Fiona

A delightful follow-up for these charming oldsters with a mystery that was better devised than in the first book.

I listened to part of this as an audiobook and it drew my attention to how much I don't care for the writing style; it would be grand if they turned this into a tv series so I can enjoy the story without the writing.

I do not care for Galligan's drawing style (which reminds me of Archie comics) after having enjoyed Telegmeirer's interpretations for the first 4 books. I'm probably more bothered by this than I should be.

Very interesting premise about how politicized and manipulated Russia's history is.

An interesting story about bullying. While I enjoyed the premise and writing, I'd hesitate to give this to a modern kid because of how gendered it is, which is very reflective of the time it was written.

I was so excited by the plot but I can't enjoy this style of writing; it's too disjointed and choppy for my tastes.

Overall, sweet and well-executed so I can see why this series is popular. It reminds me of Frederick Backman but without the obnoxious philosophizing. I'm not sure it's quite my cup of tea but I already bought the second book so I'll read more of this series I'm sure.

This has much a meatier plot and is quite ambitious compared to Bromfield's first novel so I was excited to read it. The first half was so boring I started skim-reading, trying hard not to abandon the book completely. The “romance” between Irie and Jilly felt laboured and unconvincing. In the last third of the book, events picked up and the writing got quite engaging before ending abruptly in an unexpected way. I liked how the last handful of chapters were written; it was like the author suddenly decided to be creative while the earlier part was an exercise in deliberate formulaic plotting. Overall, I appreciated the historical fiction aspect but as a YA coming-of-age/romance, it was weak.

Thank you to Wednesday Books who kindly sent me an ARC for review.

I don't actually recall reading the novels as a kid but I know I did and this is scratching some kinda nostalgia itch for me.

The pacing is glacial and I don't like Ishiguro enough to struggle thru.

Objectively this was well-done but I found myself bored as hell cause it was all very predictable. I will not be reading the rest of the trilogy because I do not have the time to waste.

After I bought this book, I heard the miniseries was better so I watched it and I do not feel the need to read the book now. The miniseries was very entertaining with an innovtive plot.

A brisk, pleasant read. Despite the Korean setting, it feels very much like a standard Anglo-American mystery, particularly the male main character's attitude. My only complaint is the book lacked a glossary/pronunciation guide.

So thorough it's boring. Neiwert presents his evidence like a journalist would and his writing is clear but it's a bit amorphous in scope with far too many lengthy examples. An index would make it more useful and I'm puzzled it doesn't have one.

I got halfway through this then skipped to the last chapter. The premise was interesting but the world-building was thin and the story just not interesting enough to hold my attention. Good characterization and the writing is engaging. I also liked the ending, despite my not knowing what happened after page 142.

I picked this up cause it's just so damn pretty but this tome personifies “don't judge a book by its cover” with how boring it is. DNF.

Beautifully written, fully-fleshed characters, perfect pacing. Overall an amazing read. I would, however, have liked an author note telling me which bits are supported by history and which are total fabrications so I'm denying 5 full stars because I consider that important.

I liked the story itself and the way it offered context for why Star Trek was important to the fight for racial equality and Nichelle's role in that. The artwork, however, was not a good fit for this slice of history as it didn't offer recognizable illustrations of real people (I would not have known that was MLK if the text didn't tell me and Ms. Nichols too!).

Short and concise but didn't give me any real insights and it reinforces the idea that doctors are smarter than patients. (Almost anyone with a chronic disease knows how laughable this is.)

I'm going to stop feeling like I should read this author just because she's hugely popular. I got a couple pages in and went, “who fucking cares?!” There's far too many good books out there for me to waste my precious energy.

Cute premise but the artwork was too loose and minimalist. I'm also weirdly bothered by the semi-anthropomorphic nature of these squirrels; they live in a tree but make pancakes somehow and the illustrations don't flesh out their existence enough that I buy into this idea (where did they get the flour?! I can accept stealing eggs from a bird neighbour but milling grain is labour-intensive).

Fun and fluffy, nothing special. More romance than I like in my sci-fi, which is the point rather of Bramble, Tor's new romance imprint so perhaps that's on me and I shouldn't complain. Conceptually, I'm in favor of those two genres having a subgenre of thier own but this felt half-assed on both fronts: the world-building is generic, the sex scenes flat. It's not badly written and the pacing and plot are competent enough so its readable, but not memorable in any way. Also the cover is terrible; its monochromatically ugly and it does not reflect any scene in the book.

Thank you to Tor Books who were kind enough to send me this copy for review.

Pretty meh. The writing is dull, although thorough. The artwork is utilitarian.

I'm disappointed how much this book, which is the first in the series, fails to explain who all the characters are but seems to assume readers have read the Dogman books (which are awesome and kids should read them!) and will already know. But its wonderful regardless; it presents many styles of comics and deals with censorship in a supa kid-friendly way.

The twist of the perfect ending was very clever.

A charmingly absurd tale but the illustrations are superlative and I will be seeking out more of vanDusen's work.