Edit 1/21/2019: Just finished a reread via audiobook and this is still a five star stunning read for me. I don't think I enjoyed the experience quite as much this time because I'm not the biggest fan of audiobooks, but this is just amazing. I already want to reread it again.

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This book is honestly one of the best books I've read in a very long time. I wasn't too excited to read it initially because of the computer science elements and virtual world, but I'm so glad I gave it a chance anyway. It was stunningly written. Several times I was outright bawling over Ada's relationship with her father. The whole book was an amazing ride that I didn't realize I'd signed on for. It was nothing like I expected, or like I would have imagined a typical book about virtual reality and computer science. It focused on characters and slowly developed them over years and the course of the book. It's exactly the kind of book I enjoy most, and I can't recommend this enough.

This book honestly surprised me with how much I cared. I'm not big on learning that much about explorers or nature or anything this book was really about. Everest isn't a topic I'm particularly interested in, but Jon Krakauer made me interested. This was as utterly heartbreaking as a fictional book. I thought his writing and storytelling was amazing, and the way he explained everything was very well done. I know nothing about climbing, but he did a great job of describing everything simply so I could follow along.

I had wanted to read this because Krakauer is one of those nonfiction writers everyone recommends (and I had already enjoyed one of his other books), but I really wasn't expecting to love this as much as I did. It left me disappointed that I haven't got any of his other books on my shelves to pick up.

I adored this book, which probably isn't surprising considering I'm such a big fan of both Rent and Anthony Rapp. But even then, this book was better than I was expecting. It was so emotional and took me ages to read because I never felt ready for the heartbreak this book brought. I learned so much about Rent and so much about Anthony Rapp, and I can't remember the last time a book made me cry this much.

I don't think there's enough in this book for people who aren't already fans of Anthony Rapp and/or Rent, but if you are a fan, I highly recommend picking this up.

I was torn on what to rate this book. I did enjoy it, but it was so unfinished. I thought going in that it would have been mostly done, missing final revisions and maybe just a chapter or two, but that really wasn't the case. At one point they said McNamara was midway through writing the book when she died and I believe it. As such, it's impossible to judge this as a completed piece of literature.

There were numerous sections either compiled from her notes or rough drafts from prior articles. There were footnotes to ideas she had changed her mind on but hadn't the time to revise. There were entire sections left out because she hadn't finished researching them yet, or hadn't written up her thoughts. It felt like an incredibly disjointed and disorganized story.

But it was also fascinating. There's no mistaking her lovely writing style in the sections she did have time to finish. There's no arguing the ridiculous amount of research she did, the time she put into tracking the killer, and the astounding story she crafted. I really would have loved to see her final work, because I think that book could have been a favorite for me.

This was honestly a pretty poorly written book. The characters were flat and awful, there were long unnecessary descriptions of all the equipment and procedures, and it was cliche ridden to the point of absurdity (rip the dude who was only 30 hours from retirement). But for all that, the action was ridiculous and over the top, and I really found myself enjoy the trashy fun of this book. Once the meg was introduced and starting eating all the people, I was down.

This is one hundred percent the kind of movie I adore watching and while I don't think that it's a favorite in book form, it was definitely a fun experience. Will not be continuing on with the rest of the series, though.

I was hoping for better from this book. I was looking for an entertaining contemporary that'd be a quick read, even if it was nothing special, but this book wasn't even that. I really disliked Jamie. I'm okay with unlikable characters, but he clearly wasn't intended to be unlikable. His tendencies toward violence were incredibly unsettling, particularly when they were never dealt with, and the way he treated Charlotte as this romanticized ideal was so awful. The manic pixie dream girl trope is alive and well in this book.

I really disliked the way Charlotte's rape was portrayed. It seemed like it had no bearing on either her character or the story, and was never really dealt with in any way despite the fact that adults knew and it only happened a week before the main story started. (And therapy is obviously bad, none of the characters ever deal with their problems in a healthy way, which is never discussed.)

But even so, I was planning to give it three stars just for being entertaining enough. Until the ending. I'm so tired of the women hating women trope, particularly when one of them is a child. Like fine, I'm down if it's complex characters with nuanced situations, but it's just about a guy. It's so tiresome and boring. This book really wasn't worth it.

Ugh, same thoughts as the first only this was worse in every way. I never even considered giving this one more than two stars. At least the first entertained me, this was such a struggle to get through. It was so boring and convoluted, and I still don't really understand everything that happened or why. The characters and all their relationships were really unhealthy and it was never treated as such. It was creepy that a romantic relationship between a 22 year old and a 16 year old was teased throughout this book. Charlotte and Jamie have an incredibly unhealthy relationship based on mistrust, lies, miscommunication, and avoidance of problems. I do not understand people's love of that ship, unless all the adults wise up in the next book and send them off to therapy.

DNFed the series after this.

I was really surprised by this book. I knew very little going in and was initially disappointed to discover it was a Groundhog Day kind of story, because usually I'm not the biggest fan of those, but it was genuinely different and more interesting than any other similar type story I'd ever read (or watched). I think because there was a group of them stuck within the time loop that it really helped make it more original than just a single person living the day over, and I loved that aspect. The characters themselves were all complex and interesting.

It was really twisty and fun, despite expecting a few of the plot twists and not being too overly surprised by how things went. There was enough intrigue and details I didn't guess to hold my attention. I've had a bad run of hyped books recently, but this one really held my attention and lived up to everything I'd heard about it. I'm so glad I wound up picking it up.

This was such an amazing book in every way. At no point when reading did I ever think about the writing. It just flowed so smoothly and easily that it didn't even register. The story was wonderfully complex and well crafted. For so many moving pieces, everything fit together and was easy enough to follow. I had no issues following the science of this story, and I'm not a science person in the slightest. The only science I did struggle with a little was when Ian Malcolm went on long tangents about chaos theory, and I think he was meant to be hard to follow.

I really enjoy the movie and they're very similar, but this book just has so much more depth and complexity. It's an incredibly worthwhile read.

The only part I didn't enjoy was the little girl, Lex, who was insufferable. I understand she's a small child and small children are often quite annoying, but it was actually painful to read. I honestly considered knocking the book down a star just for how much I hated her presence, but other than her, I had no complaints.

I've seen a load of negative reviews for this book, and I have to say I agree with them, which is very disappointing. It seemed very poorly written to me. Long messy sentences filled with too many ideas, clunky and cliche descriptions, and flat characters. I couldn't get into the world at all. I felt like for all the description, I understood so little of the world and even what a demon was.

The victim blaming also made me cringe, although it wasn't as bad as I initially believed it would be. There's still no excuse for praising a character's integrity when she, unlike the other sex slaves, manages to escape being raped one night.

Overall, I'd struggle to recommend this to anyone.