This was a fun, entertaining book, but I just wasn't a huge fan. It is a romance book first and foremost, and I was honestly more interested in the kidnapping than Emmy and Oliver rekindling their eight year old romance. Emmy also spent a lot of the book complaining about how uptight her parents were, which was a bit much for me to handle as an adult. I think I'd have enjoyed this book a lot more if I'd read it as a teenager. But I think if you go in expecting and wanting a romance heavy book and are okay with a bit of extra immaturity, you'll enjoy this. There was a lot to like about it, especially the casual bucking of toxic social norms like the "not like other girls" trope (a boy said this to Emmy and she and her friends called him a douche canoe).

Overall fun, but not a whole lot more for me, although I can see why other people might enjoy it more.

I found this book to be a really interesting perspective of North Korea. We get so little information about the country and nothing like this, a foreigner who lived there for several months, albeit in a very limited teaching role. I thought it was absolutely fascinating and I flew through this book in a day. It was a really easy read and the fact that the author is a journalist really shows in her writing style.

The reason this got four stars instead of five from me was that I found myself wanting a little more from this book. She asked a lot of rhetorical questions (eg. does it really help the boys if I open their minds to the outside world?) and I didn't expect answers, but I felt a lot of it could have used deeper reflection and discussion. Some of those rhetorical questions seemed a bit too surface level and didn't delve further into the issues, in addition to being a bit repetitive.

But overall, I found this book incredibly worthwhile and would highly recommend. I definitely gained a lot from having read this.

I've read worse thrillers, but I've definitely read better. Subtlety does not seem like it's one of Ruth Ware's strengths. The whole book was an overload on creepy and ominous, even the most insignificant details like recognizing someone from Facebook. I understand foreshadowing and creating an atmosphere, but when literally everything is creepy, nothing is. I also found all the characters fairly irritating and the ending incredibly predictable, and I honestly can't imagine how anyone wouldn't guess the ending of this.

But I also found it compelling and entertaining. It was one of those books where once I got into it, I didn't want to put it down. I read most of it in one sitting and the reading experience was fun even if the book itself wasn't that great. I still plan to try another Ruth Ware, especially considering this was her debut novel.

This was a reread for me. Speak is an old favorite and I'll always love it. It's just such a well done, beautiful, and heart wrenching story. I think it could probably be considered a classic of the YA genre, even though it's not quite 20 years old, and it's always one I'll recommend. I love Melinda's character, I love her interactions with her former friends and how they all have distinct personalities, no matter the size of their role. I love her relationship with her parents and her art teacher and David. For such a short book with such a large cast, it does an amazing job of making each character fully developed and memorable.

I will say that I listened to the audiobook and I wasn't the biggest fan of that. The narrator read Melinda as a lot more sarcastic than I did in the text, which I didn't particularly enjoy. I don't know if that knocked this book down a star or if it's just a really great four star read, but I don't think I'll be picking up that audiobook again. (Which is not to say it's a bad audiobook. It just isn't how I personally pictured Melinda.)

This was a really interesting read. It took me over a month to read not because it was bad but because I never wanted to read more than 1-2 articles a day. I thoroughly enjoyed all the different topics and writers, and the wide range of articles chosen. As with any anthology, some were hit and miss. The satire was largely a miss for me just because I don't particularly enjoy it, but Robert Fisk and Mike Sager both wrote incredibly interesting articles that were critical of Israel's role in the conflict in the Middle East, a topic which I now want to read more of.

I did wish there was more commentary on the articles. Because there was such a wide range chosen, both of topics and time frame (from 1942-2003), I lacked context for a lot of them. I had to do a fair amount of outside research just to get a basic understanding of the topic, and I found myself thinking just a little more of an explanation in the commentary would have been incredibly helpful.

But overall, if this sounds like a book that will interest you, it probably will.

Eh I just didn't care about this book. My feelings were pretty much the same as Six of Crows, only more. More boring, more predictable, more mediocre. There were a few interesting elements, but they weren't focused on as much as the cliches. The romance was neither slow burn nor passionate. And I just wasn't invested in anything. I almost gave this book two stars, but it was a quick read and kept me entertained enough to get me to the ending, and I still enjoyed Inej's character. So three stars it is.

I just don't understand the hype behind these books. They're not bad, they just don't really seem good either. I don't think I'll be picking up another Leigh Bardugo book.

I had a lot of mixed feelings on this book. It was a three star read, but not a mediocre three star read. Three stars that were definitely thought provoking and worthwhile, but left me not sure how to feel.

Some of the literary references and push on academia seemed forced, like Marisha Pessl was trying very hard and her effort came through as quite obvious in the text. It bothered me so much that the references were made up because I'm the kind of person who actually googles them, and I couldn't here. Her characters also seemed largely the exact same as in the other book I've read of hers, Neverworld Wake, although the writing style was so different.

A number of the events in this book felt random. Eva's role, for instance, and the Paris trip. Zach. Some things came back around to be important in the end, but at the time they made no sense and had no build up. It felt kind of like she hadn't planned all the way through, and I came away feeling like I was missing a lot.

I enjoyed Blue's character and her relationship with her father a lot. I liked that this was a book you had to read slowly, I wouldn't have been able to binge it like I normally do. I liked how it constantly kept me guessing and I had no idea what was going on. And I absolutely loved the ending. I thought Final Exam was a brilliant way to end the book, and it almost bumped up my rating to 4 stars. But overall, I just had too many mixed feelings and too many aspects of this didn't work for me.

It took me a day to read this book. It was absolutely incredible, and so worthwhile. If you're interested in North Korea, I think this is a must read. Honestly, if you're just interested in memoirs or refugees or Asian politics (as it covers both Koreas, China, and a bit of Mongolia), this is fantastic. I gained so much from this book, both knowledge and understanding.

I think the only thing keeping this from being five stars for me was that it felt too short. Between the actual length (just under 270 pages) and how quick it is to read, it felt a little bare bones. I really wish there had been more, and I think this book could have benefited from an additional hundred plus pages.

But overall it was amazing. I honestly can't recommend this book enough. The best nonfiction book I've read this year by far.

Not really the kind of thing I'd normally pick up, but a really interesting account of a serial killer who was active in my hometown (Richmond, VA) in the 80s. I don't know that I'd have enjoyed it as much if I wasn't a Richmond native, but it's incredibly well researched and detailed. The author did over 50 interviews and it really shows in the book. It also focuses on DNA as a forensic tool, as this was one of the first cases worldwide to utilize DNA for a murder trial. It kept me interested the whole time because despite the fact that these killings took place just a few years before I was born, I'd never heard of it.

All in all, I'd highly recommend if you're interested in a kind of play by play true crime, if you're from Richmond, or if you're curious about the history of DNA. Definitely a worthwhile read.

Honestly, just kind of boring and forgettable. If it had been just entertainment, I would have been okay with that, but it felt like it was trying so hard to have more substance than it did. All the characters were pretty unlikable (annoying more so than interesting), and I wasn't invested in anything. I like a good slow build family drama, but this didn't do a whole lot for me.

I think I had a lot of similar issues with this that I often have with Jodi Picoult, so I think if you enjoy a lot of Jodi Picoult's works, you may like this. Otherwise I'd maybe recommend giving it a pass.