Barbara
I had so much hopes for this book. I was expecting some nice cute banter and all I got was whining.
The main character is imature, self centered, and so whiny that not even the cute dog can distract you from how awful she is (and we all know that's the only reason the dog was added to the book). The guys is also pretty much the embodiment of bare minimum twitter boyfriend.
And while I could've gotten pass all that had there been a good story arch, the MC is still the same by the end of the book. The only difference is that now she gets to be on a relationship at 30 which was obviously very important to her. And that is another thing I could not stomach in this book; the emphasis on having to be in a relationship and in love to be truly happy. So yeah, yikes.
This book has no business being as long as it is with only that half excuse for a plot that it has. Don't even get me started on the cookie cutter characters and the predictable cliche ending. The worldbuilding is on point though, however, worldbuilding doesn't make a book. There's too many scenes where the only purpose is to show you details of the world and not develop the characters or plot.
“Tell your story. Speak your truth. Shatter the stigma. Hold your head up to the world and speak so that everyone else who was ever like you can recognize themselves. Can see that they aren't alone. Can see how the past will only keep repeating itself as long as we're kept powerless by our silence.”
Wow. What a beautiful and powerful story.
“But sometimes it was easier to keep his thought processes to himself because other people had trouble following them or thought they were unnecessarily blunt. Bluntness was never unnecessary.”
This book is a whole autistic mood. I cried happy tears multiple times. How lovely to have such incredible rep out there.
Now I can't believe I just read the best book of 2021 in March and it's all going to be downhill from here.
“And if one day,' she said, really crying now, ‘you look back and you feel bad for being so angry, if you feel bad for being so angry at me that you couldn't even speak to me, then you have to know, Conor, you have to that is was okay. It was okay. That I knew. I know, okay? I know everything you need to tell me without you having to say it out loud.”
“If, however, I understand racism as a system into which I was socialized, I can receive feedback on my problematic racial patterns as a helpful way to support my learning and growth. One of the greatest social fears for a white person is being told that something that we have said or done is racially problematic. Yet when someone lets us know that we have just done such a thing, rather than respond with gratitude and relief (after all, now that we are informed, we won't do it again), we often respond with anger and denial.”
Man, this book. This is a powerful, heavy read. The way the author portrayed the grooming and the manipulation without spelling it out and allowing us to see it the way teenage Vanessa did was so well done. I also really liked the handling of the PTSD and the issues brought up like pressure to speak up for the sake of the larger narrative, and the pop references that shed light to the influence of our culture. And I just loved the ending. This is a tough read that I highly recommend.
This book was way too long and I did not care for the pages and pages of people telling their whole life stories to Feyre for no reason like they were drunks who just met on a Nightclub's bathroom, or the laziness of Feyre magically seeing stuff she wouldn't otherwise know inside other people's minds. However, this was a pretty good conclusion to the story, it was entertaining and the final conflict wasn't rushed or glossed over (looking at you The Queen of Nothing and Rogue Princess).
