Marissa
I really wanted to love this — fantastic writing, a fantastic idea,, but I knew it was written by someone who usually writes things for the screen. It just didn't hit for me because of that. There was too much over describing like what one would do for a script it didn't read naturally enough for me. Now Mr. Thomas if you make this a movie I'll be right there opening night, probably ready to pee my pants in gear.
I did just read a review by someone named “mark” who said “the author's extensive experience writing for television is all over this book. Easily digestible, simplistic character types rather than three-dimensional characters, a narrative flow that would easily translate in the arcs you see spread out across a tv season, various vivid but unrealistic scenes that may pop on the screen but feel artificial on the page, moralistic lessons for each of the characters that may make sense during an hour-long episode but feel trite and predictable in a book, and that are not particularly tied to any overarching theme throughout the book.”
And I think that's so accurate, and way better than anything I could've written myself
I wanted to like this book so badly. I can get behind flowery language, I did like several of the letters, but everything in between made no sense. This was a no plot just vibes book but in a negative sense. There was no context to make me feel for the characters, understand the war, understand why the they in particular were in it. It just didn't hit for me, sad to say.
I think for me personally this book was 3 stars - it's no fault of the book at all, I just don't understand biology or ecology and I'm sad to say that I think a lot of this went over my head because it just doesn't click with me. Book was excellent and Robin is obviously a very talented writer + very knowledgeable on the subject I just unfortunately am not. Anyone who had a slight enjoyment of this boom should listen to her episode of Ologies with Alie Ward (called Bryology) it was excellent and she's a wonderful speaker!!
Here's the thing, if you have a master's degree in Shakespeare, and your authors note tells your readers that you had to use a whole extra book to navigate “the textual maze that is king Lear” maybe that's a hint that you're doing too much. Maybe if I enjoyed Shakespeare more this would've been better, who knows (this coming from a former theater kid who knows more than the average reader about Shakespeare).
The final “act” of this book really saved it for me but if you took out the Shakespeare quotes and such, we probably could've had a nice (and possibly more readable) novella on our hands instead of this. For those niche dark academia readers who love Shakespeare I'm happy this exists for you, but personally, not my cup of tea.
I do not typically write reviews of books; frankly because I do not have the time. This book infuriated me on so many levels, but most of all I just had to let everyone know what I think happened when this book was written.
I believe that Jesse Ball got an old beat up copy of the Catcher in the Rye. Read it. And decided that Holden Caulfield needed a girlfriend who was an even worse character than he was.
Save your time and money and go find a book with a character who actually goes through development and has more personality traits than being a sad, angsty, teenager who claims everyone in the world is a phony (or a poser in this case).
Just as good the second time around. I will say I'm a sucker for knowing things but i remember loving it the first time not knowing the end too. I will say if there was any part that I should've been confused in, it was part 4. 8 years does make a difference reading though, I know I definitely understood more of the book (not just the foreshadowing but the rest) that I definitely didn't at 13. VERY excited to read book 2 hopefully tomorrow!
Not sure how I never put this on my goodreads. This audiobook is my comfort book truly, idk what it is about Jessica Almasy maybe it's the nostalgia of me reading this in elementary school. Maybe I should've had some theories about myself when David sat and cried because her dad was late coming home from work because “he lied”, but that's an analysis for another day and probably a therapy session
There are some books that just open your eyes to the world, and as soon as you finish them you're not the same person. The gist of Thirteen Reasons why is that Hannah Baker committed suicide and decides to leave 13 audio tapes to describe what pulled her to kill herself. This leaves Clay in the dark. What could he possibly have done to lead her to his? As Hannah describes each event, Clay follows her story to different places in town, trying to piece together her story.
This powerful book opens the eyes of readers about the consequences of their actions and what they say to people. This is certainly a book every person should read in their lifetime.
Themes: Suicide, Sex, Love, Betrayal
Rating: 4.75/5
