Minki
i really recommend that if you choose to read this book then please read the 20th anniversary edition like i did. It gives stats on gun violence since this book was written in 2000.
I live in australia and the last mass shooting we had was in 1996 and it wasn't on our mainland but in tasmania. After that our government banned guns, bought our guns off us and then destroyed them all. Australians now live normal lives without fearing being shot down in normal places such as school, work, leisure time. Yes we still do have gun violence and knife crimes but it's extremely rare. The gun violence we do have here rarely turn out fatal and it's always a personal matter, rarely someone shooting up strangers.
This book was set in the US and most of the stats the book gave were about US violence. It's crazy that now days the US has a mass shooting every day of the year. Kids are killed getting an education all because their government refuses to ban guns.
There is absolutely no reason for most guns to exist. I actually agree with households keeping guns to protect their homes and themselves (unpopular opinion) but there is no reason a person should be able to buy a weapon that is designed for mass destruction. Most assault rifles are bad for hunting as it causes too much damage to the animal and you can't salvage any meat or fur/skin and they are mostly used for wars and army training. They are made to kill humans and here are some governments letting average citizens buy them! it's unbelievable. Saw a post on instagram the other day of an average man in america who owns a bazooka. He lives in a little flat, has a criminal backround!!! but has a bazooka.
As i said before, i do personally think households should be able to keep a pistol to defend their homes (if they are permitted to, backround checks and training will have to be a must) but there is no reason for an average citizen to own a gun that causes severe damage.
This book heavily focuses on bullying and i feel like if you were never bullied then you'll never understand how mentally taxing it is to even step foot into school.
I can only speak from the Australian high school experience. Most Australian high schools have a huge popularity issue, popular kids feel superior and put unpopular kids down. Most schools here don't have in school sport or cheerleaders, all that stuff is outside school activity so our popularity isnt based on those two sports but rather looks or how much of a dickhead you can be. It's harsh here but students usually unite no matter their popularity.
read ahead if you want a reason to never read this disgusting excuse of a book.
Are you kidding me? i am violently disgusted. I read 46% of this book and liked it until chapter 21 and 22. I can't physically read anymore because it's making me ill. I'm shaking.
I actually loved this book but what happened just really disgusted me.
I will be discussing rape and women violence from here on out, not really spoilers but read on if you need a reason to not read this book.
Our main character is raped. Jamie saves her. Jamie then says its her fault, angry at her for disobeying his orders and there for deserving what she got, he threatens to beat her for being upset about being raped, calls her names for being upset, makes it about him and how her being raped upset HIM and forced her to apologize for being raped, he then wants to punish her by wanting to have sex with her but she says no. I quit reading as soon as it looks like it was going in a disgusting direction so i dont know if he ends up raping her but i don't doubt it.
Theres 9 or 10 books about this couple and people enjoy it? i can't even look at this man without thinking about what he has done.
Again... people love this man????
if you do then i think you need to have a deep hard look at yourself and think about what went wrong.
I don't care if he makes up for it in other books, what he has done is unforgivable and a slap to the face of women everywhere.
this cost me $55 to read because it's an out of print book but trust me when i tell you i would've paid a grand for this book.
I think this is the perfect bite sized King book that you could give to someone who has never read King. The story is short but the characters are so well built and you feel like you really get to know them. This is the perfect segway to his other books. It's not scary or anything but a great look into human behaviour (which most king books are about) and how emotions can be the scariest thing in the world.
Loved the cast of characters and i will miss them!
2.5 stars
i dont know how to feel. I was excited to see what was gonna happen at the start but it dwindled as did my enjoyment of the book. By the end i didn't really care for any of it.
It felt like a middle grade book most of the time which was weird because this book is about murder and other severe crimes. The main character talked like a 12 year old girl and acted like one too.
idk... do i rate it 2 stars? 3 stars?
ok so listen, i picked this up from the KIDS SECTION in my local store...
I went in to buy a graphic novel because i needed something light and fast to read and this was the only graphic novel there so i bought it without reading what it was about.
It was in the kids section and it has a cover that looks like it belongs to a middle grade book so i went into this book thinking it would be cute and fun...
first thing i saw when i opened this book was a trigger warning for adult stuff.. i was confused but ok.
and then the nudity hit.
so THAT was a rollercoaster of confusion.
anyyyyyways, it was a fun read and i love the art style and i'm actually excited to see what happens next :))))
Started so so so so so so so so so good but it fell flat by the end and i simply do not care what ended up happening.
Just a massive decline that bored me to death. I really loved the start too :(((
also too much smut. Needed more chapters focused on the story. I love sex positive books but there is such thing as too much and overdoing it
oh...my...god
i can't even explain the feelings this book made me feel.
Such a unique story that i think a lot of people should read at any age.
Such a great story about humans and how they handle different emotions and difficulties and it leaves you feeling like you've been sucker punched in the chest and have lost the wind out of you but also fills your heart with hope and love.
Again, I can't explain it but this book is very different in the way it made me feel. I love sad, emotional books and i read them a lot but this book just hit different.
AND THIS IS A DEBUT NOVEL???? I can't wait to read more books from this author if he writes more, i'm an instant fan of his after the first couple pages of this novel.
I can't believe that i bought this book on a whim because i liked the colours on the cover and now i have a new favourite omg
I genuinely don't know how i feel about this so i'm putting it half way at 2.45 stars. I liked the writing, the characters were clear in my head, and i liked the message but i do have some issues.
a book about life in a Sydney university was the first red flag for me to not read this. I love Sydney but hate uni students from there. Not all but most.
I just feel like things were never answered. I love an open ending or authors leaving stuff up to the readers imagination when it's done right. This book talks about sensitive topics so not closing up loose ends when it comes to those topics.. it left me wondering but in a bad way. I can't explain it but stuff like that should be answered. Leaving a book trying to wonder what happened with every issue in this book is just tiring.
Again, i liked the writing and the message but the story was a bit eh.
this book was an automatic buy for me as Meg Gatland-Veness' first book I Had Such Friends was so amazing and truly one of the best books i've ever read but i had to wait to read another book of hers before i could label her as a new favourite author of mine..but it's safe to say that she is now one of my favourite authors after i read this book.
She has the best writing i've read in a while, it's true talent. Her characters are so real, so relatable and so raw. I can't explain it in words really but her characters are a breathe of fresh air.
This book hit home for me, too close to home so it made me so emotional. This book says a lot about poverty, especially poverty in Australia. I grew up and still live in poverty but my childhood was ruined by it. I slept with mice and cockroachs, my house had holes in the floor you had to dodge to not fall under the house, we couldn't wash our school uniforms and we had to sleep in them so we were the “smelly kids” at school, i couldn't take a shower for two years in my teens, i had to sneak off to the beach to wash my hair with dish soap. The character Emily from this book has the same issues so i could really relate and know exactly what she was feeling in every moment. I also lived in a house of alcoholics and violence so those aspects really hit home.
We all take a message away from most of the books we read but the message this book gave me was: How do we all expect to live in a perfect world when the people in power do everything to kill us? Bad environments breed bad people, a bit controversial to say but it's true.
I lived in a poverty stricken area for my whole life and i've seen what a lack of money does to people. It kills them. It will wear you down mentally until you can't take it anymore. It cost money to be good now days, it cost nothing to commit crimes when you have no hope for the future. How do you expect people to treat others nicely when their mental state is at such a low that there is absolutely no hope because they can't afford to eat and feed their kids? How do you expect people to follow laws when the system is so against them? Again, as someone who had nothing it was easy to give up on life, at the age of 14 i was already beaten down by poverty and didn't see a future for myself but i had to hold on for my sisters who i raised (same as Milo from this book) and i can't imagine life without them so if they were taken away.. i would not have been here writing this.
Fighting poverty is one thing but getting in trouble for it and the law coming at you to strip you of anything else you have is a whole new topic which i can't get into because it makes me so emotional.
so reading this just reminded me of my childhood and i guess that's a good thing as it meant i could really understand all the characters, even the bad person.
in conclusion: Poverty kills people in more ways than you think. Donate your unused food and clothes to charity bins and community centres, it means more than you think.
Meg Gatland-Veness you've done it again and made me cry once more with your books. A new insta-buy author for me!
no need for the audiobook narrator to actually moan in my ear during the sex scenes but i appreciate the dedication to the job... do they pay you more for doing that?
–
1.5 stars
listen... i own 3 Sally Rooney books and i was so very excited to read them all because EVERYONE loves her but after this book i'm kinda hesitant to pick up her other books.
Maybe i shouldn't have started with this book? idk someone please give me motivation to read her other books because my excitement to read them has completely dried up
once you've read 5 mystery novels then you've basically read them all. I guessed what happened straight away because of the formula the author used.. the basic mystery author way of writing.
The pacing was off and just wasn't an enjoyable read for me.
i gave it two stars because i did like the writing but that's about it.
finished this yesterday but it was so underwhelming that i kinda forgot i read it tbh.
I went into this with a positive attitude because i wanted to like it. WLW books are my favourite type of relationships in books and can usually make any book a 3-5 star for me but this wasn't the case this time around :(((
Casey McQuinston isn't for me. I read RWRB and HATED it... actually despised it but i wanted to give the author another chance and here's that chance. I really wanted to like this and i'm upset i didnt :(
a random old lady that is friends with my family heard i like books so she comes to my house and gives me this book.
Ok i'll just put it on my shelf until i can donate it because i have no interest in it.
Old lady comes back a couple months later and asks if i read it.
I have not.
I feel pressured to read it now in case she comes back.
I read it and wonder what the fuck is wrong with this old lady because this book is the most disturbing and horrifying thing i've ever read.
trying to think of a way to tell her i enjoyed the book (which i did not) without questioning her sanity.
seriously though what did i just read. I read disturbing books all the time but this is the first book that went into detail. EXTREME tw for detailed rpe, murder, gore, just.. everything.Gory stuff in movies and shows is ok because you can see that everything is fake and made up and all an act but having to read about gore is just not for me. Your brain has to conjure up these images being described to you and it's emotionally taxing. I didn't want to read how women got sxually assaulted with knives and plungers.
When i say extreme detail i mean EXTREME.
so fair to say this book wasn't for me and i've discovered that i have a breaking point when it comes to disturbing books.
i went into this knowing nothing at all so i wasn't prepared for that beginning but the pain only got worse from there
a very painful book that i feel like so many people can relate to which is why i think it could be a comforting book for many as well.
this book describes so well how bad it was to grow up in poverty in Australia. I could relate to so many things Sam had to go through and his school life and just everything besides the main topic which might count as a spoiler idk??
it's a very stressful and anxiety inducing book but it also comforted me so it brought out all my emotions so it's an immediate 5 stars. I can't stress enough how good this book is!
