feels depressing and like the message is “eventually you grow up”. With the amount of anger the characters start out with, it feels like a betrayal to turn them into people who let the system decide what justice is, and more importantly, to allow them to embrace the system as it is, without making any meaningful difference.

DNF at like chapter 2, started listening on audiobook and it was fine I guess but switched to reading and just didn't like the writing at all