Mars
this is such a cute lighthearted novel, if you need something short, sweet, & simple, this is the book for you :) i love talia hibbert with all my heart, the brown sisters trilogy is my absolute favorite so i was just ecstatic to learn she wrote a debut young adult book!! sometimes you just need a break from smut & pick up a highly suspicious & unfairly cute ya romance to hold you over lol ;)
“The problem with this is that if we beat ourselves up after a mistake, we add shame onto the guilt and frustration that we already feel about our mistake. That guilt and frustration can be helpful in moving us forward, but shame... shame keeps us stuck. It's a paralyzing emotion. When we get caught in a shame spiral, we tend to make more of the same kinds of mistakes that caused us shame in the first place.”
i never know how to go about ratin books especially memoirs considering it's a challenge in and of itself to rate a book about someones real life, their experiences, etc but i just found this memoir to be very insightful & i enjoyed readin it & gettin to know Jennette in the way she wants to be perceived
as someone whos comfort shows are mostly produced by nickelodeon, it was heartbreakin to read about it contributing to Jennettes circumstances (along with acting in general)—but gettin these behind the scenes takes is also so interesting & informative especially since it deals with the entertainment industry which impacts a lot of the media we consume; it's honestly insane to me that you would never know what these actors are dealin with just because you watch them act in a show or two—and it terrifies me to think that if Jennette wouldn't have written this book i wouldn't know anything about it, about her story
4.75 // “If you can think something terrible into being, why not something great?”
my first Josh Malerman book—this book spooked the fuck out of me & I loved every minute of it, our mc Kit struggles with severe anxiety & I related to her so much because of that—this book is about anxiety & the manifestation of thoughts & it's brilliant
this book did make me extremely anxious though I should've seen that comin, anyway all i have to say now is just don't think about daphne!
“Make sure they understand the things we're told not to talk about are the things that get real bad. Those subjects get sick. And they get confused. And nobody can make sense of them because they were never allowed to talk them out.”
i didn't think i would cry so much over this book, this book hurt me. this. hurt. me. i will never be the same ever again; there's before readin the death of vivek oji & there's after—my brain chemistry has been permanently altered. i can't believe it took me so long to read this book but honestly if i would've read this sooner i don't think i would've felt as strongly about it, i think this book found me when i needed it most and i am more than grateful for that, i am so very unwell—i felt so connected to this story in so many ways i can't even begin to explain, beautifully heartbreakin. this book encapsulates a part of my soul, i feel as though this book was written for me and me only and it HURTS LIKE HELL
3.25 // so i had really high hopes for this book, sadly it missed the mark for me; i love delilah so much! i love her personality more than anyone else's in this book tbh & her love for photography is so beautiful
besides that, the romance between her & claire felt like it wasn't even there, it felt underdeveloped in a way, i didn't feel as much chemistry between them as i hoped i would
it was like the entirety of the book revolved around delilah, iris, and claire tryin to get astrid to call off the wedding to her terrible douche fiancé—along with astrid & delilahs step sister drama, which don't get me wrong i enjoyed it as a subplot (the development between the two sisters was nice ) but it just took up so much of the story & it felt like the book was more about astrid & delilah more than anything. the subplots felt more like main plots opposed to the romance bein the main plot which bothered me
it felt like i didn't really get time to watch the romance between delilah & claire come to fruition, it was just a lot of sex that honestly didn't make me feel anything because it felt like there was no genuine connection between the two women.
all in all i wish it was executed better but hey at the end of the day it was a fun book and i still would love to read astrid parker never fails
i dnf'd this at 37% & everything felt so slow like i was dragging through this book + the writing ugh it was just terrible-i'm goin to copy & paste multiple reviewers reviews on this book because they all sum it up
“ this was a slog to get through. I don't know if it was the writing style or the overall lack of plot but it took me So Long to get to the 30 or 40% at which I DNFed. The constant white saviour antics from the main character were painful to get through but the passing off British colonialism as being 'not that bad' “
“ if there's one thing that I hate it's poc and gay people being used as props so that the white mcs look like #activists. one of the biggest example is the mc complaining about the lack of diversit. my sister in christ you wrote the book. simply make it diverse and stop using us and our pain to make yall look good. and that little pro colonization paragrah wasn't eating. I could've lived a long life without seeing it “
“ There were unnecessary racist and homophobic remarks - all to prove the point that the main character, Kat, is a woke white person. She was the only one who cared that there were 7 black people in the school only to be responded with something along the lines of “why would any black kids come here when there are people like so and so talking about how much they lost during the civil war?”, she was the only one who cared when the L was teased for being gay, the only one who cared about social justice clubs, about how the main bad boy's mom was from pre-colonial India and his dad was from the British trading company - with said main guy stating “it wasn't like that.” It was all made to make it look like Kat was this amazing and good person because she got to hang out around humans growing up. “
this is actually insane. i need more?
this book gave me whiplash in the best way possible? but also i was extremely stressed? so maybe not the best? but i loved and lived for the drama! buyin the physical copy & annotating it, this one hurt.
cried a few times just because i could relate. not ashamed. although i probably should be.
3.25 // i wish this book was like 100-150 pages longer & that we had more time with scottie & irene to understand the development of their feelings for one another, it was like they were telling us they fell for each other & they like each other... but im sitting here like..how? because to me it's like they've spent 5 seconds with each other & had 3 conversations when in reality they've been hanging out for 3 months, i just didn't really SEE that if yk what i mean
the depiction of tryin to get over a manipulative & toxic ex & toxic situation as a whole & findin your way out of that/loving & trustin yourself again was spot on, loved that especially since that's what i'm currently tryin to do, i really needed that, readin about it in this novel was like a hug & bein told everything is gonna be alright
overall this book was your cute classic queer fake dating enemies to lovers sports romance <3
ummm wow?????????? this book perfectly and i mean PERFECTLY encapsulates me as a human being :')
although i can't speak on charlie's OCD, the representation of dev's depression really resonated with me and the depiction of what it's like to struggle with depression was really well done in this book in my opinion; i relate to dev heavily, not only because i struggle with depression, but because i'm a hopless romantic!
NOT TO MENTION I AM 10000% OBSESSED WITH REALITY TV!!!
charlie & dev's romance actually CURED ME. my 2 gay dads with a house in venice beach takin care of plants :') they're so perfect for each other & this book is perfect for me thank you very much!
ugh and the way you can just FEEL how real charlie & dev's love is & how deep it goes? everyone is deserving of that unconditional love. of their own happily ever after :')
the queer rep in this book just makes my little bi trans boy heart happy, i literally wanted to cry at times.
a masterpiece.
