Ren
Three words for this novel:
What The Fuck.
The thing I liked most about this novel was the author was able to create a great atmosphere. I felt creeped out and uneasy the entire time reading this book. But that's it.
SPOILERS — the ending was just awful. wow, this person who is evil, misogynistic, clearly just bored with his life, & has this whole family who is also crazy is actually A WOMAN?? wow! Plot twist of the century right? Except, no. It wasn't. It was boring and anticlimactic, just like the rest of the book. Waste of time. At least when American Psycho had tons of brutal gore & murder it all had a reason to exist in the novel — everything that happened in this one? It had no point. So. Bad.
Pros:
- fast read
- easy writing style, lots of things going on
- will keep your attention
- interesting bands/rappers mentioned, plus I love the setting of San Fran.
Cons:
- THE CHARACTERS. Jeez! I like Caralie, but she's the only one. James is an asshole, plain and simple, I get that's the point, but it's sad when the asshole character has more sense then the main character does. Kaden? He's so awful. All he does is judges people, which he gets called out on all the time but he never changes. He looks down on everyone for their actions EVEN WHEN HE DOES THE SAME SHIT. He talks bad about people doing coke, drinking, smoking, being so sexual, but he does all these things. He constantly drags on everyone for cheating on each other and when he does it it's “not that bad”
- SLUT SHAMING. So much slut shaming in this! First of all, the women are only discussed in terms of how hot they are. Then, when a girl is overly promiscuous, she's called a ho among other things but when a guy does it, everyone just looks the other way. Kaden sits there and talks about how HIS OWN MOTHER is a “ho” in the same paragraph where he talks about how he messed around with 3 girls while he has a girlfriend. It's hypocritical and disgusting to read. I get this is for a younger audience but the author should at least have Kaden learn not to Slut shame or learn HE'S DOING THE EXACT SAME THING as those he's shaming! By the end of the novel I was so frustrated and over it. I liked it at first which is why I give it 3 stars but I hope this author learns not to slut shame women in his future writings & give his characters likable personalities
Pros:
Quick read - of course it's for a younger audience, but it's still interesting enough to let me finish the book in about a day.
Interesting format - I don't care how gimmicky people say formats like these are, I love them! It was definitely great for this book to allow me to visualize what's going on more & I'm sure it makes it more interesting to the audience this book is aimed at.
Unreliable narrator - another favorite cliche of mine! Is Steve guilty or not? To me, it's pretty clear that he is, but once again he's unreliable so it's up to the reader.
Realistic - I've seen reviews where people say that the whole premise of the book is “pointless” and didn't need to happen...well, duh. Obviously the crime committed could have been avoided but that's ignoring the whole idea of the novel. Things like this happen all the time. I know of a person personally who I graduated with who was murdered for $6 and a sandwich... horrible things happen to undeserving people everyday. This book is supposed to show that.
Cons:
The major thing that took this down for me is Steve constantly talks about how other people in jail try to convince themselves that they're not guilty, when they clearly are. I believe as an unreliable narrator we're supposed to question if Steve is being honest with himself as well about his involvement, when he admits throughout the book HE DID participate. He lied on the stand under oath and got away with his involvement in the crime. I can support this only because there is a lack of evidence in the case but it still seems to me that is he 100% guilty. That's why I can't bring this review up any higher, he refuses to admit what he does was wrong. That his friends are not good people. That he WAS in some way associated in the crime. But that's my two cents.
The tears are so real....
SPOILER
I will always be a sucker for books with cancer victims in them. My brother had cancer as a child and even though wasn't alive at the time, it's still something that makes me sad to think he had to deal with.
Of course the problem with this is that most of the time those characters die. :( Beautiful story & illustrations and a fast read.
Creepy. I wanted to read this story because, quite honestly, a video game I played referenced it. I saw this graphic novel edition online and bought it. A quick read, but chilling.
The only thing I disliked about the graphic novel edition was I thought the text bubbles didn't quite fit the creepy atmosphere of the story. Otherwise, wonderful.
Took me over a month to finish, but I finally did. I'm so glad I took the suggestion from Reddit to read this - I loved so many of the stories. If you want to see how I rated each story individually, you can see the updates I posted.
My five favorite stories are as follows: (in no order)
1. The Jaunt
2. Mrs. Todd's Shortcut
3. The Mist
4. The Raft
5. Survivor Type
There were a few in here I didn't like so much, but even the ones I didn't enjoy I still did kind of enjoy, mostly I just wanted more elaboration. PLEASE pick this up if you want to read Stephen King, but aren't one for commitment. You could read just a few of the stories in here and get so much out of them. I loved this.
PS. Did King ever get a copy of The Float? I really want to know.
UGH. 2/5.
SPOILERS ENSUE:
There was so many parts of this book I LOVED. This was the first mystery book I've ever read and honestly, the only good thing about this novel is that it has inspired me to read more mystery books - but not by French.
Let's see what I disliked about this book and what brought about the 2 stars:
First off, it's way too long. I would get so interested and kept turning the pages only to find Ryan was just rambling about some stupid bull** the entire time. The book could have been cut at least 50-100 pages if he just stopped talking about stupid ** constantly.
The main mystery is so pointless. Honestly, it is. I thought there was this huge connection and there would be some deep revelation for Ryan - but no. Of course not. His back story is in here just to screw with our heads and keep us reading the book until the end when we find out, oh wait, he just still can't seem to remember anything but now, for some reason, he's content with that and he can live a normal life. WHAT?! YOU'RE A DETECTIVE. The whole plot line with him and his friends as children adds absolutely NOTHING to the plot at all, it's only purpose in this novel it seems is to keep people reading the book until the end, because the main case in the novel is so obvious to solve, French had to keep us reading somehow. On to that...
I couldn't suspend my belief for even a second with Rosalind either, because it was so BLATANTLY OBVIOUS she was involved. This girl acts like a 30's era movie star and it's so obvious at the very beginning she's involved. I couldn't suspend my belief for even a moment that Ryan fell for her bull**. Honestly. It was insulting for French to think we would believe otherwise.Then Ryan sleeps with Cassie, which of course, we knew was going to happen, because men and women just can't seem to be just friends for some reason? Then he starts all this misogynistic stuff about her “body clock” that Rosalind put into his head and that she's being so emotional and he can't deal with it. He's such an idiot. RYAN YOU'RE THE ONE WHO IS OVERTHINKING THIS **. Then at the end of the novel he has the audacity to be pissed off and sad when Cassie moves on and gets over his bull**? Good grief, Ryan was so unlikable it still pisses me off.
Whatever. I know there are better mystery novels out there and I'm glad French showed me KIND OF how they're supposed to go. I appreciated Cassie's character in the book, and wished the mystery that was actually interesting was solved but whatever. Never again, French.
This was a re-read for school, and I read a different edition.
I liked it better this time around, giving it a 3.5/5 stars. I definitely think group reading this as well as discussion of the book made it more interesting. Still a bit wordy for my taste, but definitely like it better after the second read.
Just “eh.” Not mad that I read it but it wasn't as detailed enough for me to really love it either. I felt the “love” in this book was forced and completely unnecessary - it added nothing to the story.
Overall it's not a book I would ever pick up again but not one I would discourage others from reading.
I have read 2 other of McCarthy's novels, but never have I been taken aback like this before. I've read novels and poems that were difficult before, but this is cryptic and mysterious on another level. It's not like the diction is confusing in itself, the whole novel is just full of allusions and concepts I can't wrap my head around.
I've been reading about this book ever since I finished it and trying to understand it a bit more and have come to the conclusion that I need to re-read it at some point so I can understand it a bit more for how it is. For now though, I will say the ending was great and the imagery (as always with McCarthy's works) was breathtaking.
A bit of a slow read for me personally because of all of the religious context, but overall the story was great - especially the characters. Florence is a new favorite of mine for sure.
Even though I personally am not religiously affiliated I still loved the concept of religion in this book: it showed the good side and the bad. Even when I was religious I had struggled with many of the same things discussed in this book to a T. Definitely recommend this to anyone who wants a story with rich characters, is willing to question and strengthen their faith, and to learn about the historical aspect of African American religion. All incredibly interesting to me.
I would have rather read a bottle of shampoo than read this “book.”
I would have preferred to read every word of the terms and conditions when upgrading my
iPhone than to read this again.
I never read two books at once - but I had to do it in order to force myself to get through this book. I would switch from this to another book to remind myself what good literature actually looks like.
This book is so cheesy, so unimaginative, so boring and so completely underwhelming every second. The only part I liked was when Alice was fighting at the end - she was the only character I liked. Everyone else? I did not care about any of the characters, ESPECIALLY Quentin.
He even uses this line in the book - “Say hello to my leel friend!” I couldn't stop cringing for ten minutes afterward. I had to put down the book and walk out of the room. I only finished this because it was required by my professor. I'm pissed Grossman wrote this piece of garbage and I'm even more pissed that my English professor forced me to waste precious moments of my life reading it.
WAY better than the first book, I just wish I knew why the author decided to abandon the journal entry style when writing this book? It was super weird to go from the first to this one and have the formatting change. The beginning was incredibly weak and slow. I liked Agnes, but none of the other characters. However, I loved seeing what happened to Mary and how her story ended. I skipped the end notes because I felt they were unnecessary and ruined the formatting of the rest of the book - it was odd to put them at the end like that. But I did read about what happened to Jack and that was a nice wrap up. Overall I enjoyed it.
This book has been ground-breaking for me. There were a few times where I just simply put the book down and cried - and I realized that this was the book I needed. It helped me accept and realize a lot of my flaws, but it also helped me learn that I can turn these flaws around and stop hurting myself any further. I'm going to pick up some books on meditation, as per the author's recommendation to start my journey on self love. I give it 4.5/5, I would have given it the full 5 if there were a few more methods to help with detachment, which is something I really need help on. Definitely worth a read if you're a co-dependent and want to start living for yourself.
Easy and quick read. The writing wasn't very good, super elementary and noticeable grammar mistakes sprinkled throughout, but I wanted something cutesy and fast. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives, even if most weren't necessary, it was fun and unique. The love story was annoying because of Gabe's medical issue, but I kept reading anyway.
I did NOT like the terrible cliches and how we have to hate characters like Hillary - she didn't do anything! I can't hate her for no reason! And the professor's hatred of her for no reason is just so unbelievable.
I also didn't like how on page 41, the author shames people who have been abused in the past by saying that if you have been abused as a child, you will probably be in jail making “toilet wine.” Totally distasteful and not funny.
However I give this 3 stars because it was quick, easy to read & had an interesting premise.
4.5.
The only thing that put me off a bit was the ending. It wasn't bad, it was nice. Matt finally came to terms with all of the problems he had throughout the novel, but it was anti-climatic. We all knew what happened to Simon - the author doesn't keep it a secret. But the climax to me was when Annabelle was telling Matt it would be okay. Everything else was just kind of filler at the end, because at least I knew it would be okay for Matt. Otherwise, I loved the writing style, the stream of consciousness. It was captivating. I really felt like Matt was a real person, not a fictional character.
This book was exactly what I needed. I loved every second of it - couldn't put it down at all. Thank you, Nathan, for introducing me to a schizophrenic character, for showing the reality of grief, and for being brutally honest all the way through.
I ended up skimming the end of the book because it became so unbearable. If anyone can tell me what the plot is, I'd be grateful. Stargirl was not the same character as the first book. This book was just so bad. The first one I didn't like much, but this one was just completely unnecessary in every aspect.
I was going to rate it higher but wow. The ending was just so bad. I really enjoyed this one, it was once again very fast paced, tons more action and it kept me wanting more. (SPOILERS) I got some of the resolution I wanted with getting to know Pip and Ruby more, although still not as much as I liked. We don't know what exactly happened to all the other boys from the dugout, we don't know if Eve ever gets her backpack from the grocery store back, we don't know who will be the new President or how Caleb will react to Eve's pregnancy...or even if Eve's baby is a girl like she hopes, if Rose ever will see Clara again, etc. It would have been nice to not have the book end so abruptly. I LOVED the book up until the last page - I mean come on! That did NOT feel like an ending!! There were still so many questions I had, so I took off 2 stars for having an incomplete feeling for the ending. I'll just create an ending in my head for how I WOULD HOPE it would have ended.
Overall, I enjoyed the series! It was completely great up until the last page where Carey just seemed to have said “I wrote enough, done!”
Once again, guilty pleasure but I love the fast pacing of Carey's writing. Even if it's cliche & kind of generic, I enjoy it! Sue me.
Except (spoilers):
If Caleb REALLY IS DEAD, which I feel like he isn't, his death was super...anti climatic. I wasn't expecting it and I reread it a few times on the next few pages because I thought he was simply shot not dead. I guess we will see.
And also, Ruby and Pip. It's hard for me to feel ANYTHING for these two characters because quite frankly in the first book only a few chapters focus on Eve when she is in school- and hardly discuss Ruby and Pip! It's hard for me to feel anything for these characters.
Still enjoyed reading it and will be reading the sequel next.