cat

I was really enjoying this in the beginning - I felt connected to Lexie and sympathized with her easily. But the second half of the book was just very slow and monotonous for me. I also realllly didn't like the way a lot of Lexie's happiness seemed to rely on getting a guy.

the ace rep in this is SO GOOD but other than that, there was nothing i really loved about it. i didn't care about the plot line with leo's dad or her music career and found the whole “should we date or should we not” deal to be a bit repetitive and annoying.

WOOOW this was so wildly boring and predictable

I just did not connect to/feel effected by this at all.

Nothing about this really bothered me & I can't pick out many negatives, but thinking back I really can't think of anything I liked about it either sooo.

this was so cute and precious and !!!

this felt like someone was trying to convince me of something i already believe in for 352 pages

I am so disappointed

Likes:
- great rep!! gay girls, no homophobia, Jewish Mexican & Muslim Persian/Indian MC's
- this reminded me of Gilmore Girls if Rory & Paris started dating

Dislikes:
- Rachel is truly insufferable. I truly don't understand why Sana even continued to have a crush on her? she just hated anyone who was attractive for whatever reason and GOD I hated reading from her perspective
- very slow moving. Rachel & Sana didn't really get together until about 200 pages in
- very insta-lovey. EIGHT DAYS after kissing for the first time they proclaim their love for each other and plan to wait for each other for a year... chill

:')

Fun, witchy, feminist, murder mystery (although I thought the mystery was really obvious).

Dislikes
- Jordan is so annoying
- Jordan's friends are so fucking annoying
- Max's friends are stereotypical dude bros that constantly make homophobic/racist jokes and it goes unchecked the entire time in a “haha, my friends are so silly” type of way
- literally no chemistry whatsoever
- the white author had the Mexican MC basically have a mini rant that critiquing racism/microaggressions is pointless and that people should instead just “live their lives” ... ok
- how the author dealt with Jordan's mom. she really served no purpose other than to stir shit up and then she was just yeeted from the story when the narrative no longer “needed” her

Likes
- the discussion of male rape victims and toxic masculinity
- Max's mom is an icon
- the concept is literally so fuckin cute like can someone take this and make it better

I.. feel... nothing.
This book intrigued me and made me want to keep reading. The synopsis and little blurbs I've seen about it are like “YOUUU WILL NEVER EXPECT THIS SHIT!” so as I was reading and it was proving to be exactly the kind of “thriller” (and I use that word oh-so-lightly) I expected from the title, I was like, “nah, bitch, keep going. You will never expect this shit!”
And found myself disappointed when it was exactly the kind of shit I expected.

some of these were really cute, some of these were just ok, some of these i didn't like at all. most of them felt like a sneeze that wouldn't come out and were just starting to get good when they ended. avg. rating: 3.1 stars

Siege Etiquette by Katie Cutugno - 2 stars
Print Shop by Nina LaCour - 3 stars
Hourglass by Ibi Zoboi - 2.5 stars
Click by Katharine McGee - 2 stars
The Intern by Sara Shepard - 3 stars
Somewhere That's Green by Meredith Russo - 4 stars
The Way We Love Here by Dhonielle Clayton - 5 stars
Oomph by Emery Lord - 5 stars
The Dictionary of You and Me by Jennifer L. Armentrout - 5 stars
The Unlikelihood of Falling in Love by Jocelyn Davies - 4 stars
259 Million Miles by Kass Morgan - 2.5 stars
Something Real by Julie Murphy - 3 stars
Say Everything by Huntley Fitzpatrick - 2 stars
The Department of Dead Love by Nicola Yoon - 1 star

2.5 stars. I was expecting this to be more of a discussion of mental health and how people with mental illnesses are treated in our society, but many of the essays were more of a detailed description of the authors' mental illness - many of which I found to be really triggering. I honestly skimmed through a lot of this because I was finding it so difficult to read, and I typically don't get triggered by reading things like this. While some did describe their mental illness, thus giving more exposure & background to whatever it was, and then talked about finding help and good resources and how beneficial it was, multiple essays just gave a detailed description of what living with a mental illness is like and that was it. Some stories resonated with me, a lot did not.
I think this is great in the sense that we should all be more comfortable in talking about mental health, but it was definitely not an enjoyable reading experience for me.

Likes:
- cute, easy read
- Porter!
- Jenn Bennett's writing mostly sounds like a teenage girl, not like a 40 y/o woman trying to sound like a teenage girl
- Bailey's dad
- wholesome female friendship!!

Dislikes:
- we literally find out in the SYNOPSIS that Porter is Alex, and even if you didn't read the synopsis it's obvious about 75 pages in, yet this doesn't become a plot point until 85% of the way into the book. we then have to wait another ~50 pages for Bailey's oblivious ass to realize it. like is she ok???
- some expressions were super cringey (Jeezus cheezus? Porter likey?? referring to nipples as HEADLIGHTS?)
- Alex & Bailey's “romance” was practically non-existent
- some shit was so unrealistic. like really, Bailey was gunned down by someone stalking her family and Porter & his dad were attacked by a shark and there's a drug addict best friend that steals Bailey's scooter and tries to rob them with a shotgun. ok..

I DON'T feel good critiquing memoirs because it essentially feels like critiquing the person and their very personal story. This was interesting to read because I love listening to other peoples drama, sue me, but I had a couple issues with this.
There were so many unnecessary details & dialogue included throughout. There were multiple passages included that were basically like, “My parents came over. My dad took my Subaru (why did we have to hear multiple times about her Subaru) to pick up moving boxes at the store. I looked at my baby and felt sad. We packed up. I got in the car. I looked at my baby. I got to my parents house. I felt sad.” AND ON & ON. These details were not! important!
Not to mention the hate that was constantly spewed at the girl Marco was cheating with. She was only referred to as “the Croatian” or “Cro-ella (Croatian + Cruella), even though her name is known. She is frequently made fun of for wearing a lot of makeup and posting selfies on Instagram. I understand Waite's anger with her but if Marco really is a sociopath, or even if he's just a manipulative, lying asshole, this girl is being victimized as well! Sure, she made a mistake sleeping with a man that she knew was married but as Waite states herself, we have NO idea what Marco told her. Waite also seems to gloss over/forget the fact that Marco cheated on a previous partner WITH HER.
My biggest issue with this is Waite presents the idea that her husband is a sociopath as fact after Googling some shit. Her therapist, who has never met her husband, confirms Waite's armchair diagnosis - which is super.. unethical? Weird? Definitely not recommended for therapists to do? There is nothing that actually confirms this diagnosis. Is Marco a gigantic asshole? Sure! Is a sociopath? Don't know!
Other reviewers idea that Waite should have let more time pass before writing this memoir is a good one. Would not really recommend unless you want some ~TeA~

2.5 stars. TW for alcoholism, drug use, sexual assault, incest, self harm, bingeing/purging, suicidal thoughts/suicide attempt, dissociative identity disorder ... the list could probably go on. Just.. what was the point? I read some fucked up shit and this was DIFFICULT to get through.

This was SOOOO spooky dooky and the atmosphere was absolutely amazing. I loved that this kept you wondering if what was going on was paranormal or not. There were multiple twists at the end and I guessed a couple of them, which I usually suck at, which brought my rating down a bit.
Overall, I loved this & would 10/10 recommend waiting until Spooky Season with some Spooky Songs in the background to read this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC!

Dislikes:
- Minor girl hate/feuding
- Not enough character development
- Formatting was a bit odd/confusing at times
- Henry was p oblivious

Likes:
- Books!!!
- The Letter Library gave me Post Secret circa 2010 vibes and I loved it
- Writing is beautiful
- George is my queen

Overall, super cute, super recommend.

SO!!! CUTE!!!!

3.5 stars. This was good, not great. I've tried to describe the plot of this book a couple times and keep failing because honestly, nothing really happens? It is really just centered around a quirky girl and her quirky group of friends and quirky dad. It was cute and wholesome and I didn't really dislike anything about it but it didn't do anything crazy for me.

This had waaay too much stuff going on. The missing roommate, the dead boyfriend, the attacked girl in town, the mysterious past, the creepy teacher, the creepy student ... CHILL. I also didn't give AF about the romance. The ending was not gratifying at all and really answered almost no questions.
I didn't hate reading this but was just

3.5 stars. This book definitely gripped me, but I don't think it being written in verse benefited it. I wish I just got more from the story and especially from the ending.

What I liked:
- mental illness rep
- ownvoices
- The writing is beautiful!!
- LGBT+ rep (kinda)
- platonic, wholesome, & supportive M/F friendship

What I didn't like:
- I was so into this for the first 40ish% but after that it just kind of dragged for me. There was really not much plot happening and what was going on I found really hard to follow. Obviously our main character, Biz, is struggling with some serious mental health issues and she doesn't know what's real which means we don't know what's real, which made for a very confusing reading experience for me. None of this is ever really explained. We also never find out exactly what her diagnosis is which I think was missing.
- While I was glad there was some sort of LGBT+ rep involved (Biz may be bi, possibly ace?, pan- & demisexuality is brought up which is v cool, Biz questions if one of her friends is gay but it's never confirmed), it was mentioned maybe 3 or 4 times and never brought up again. It felt like it was almost just sprinkled in there for the rep and never even thought of again? I dunno. Like most things - could have been gayer.

3.5 stars. From the synopsis and the first chapter of this book I was expecting this to be more about Chelsea's activism and involvement in the political world post-Trump but it didn't really talk about that too much.
This focuses more on the loss of her brother and mother, her realization that she wants to be a better person, and her work with a therapist to do so. Although this wasn't exactly what I expected or was hoping for, I still enjoyed listening to the audiobook. You can hear Chelsea's emotions and vulnerability so clearly, with of course her typical humor sprinkled throughout. I also immensely appreciated the multiple chapters that focused on her dogs.