kat 🍓
5:
I thought I was supposed to be doing the reading? How come it feels like the book was reading me instead??
I have never felt so seen by a piece of media before and I almost can't believe it's happening with some book I decided to pick up on a random Tuesday all because the cover had little windows and stars on it and I thought it was pretty. Gah!!!!!!! I almost don't want to read anything else by Emily Austin because I don't want to ruin this. I know the book is supposed to be funny but while reading I was mostly engulfed in a sense of second-hand anxiety that I mostly only feel when out in public. But this was like, in a good bad way. You know?
4:
I read this one right after finishing We Have Always Lived in the Castle, both because I LOVED that book and needed more, and because duh, Halloween was right around the corner.
Quite enjoyed this! There's a scene with persistent knocking that spooked me pretty badly, I didn't find it traditionally frightening otherwise, but the atmosphere was all eerie and mysterious and sad.
The story was great, I enjoyed the ambiguity and still find myself pondering what might have actually gone down during those days in Hill House. Amazing how such a tiny book can tell so much.
3:
This was terribly sad and unexpectedly violent. Rowan's feelings of rejection and the way she dealt with them were hard to witness, especially in the latter half of the book which for the most part left me unsettled.
I wish there had been a bit more character development, or that her relationship with her mom could have been improved somewhat, it seems to me that they stayed the same in the end regardless of everything that went down. But since this is semi-autobiographical, I can see why that may have been.
3:
Reviewing autobiographies is always weird to me. But especially so now, when I'm giving it only three stars. I'm glad Elliott chose to share this part of their story; now, more than ever, it is of utmost importance to make trans and queer voices heard. Judging by the content of the book, it must not have been easy, and I commend them for that. I only wish they'd waited a few more years to write this.
To me, this was a lot like taking a glimpse at fragments of Elliot's life and their journey with queerness, but it doesn't go any deeper than just glimpses. I feel like there were moments, such as in the stories pertaining to their childhood, where they were able to reflect more and dig deeper into what they were going through at the time, but that insight is lost when it comes to their later years, with them struggling with their identity, and embracing their transness. I wish they'd held off a bit more in order to be able to get that hindsight. I'm down to read a second memoir if they decide to share it!
Also I know that they explained their choice for a nonlinear structure at the beginning, but it was disorientating at times when it jumped from them being 9, to 33, to 20 all of a sudden. My tiny brain had a hard time keeping up.
5:
Why were Olaf and his gang of evildoers so hilarious in this book??? This one's made me laugh the hardest in the series.
I didn't like Fernand at ALL!!! Also Sunny almost DIED!!! Again!!!
So close to the end now, I don't wanna say goodbye but I also really need for this to turn out good for the kids.
4:
If this is the quality of the book that Terry Pratchett himself recommended not to start your Discworld journey with, due to him feeling his writing style hadn't been properly developed here yet, then I'm vibrating with excitement about what's coming in the rest of the series. This was so much FUN!!!
5:
This Rob guy STINKS! I wish his life were way worse.
Actually this was a very entertaining story and I sure do love reading about a big-headed loser just completely torpedoing his entire life because he's afraid of committing to a beautiful woman that's way too good for him. Also the conclusion sucked so bad, it was SO fitting, it was great. I'd never watched the movie before this but I was pleasantly surprised that it was John Cusack as Rob, he's such a Some Guy kind of man.
4:
Well honestly, I'm squeamish about stories where people get eaten by animals but when I think about this installment, all I feel is despair at the thought of those poor little lions and what ended up happening to them. They were hungryyy :(
My other thought on this book is that I detested Kevin with the intensity of a thousand suns, and he is the worst character in the whole series. He brings NOTHING to the table and has a victim complex. Flop!
5:
See, it was written in the stars that this book would come into my life, because I just love::
1. Stories where men get what's coming to them
2. Gingerbread houses
3. A good ol' fairytale
4. Women
And this little story had all of them. It also got me out of a months long reading slump, so I give it points for that. Thank you Joanna Corrance.
3:
Frankly speaking. It's been a minute since I've read this and I don't remember a whole bunch of it. I realised this while reading The Carnivorous Carnival and they brought up details that I couldn't recall. Oh well.
What I do remember is how gutted I felt, seeing that now the kids are ALONE alone. Not like any of their guardians were any use, but still... my kids :c
Also we got Klaus and Sunny quality time! At the expense of, you know, the horrible thing that was about to happen to Violet D:
3:
When I picked this up it was because I wanted to try and read some romance. I don't very often, I just read Emily Henry's yearly releases and that's it for me. I had high hopes since this was a recommendation from a friend, and at the beginning it was just as charming as I expected! Chloe and Red's meet cute was funny, I loved their banter! But then they got together-ish and that was it for me. I disliked that from that moment on, their relationship revolved around the fact that they had the hots for each other. I wanted more depth, and less usage of the word ‘nectar' as an euphemism for... you know...
It was okay and I liked it well enough, but I think I'm done with this series.
4:
The sneaky critters ATE a baby's FACE in like the first chapter!!!!!!! Wowee!!!
Honestly I loved this book so much. It has the downside of Jeff Goldblum not being on it, but to make up for that, it keeps you on your toes, and provides gratuitous violence, along with a wicked sense satisfaction once the billionaire becomes supper.
4:
My boy Klaus just had the saddest birthday party in the history of ever.
In this one the children are burdened with an entire village of nincompoops, as well as having to deal with their recurring crowd of nincompoops. The whole mob thing was particularly frutrating I won't lie, but hey, at least there was one (1) positive outcome at the end, instead of the usual zero positive outcomes from all the previous installments!
3:
The only reason I picked up this book was that I kept thinking about how I read it a dozen times back in middle school, and could just not rest until I found it and read it again, since my memory of it was hazy.
It was good. Very devastating, and even more so when I, in fact, have known girls who went through the exact same hardships as Anita here. And Vannina, too. Like, the exact same hardships, a whole continent and several decades away from 1980s Sicily.
I'm not rating higher because there were so many things left unanswered and it irritates me. What in the world ended up happening with Rosanna and Aurelia? My heart is breaking.
4.5:
Ghastly. revolting. frustrating. I couldn't get enough. I'm so mad at the nauseating, awful old fuck and at Luciana's mom and dad and at the entire population of Key West, Florida. And since finishing this book, every time I think about it I get so ANGRY because this shit happened to an actual woman! María Elena, honey, I'm so sorry you had to deal with all those buffoons.
This was so deeply upsetting. With each chapter, my blood boiled hotter. My skin crawled at von Tore's retelling of the story, and all his delusional fabrications. But then I got to reading through everything that goes on after he's found out. And what the FUCK, man. What the FUCK. I want to reach into the book and punch some faces in.
I liked having Gabriela's account of Luci's life in contrast, but I wish the author would have spared a few more pages to her POV.
This is closer to 4.5 for me, but I'm rounding down! I'd love to read more of Heather's writing in the future.
5:
JEROME D: I cannot believe.
Only one word comes to mind when I try to describe this book: smashing. It is now officially my favorite one. Esmé, though? Not so smashing. As is the case with all other lame-o adults surrounding the Baudelaires, as per usual.
This one was hilarious and unputdownable. The kids all had their moments to shine too but, once again, Sunny remains the MVP in my books.
Olaf's scheming is also escalating and dare I say he's getting... craftier? Shivers. Someone better put these children in therapy after all this is over, or else.
2:
See, immediately after finishing the book, I gave it 4 stars because I was SO happy at the idea of Yvaine reigning by herself for years after Tristran's death. Then I remembered how much I loathed the little shit we got as a protagonist, and quickly revised my rating.
Of course, there was the fact that he was a-ok with slaving a girl away in the name of undying, superficial, unrequited love; but there was ALSO the whole entire deal with Victoria. “Oh Victoria, kiss me now since you've done it before, what's the big deal?” Sounds kind of rape-y to me. He fell down a tree outside her window because he was creeping on her? Sounds kind of rape-y to me. And she clearly wasn't taking him seriously when she said she'd give him whatever he wanted from her if he got her the star, and she just said it as a joke, yet he went. That, too, felt kind of rape-y to me. And since I'm on the topic, Tristran's mother also seemed kind of rape-y to me. Maybe it runs in the family.
I, as many others have mentioned in their reviews, enjoyed the movie a lot more. Perhaps it's nostalgia speaking because I watched it as a kid. I don't remember if I enjoyed how the romance was developed there all that much, but it for damn sure must have been done more graciously than in this book. Yvaine hated Tristran's guts from day 1, then she was placated when he reads notes bonded her to him forever against her will, and suddenly she's in love with him? It came literally out of left field.
As if all that weren't enough, the main antagonist faced NO consequences. She just left. Presumably to wait for the next star to fall and then they can rip her heart out. Boooo Neil booooo I'm disappointed boooooooooooooo.
I'm not giving this a 1 star rating because it was at least entertaining and, for all his faults, Neil's a really good narrator. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt this one time, but yeah. Yech.
3:
Is it terrible that I kind of wish Harriet and Wyn had just stayed broken up for good? EIGHT years and they NEVER EVER talked about the stuff going on in their lives? Why even be in a relationship with each other? What did they even do then, in all that time? Brood, sleep and fuck?
As is the case with her other books, the writing was lovely and the banter was fun to read, but I didn't connect with the characters as much as I'd hoped, and in fact at times they got on my nerves — especially Sabrina: I kept half expecting Cleo to smack her across the head whenever she uttered one of her little passive-aggressive remarks.
Be that as it may, I did enjoy reading this because duh, Emily Henry. My EH book ranking looks like this at the moment:
1. Book Lovers
2. People We Meet on Vacation
3. Happy Place
4. Beach Read
I'm not discouraged and am currently, patiently waiting for whatever Ms. Henry has planned to share next.
4.5:
The children made some friends!! I might cry. Absolutely delighted at the introduction of the Quagmire triplets, after all the gloom and depression of the previous installment, this was like a breath of fresh air.
Once again, we were burdened with the usual Olaf shenanigans, an awful prick for a guardian, and clueless, no good Mr. Poe doing nothing once again. But I see a plot peeking around the corner! Isadora and Duncan went digging for dirt on Olaf, and it looks like they found something worth destroying their notebooks for — I wonder what that was about.
(Olaf making the children run laps for hours on end just might be the cruelest thing in the series so far. Also I despised Nero, but when he said Sunny was to be his secretary, I cackled for like, three straight minutes).
4:
Phenomenal. I purposely spent long periods of time between chapters because I wanted to make my time with the story last as much as possible, which surprised me because this is a 750 page brick. I do admit that there were moments where the story dragged on a bit (I didn't particularly care for the Samantha storyline), but many parts of it I loved, and to me it... mostly made up for that. There was SO much going on but it was all nicely tied up at the end.
(I admit almost quit it right at the beginning, what with the whole man-eating-vagina deal. It was bizarre. But hey, I won't yuck your yums, Neil)
3:
Utterly shocked and flabbergasted at the fact that these children have now witnessed a woman being cut in half by a giant saw blade, right after she'd dueled and tried to slice the throat of our Sunny, who is checks notes one year old.
This was awful I'm so mad! There wasn't a single silver lining or a moment of comfort anywhere in this book, it was all bleak bleak. Lemony Snickett warned you yadda yadda I don't care! I'm sad for my children!!
Although now we've stepped away from the well-meaning, but hopelessly incompetent guardians the kids have been entrusted to so far, I absolutely loathed seeing them join the workforce and I hated Sir and Charles was just annoying. Phil was okay-ish, though. And say whatever you want, but Olaf and his cronies are nothing if not versatile. Shirley was a hoot, I'll miss you girl you'd make a terrible receptionist xoxo.