Ivy

Mary Higgins Clark continues to be an argument for letting your readers/watchers/consumers of media follow the breadcrumbs deliberately set out for them, rather than changing everything up in the name of surprise. I saw who the bad guy was from less than halfway through, but the journey, watching all the characters figure it out, getting exactly why they did it, that's the fun of it. I don't need a book to blindside me (though Clark does leave some great false trails and I have been tricked before), I just need an engaging story.

I'm enjoying reading my way through this series. This is one of the ones I'd never encountered before. It's never quite so obvious that this is an older series as when everyone in the town freaks out because the new kid wears a black leather jacket and boots. I'm pretty sure half my friends own black leather jackets.

I remember reading this one probably twenty years ago, and was delighted to discover it on the shelf! I'd misremembered it as being a Mary Downing Hahn novel, as she was the big ghost story writer back then. The ending/comeuppance is pretty satisfying-nothing to write home about, but a solid story.

Skrypuch does a good job of covering an event and people who aren't particularly well known.

Nothing spectacular, but I do love Clark's books. They're formulaic, but fun. I swear I fall into the trap of suspecting the obvious suspect every damn time.

I suspect this was a hard-hitting, maybe groundbreaking novel years ago. Now, it's old news and vaguely unsatisfying. There's a whole heap of loose ends, and the book itself pretty much just exists as a scaffold around the message the author wants to convey.

This one's a reread. I have loved everything written under the name Claire North, and if I get a chance to read the author's other works under her own name, I'm willing to bet I'll love them too.

It's fascinating reading this one working a retail job. Anyone who has will understand that by about half an hour into any given shift, I hate all people always and forever, the whole species is irredeemable. And I love Charlie just going through everything with this curiosity and fascination with people. For a bit after reading, it's not that I like people that much more, but that I'm full of the understanding that people are fascinating and complicated and, yeah, exhausting and terrible on a regular basis, but isn't it amazing to see other people existing.

It has to be good writing if it's giving a retail employee during a pandemic a measure of faith in humanity.

How many hands can I put this in because I want it in all of them. This and Legendborn. This book was such a heartbreak. It's a great work of fiction but there's more real here than not tbh and it's fucking spectacular and it should make you sad. And it should make you really damn angry.

This was incredible. Nayeri's story is painful, but brilliant, and I genuinely enjoyed the framing with the story of Scheherazade. I kinda wanna read 1001 Nights now. So many emotions.

Oh, wow. I expected a comfortable, casual middle grade read, with the drama being The Awfulness Lurking Under The Facade. I was completely unprepared for an exploration of grief and the ways we cope, or try to escape it.

I don't really think about Alaska much, I don't imagine most people do. Lende manages to make this area sound both beautiful and absolutely terrifying, which I'm betting is pretty accurate. At the same time, I grew up in a town that it sounds like was just a smidge smaller than Haines, and despite being worlds apart, I recognize the small town politics and nonsense and little ‘news' stories fondly.

Well that was beautiful! I love Seanan McGuire so much, her books always have that quality where I just want to keep reading because the words sound so nice. It took a friend mentioning Middlegame for me to actually remember why I know this title-before that, I'd assumed she just decided to play with another pseudonym.

Great book! Did not expect it to be horror! How did he make a teddy bear story into horror??

An excellence balance between adorable and heartbreaking, well done! I like Bitterblue MUCH better in this than I did in her own book where it was just political intrigue and sneaking around.

Writing wise, Lovisa and Bitterblue are my favorite dynamic in ever, because Bitterblue is like, Lovisa several years in the future, once she's had a chance to heal.

Dragon book! And holy shit that is a hell of a book, that was so much and awesome. I want more from this world, but I feel like it was finished so well in this one.

Oh, that was spectacular but poor Kaylee, I wanted her to get to do her exploring and geeking out, she's precious and wonderful! I love her.

Love Mary Higgins Clark, have since I started reading her when I was like 12, will continue to do so. I have read this book before, many times, and I still couldn't actually figure out who the bad guy was. I swear, all of her books I find myself wanting to reread it as soon as I've finished so I can see the all the hints properly.

I continue to appreciate finally getting to read these in order! Love having context, getting to actually see events that had only been referred to in passing. The founding of their club! I know these were at least a solid generation or so before my time, but to me, they read better than the Nancy Drew books, where our heroine is 16, has a car, and is basically a twentysomething who's been aged down to appeal to young people.

Oh I aggressively love the decision to situate this within the concept of Cinderella. I'm a fan of fairy tales being twisted around and told in a new way already, but like. Very much enjoyed that. I felt echoes of The Selection series, of course, but more aggressive and justified not just by tradition, this is how it's always been, but almost by religion, if you can consider the worship of Cinderella and her story to be that. It did take a bit to get off the ground-I feel like tdd he author was trying to make it Very Clear that our girl had no other option than to leave her friend behind, by giving us like three repetitions of ‘Come away with me, to be free and gay!' ‘No, we can't, we mustn't!'

Also, gay, I do appreciate the gay.

Ruta Sepetys is very quickly becoming one of the authors I will read without question simply because everything she's written has been so consistently outstanding. It's solidly within YA, our heroines are teens and the endings are generally happy, but she doesn't underestimate what the reader can handle. I fell absolutely in love with this story and I'm excited to recommend it on to other readers.

Only been trying to read this book for probably a decade now. I love WW, and her backstory is fascinating, but keeping track of several different names, sets of initials, kids and who their parents are, gets confusing after a while, and I've always gotten bogged down trying to get through it. Had to give in and buy a copy just so I could take my time and get through a bit here and there! I did very much enjoy it, however, and I'm glad I've finally gotten through it.

I read this because I've seen a quote making the rounds online, and it was funny, and it was sourced to this book. So, why not try the book? And now I still think this author writes well, and there's humor, and at the same time she's saying a whole lot of things that would be painful to confront, I guess, if I hadn't been growing up in this country and marinating in all of the awful for 29 years and have long since confronted these things.

Wow. That's a hell of a book.

I feel like Reynolds writes really well for discussions. Look Both Ways is much more hopeful and not in verse, but they have the same sort of constant background unfolding as you go, so you have to reexamine what you were thinking with every page.

This was awesome! I don't think I actually got this far when I was reading these way back when and I had no idea there were ones I hadn't gotten to, I think I probably read through maybe book 7 or so, and then never looked for any more. I'd forgotten just how hopeful these books are! As an adult I'm looking through it now and just being so impressed by how loving they feel without being super preachy like most kids books that try to have this sort of concept going.

Well wow, ow, that was so much. I got frustrated about halfway through trying to figure out what the hell had happened in the past that kept being alluded to. It makes sense that she was avoiding thinking about it for so long, but as a reader, I wanted to know what was going on. Learning who J is was a great moment, though. That reveal was done BRILLIANTLY.