This is a book that seemed designed specifically for me to hate. I didn't like the short chapters and constantly switching POV. I didn't like the alternating timelines. I didn't like the writing style. The whole thing was just rough for me.

It felt like a bad ripoff of Gone Girl with less interesting characters. I've heard good things about some of Kubica's other books, but I don't have much interest in trying her again.

This was a great memoir and an even better audiobook. It's so rare that a book makes me both laugh and cry, but Davis did an amazing job with this. This had me walking away thinking about what an amazing person she is. 

I will add that this is a tough read. There are a lot of content warnings because there was so much abuse and poverty in her youth and then racism throughout childhood and adulthood. But it's well worth it.

I think she won a grammy for this performance and it was well deserved. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and they're mostly fine, but she made this book something else. If you want to read this, I highly recommend the audiobook version.

This was such a weird book, and weird isn't usually my vibe, but I did really enjoy it. Just a decent ways outside of my comfort zone. Like it's about a mind control cult (an oversimplification, but close enough) and a young woman running into a bunch of exes as she works through her current relationship with her fiance. It's a weird vibe, but I liked it a lot.

My favorite part was her relationship and just how much of the book centered around what it means to be in love and what makes a relationship worthwhile. Despite all the extraneous weirdness, that was the main focus of the book and I really enjoyed that. I think it was really well done. I like the exploration of relationships in literature and this really delivered.

The mind control cult was weird. I didn't really get it, and to be honest I don't think you were really supposed to get it? Or if there was anything to get. It didn't make sense. It was just the kind of thing you have to accept at face value and go along with, which is not a skill I excel at.

But despite that, a good read. A weird read, but a good one. I don't know that I'll ever want to try more from Crosley, but I'm very glad I stepped outside my comfort zone with this one.

I found this book so much fun. The mystery element was great and I really liked following Kate on her adventure. 

I think some of Kate's snark/sarcasm was a little bit too much for me. It felt almost too cutesy and over the top.  I also am very much not a fan of the romance, although it's only just begun. The alpha male thing makes me cringe. It didn't affect my opinion much on this book because it was such a small element, but I'm not looking forward to more of that in the future.

I also found a lot of the magic/world hard to follow. I don't know if it wasn't explained well or if I was struggling because I don't read much urban fantasy, but I did spend a lot of time confused. The beginning was a bit boring to me and it wasn't until the halfway point that I really cared about anything, but after that I was really invested and enjoying the ride.

Definitely looking forward to continuing on, but at this point I'm not certain I will commit to the whole series.

This was an absolutely gorgeous book, well deserving of every bit of hype it's gotten. This has made me fall in love St. John Mandel's writing and I need to find more.

I loved the characters. I fell in love with all their stories. I loved the narrative and how everything tied together so perfectly, but in a way that felt real. I loved the world that St. John Mandel created. I loved the way she built it back up and left me with so much satisfaction.

I was actually on the fence with giving this book five stars, but I felt like I was constantly wanting just a little more, from every aspect of the story. More time in the past, more time in the future, more time with each character's narrative. As much as I loved it, it all just fell a little bit short for me.

I really enjoyed this. I liked that he didn't pull his punches and wasn't afraid to place blame where he felt it should go. I like that he was in depth in what the problems were and how he felt they should be solved. I liked his specificity and how I left this book feeling like I learned something, instead of just hearing about how poverty is bad and a few general stats. I liked how he discussed how it's affected by systemic structures, like subsidized housing. I think it was a well written book by someone with a great deal of knowledge on the subject.

One of my issues is that I think a lot of his advice was overly simplified and much too broad. I didn't disagree with basically anything he said, but stating that the (or at least, a) main problem is that the rich don't pay taxes and the solution is to have the rich pay taxes, doesn't really accomplish a whole lot. Like yes, I agree, but that's not a very practical solution at this point. There are a thousand smaller steps in between point A and point B that we need to discuss in order for that to even be on the table.

I also didn't like the way he talked about Europe as a kind of utopia almost. It felt like he put western European countries on a pedestal, about how much better they are than the USA. I'm not one for American exceptionalism or anything like that, but European countries haven't solved poverty either. I just don't find that kind of thing helpful.

But I did overall really enjoy this. It was very worthwhile. I have heard his book Eviction is even better, so I'm very much looking forward to that one as well.

Honestly, I love anything that centers around Lena Adams. By far, favorite character. Everything she does is just absolutely wrong and she always makes everything so much worse, but is completely justified in her own mind. Magnificent character development.

But overall, this book bored me a little. I didn't care at all about the mystery, and the investigation felt incredibly lacking. There was so little new information that it felt like there were no suspects (except the random racist dude) or clues (except Jeffrey's gut feeling) and it took a long time for me to care. Even the ending was a little underwhelming.

I also really wasn't a fan of the role the Linton family played in this book. It felt very forced and didn't flow with their previous development, and despite its importance to the main characters, it got pushed to the side in favor of some apparent suicides. I would have liked more time developing their grief and pain for a subplot like this.

I still really enjoyed the background of this book, but the mystery itself dragged it down for me. Still really enjoyable and I'm looking forward to the second half of the Grant County series.

I really enjoyed the relationships between the characters. It focuses mostly on two young siblings and their dog, from all of their perspectives (but mostly the dog's). They all have such a pure love for each other that feels so present throughout the book. I loved all their personalities. I'm not usually a big fan of animals playing such a large role in books and especially reading from their POV, but I really enjoyed it here.

I also quite liked the adventure they went on. James goes scavenging while his little sister Piper stays home, but one day his prosthetic leg is taken from him and it throws everything into chaos. It was really nice to see a disabled protagonist in a dystopic story and it was handled really well. I really enjoyed seeing all the characters' creativity and problem solving as they went about tracking down his leg and exploring more of the world.

My biggest issue was some of the writing. It felt like this book needed another pass of edits. There were some tense switching issues between past and present, especially towards the beginning of the book that I found kind of distracting. There were also a number of awkward fragments. I like a good fragment when it works with the flow of the story, but most of these didn't. And there were lots of gerunds. Gerunds aren't bad, but there were so many it was a little overhwelming. All of these felt like they eased up throughout the book and the writing flowed more naturally as it went along.

This book is only 68 pages and I initially worried the length would be a problem, but it works so well if you enjoy novellas/short stories. It feels like the perfect length to tell the story.

I don't know if I'll continue reading the series because honestly it depends a lot on if I even notice when a new one is released (I'm terrible at keeping up with what's being published), but I feel like there's a good chance I will. There were a lot of questions about the world left up in the air and I'm feeling like I'd enjoy some more answers. The questions posed were interesting enough to pique my curiosity.

I'd definitely recommend picking this up. It was a sweet and fun middle grade that's well worth the hour spent reading.

*Received an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Nguyen's writing is absolutely powerful. Several of these stories felt like a gut punch they hit so hard, and others made me care in situations where I generally wouldn't. He wrote one man who divorced his wife trying to rekindle a relationship, and I needed that story. I absolutely hate breaking up/getting back together stories, but I needed that one.

The first story was my favorite, about ghosts of the past and a refugee who'd lost her brother while fleeing Vietnam, and it just about broke my soul. (I already returned my copy to the library, so I can't check titles.) I also loved the story of the Vietnamese girl who's half sister returned from America to visit. It was crushing.

There were one or two stories I didn't connect with very well. They weren't terrible and didn't take away from the majority that were fantastic, but it was very much a four star read with a five star story or two. But that's pretty par for the course in short story collections.

Overall I loved this. Would highly recommend if you enjoy short stories because these were incredible. If this is how he writes short stories, I'd really love to try some more of Nguyen's writing.

I really enjoy books where the writing style and subject matter are so at odds. You have this beautiful writing that is completely juxtaposed with a brutal story of violence and abuse, which magnifies both of those elements.

It's written in second person, which I love if done well. It was so beautiful here. His writing style was just gorgeous and I could see myself picking up more books by Grimsley just for that.

My biggest problem was just that it felt like the book was missing something. The writing and story were lovely and horrifying respectively, but I just needed something more. It wasn't doing much for me, for all that I enjoyed it. I do wonder if that was influenced by the fact that this was semi autobiographical and less of a story than a collection of fictionalized memories, but it didn't quite hit all the notes for me.

I really enjoyed this. Not my favorite book, but it was Grimsley's debut novel and I'd really like to see some of his other work.