David

If Brandon Sanderson wasn't anti gay marriage I would marry him

Rough around the edges and a little rushed but still just as quirky and emotional as you'd expect from something by O'Malley. I'd cry but I also have no soul

incredibly effective for the first four stories - then it becomes slightly melodramatic and repetitive and increasingly difficult to follow - then it falls off a cliff and crashes and burns. sorry to everyone who i made read this

Ending was a little abrupt but waah! Scary!!

dear GOD. BRANDON SANDERSON YOU GENIUS I WILL LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU

Would be a 5 star read but I was too offended by the idea that a 17 year old would have $4700 in their account...what reality is this

I was incredibly impressed by this book and then one day I woke up and, like a switch had been flipped, I realized that I hated and had always hated the way it was written. But I can't give it less than 3 stars without feeling bad so here we are

Vera Wong deserves life in prison for what she did.

Luster definitely has its moments, either of uniquely dark satire or surreal breakneck-speed thriller, but its so insistent on beating the reader over the head with its own style that it can often be just too fatiguing to enjoy. Also nobody talks or acts like a real person which is a personal ick of mine

the ending kind of broke me hahahaha!!

We're crying today...like any autobio project it can get a bit masturbatory but that's basically the only issue (coupled with the fact that it acknowledges this every other page) and the experimentations with the form and meta narrative are surprisingly amazing at points and only enhance the emotional impact. Quite harrowing though, would definitely be tentative about recommending this to people who've had first hand experience with suicide and suicidal ideation.

Beautiful and delicate but I couldn't really find any footing in it. If I was smarter I'd have finished it but oh well lol

I for one also love laughing at my son's big balls so I felt very #seen by this

every character will cry at least once a chapter...calm down!

Think we might have slightly lost any sense of direction with this series at this point. I will keep dutifully reading though ✊

8/10

The first issues where each of the main characters really come into their own, properly, and the plots get progressively more absurd to match it. Incredibly cute stuff

5/10 | dnf

I was generally enjoying this, despite the strange feeling that comes with reading something by someone from outside a culture writing as if they know it intimately, for about 300 pages before dnf'ing. I'd heard that there were historical inaccuracies here but the poetic writing style is done very well, and it was nice learning more about geisha culture (even if there are probably better ways to do that) - but ultimately I found the pining of the early-teenage girl towards a middle aged man to be a pretty gross thing for a middle aged man to be writing about and this only gets cemented as soon as the plot becomes about auctioning off a 15 year old girl's virginity to other middle aged men. Run for the hills sis!! Then I realised that literally who cares what happens and I abandoned it with haste

7.5/10

Often framed as some sort of book of a generation, Normal People has a huge reputation to live up to for unfamiliar readers, and it's not entirely successful in that regard - not that it's bad, but it does contain a series of weird moments and a slightly unsatisfying ending. The writing is of course fantastic, incredibly resonant and poignant when it delves into the confused inner worlds of the characters' minds, exposing a numbness that slowly thaws as they become more emotionally mature and open. This is of course the main draw, as well as the unflinching look into their sex lives - this was less successful imo. Especially the stuff in Sweden?! I found that to be a really bizarre way to depict Marianne's self-worth issues intersecting with her sexuality lol
But generally a really interesting and worthwhile read, especially if you're actively searching to associate with a certain kind of cool person lmao

this is the best book ever written and NO i don't just believe that cause i first read it when i was an impressionable eleven years old

Gay graphic novel autobiographies you will always hold a special place in my heart