I absolutely adored this book when I was in high school. There was something about the cheesiness and the very high school rebellion of the main character that struck a chord with me as a teenager. I remembered it as one of my favorites, but honestly I wasn't expecting it to hold up as an adult. And I was kind of right, although also a little more disappointed than I wanted to be.

This book is honestly kind of shallow. That's what hit me the most on this reread. There are a lot of difficult topics (cancer and grief to name two), but they don't feel developed at all. Just kind of thrown in for the big emotional impact, but also it completely misses the mark when there isn't any real feeling behind it. Like the characters will freak out over a big event not because it matters, but because they need an excuse to go running after each other to have that big moment.

I also didn't think the relationship between the main character and the cop boyfriend was well developed at all. It was kind of gross to me that he was in a position of authority over her (as a cop who arrested her) and she was a minor, even if the age difference was only about two years. It was more the principle behind it and gave me a bit of a squick feeling throughout the whole book. I don't think it would have had the actual relationship been more developed.

And not really a fan of her writing style at all. I didn't hate it, but it did make me cringe on occasion (like when she "heard" John blush). But not terrible. I read it in like a day because it still gave me a little bit of that excitement I got when I was 14. Maybe that was entirely nostalgia, or maybe there is a little something here that I enjoy. Who knows, but I'm not sorry I bought myself a copy and I'll be keeping it even if I don't reread this again for a very long time.

I dunno, I loved this when I was like 14 and I feel like that's the age range I would recommend it for. It's rebellious in that stupid teenage way that made me so happy at the time (she has blue hair guys, omfg blue hair!!! how super rebellious and cool and anti-establishment), and I think it's easier to ignore a lot of the bigger issues when you're that age.

Kasie West is just as cute as everyone kept telling me she is. I actually really enjoyed this book for a fluffy contemporary ya. But books that are too fluffy tend to be lower rated for me anyway just because I have a difficult time feeling really invested. Like it was cute, but cute doesn't make me absolutely love something the way books that make me cry do.

I think this book could have hit four stars maybe if the second half had been more like the first half. When they were locked in the library, I really enjoyed it. I loved watching their relationship progress and I liked seeing them deal with being hungry or cold or just suffering in small ways and helping each other out. Once they left the library, the book lost a bit of magic for me. There was a whole subplot about potentially fatal car crashes that didn't feel like it fit with the rest of the story and took over the plot more than the cutesy romance. I didn't hate it, I just think the book didn't need that.

At one point she tells a boy who likes her that she's not interested in him for no reason other than she happens to be not interested, and it doesn't ruin their friendship. That seems like such a small thing (and it is, kinda), but I read a lot of YA romance and the majority of the time, if there are two love interests then one must have some bad flaw to push the main character the other way. Or there's a big negative reaction to make you realize the MC made the correct choice. This was just like she was allowed to not like him for no reason even though he was perfectly nice. It's a very satisfying element in anything, but especially a YA romance and it made me happy.

That being said, this book is also fading fast. I'm writing this review a few weeks after I finished it and I do struggle to remember it. I'll probably unhaul my copy not out of malice but because it was a nice read and I'm sure someone else will enjoy it as well. I don't think I'll feel the need to return to this, although I will probably read more Kasie West in the future.

I'd recommend this if you're looking for some good cutesy YA romance. It won't ever be a favorite, but it was very solid and I'm so glad I wound up picking her up.

I absolutely loved this book when I was a kid and it was wonderful to see how well it still holds up. This book feels magical to me. As a depressed kid/young teen, it was so helpful to see a main character like Abby who was depressed and didn't have a support system, but could still work on figuring things out herself.

This book is told in epistolary format with letters, fake conversation, essays, and pretty much anything else Abby rights over the course of months. It's an interesting way to get to know her not only because you're seeing her innermost thoughts, but also how she presents herself in letters to her sister, not always truthfully. Or how she remembers her past and what memories stand out to her. It's such a short read, but manages to be so incredibly impactful.

I love how realistic this book is. It's not a picture perfect happy ending, but neither is it constant drama and pain. Abby has an abusive father and an overall dysfunctional family, but it's done in such a small way. It feels real. It doesn't feel like melodrama for a story, but rather just her life. I love reading books that do feel small and realistic and like every day kind of lives.

I'd highly recommend picking this one up. It's a bit old, but will forever be one of my favorites. I've read some of Susan Beth Pfeffer's other books and while they're quite good as well, this is by far my favorite. I connected so much with Abby as a kid and rereading it as an adult just reinforced that.

It took me over a month to read this book, which I feel like it some sort of accomplishment because it's less than 200 pages.

The list of things I liked is pretty short. I did actually enjoy the writing style. Banks has an interesting way of constructing sentences and making points that I quite liked overall. But I have heard that some of his other books might perhaps be more to my taste when it comes to the story, so perhaps liking hist writing style is a good sign. He's an author I'll try again, but I don't understand the appeal of this particular book.

I also really enjoyed Eric's character and his backstory. I actually thought Eric was much more interesting than Frank and had the story followed him, I would have cared infinitely more. My favorite parts of the book were when they were delving into Eric's history and who he was as a person. Unlike Frank, it actually felt like Eric had quite a bit of depth to him.

So getting down to the (much longer) list of things I didn't like. First the animal abuse. There was a lot of it. I didn't know going in that there would be a lot of graphic animal abuse and I find it unpleasant to read. Not everyone does, I get that, but it does take away enjoyment from any book that makes me read graphic descriptions of it. It doesn't cause pain in an interesting way, I just really don't like reading it. I probably wouldn't have picked this book up had I known that going in.

I also just found the main character rather boring. Frank is a psychopath. Kind of. Maybe. Who knows! But he's murdered a fair few children and kills animals for sport, so I guess we can go with that. That was pretty much it for his character. A main character doesn't have to be the most interesting person around, but when a book is essentially just a character study, I kind of want to care about the main character, good or bad. Boring doesn't cut it.

I was kind of set to give this three stars just because it was boring and not for me until I got to the ending which made me cringe so hard. I was really not a fan. I can't really talk about it without spoilers because I guess it would ruin the book? That's what I've been told, but it came out of nowhere so much that I'm not entirely sure it matters. It felt like a random ending slapped on instead of something that was built to and made sense with the rest of the book.

Overall my thoughts were a lot of sexism, a good bit of transphobia, and a boring cringey story that I'll probably forget very quickly. I don't understand the hype. I'm not offended by the violence, it was just boring and pointless? This whole book felt boring and pointless, and I feel bad because a friend recommended this to me as one of his favorite authors. But hopefully I will enjoy another Banks book more.

I think this is the most disappointed I've been with a Sara Zarr book. She's definitely written books that weren't for me about topics and situations I had no interest in, but even then I usually loved her writing style and setting and the way she developed the characters. Even in the ones that weren't for me, I still felt like I could wholeheartedly recommend them.

This one I didn't feel much of anything for. It wasn't bad by any means. There's not a whole lot I have to say about it that's negative. It's just that I don't really have much positive to say either. It exists in the world, I guess. It's inoffensive at both best and worst.

The main character finds out his mother has an affair and it shatters his idealized notions of what his family his so he kind of ruins his life. That's pretty much it. Maybe I'm too much of a cynic to connect to a plot like that because I just can't imagine the kind of reaction the main character has being all that realistic. I'm sure something like that would affect most seventeen year olds, but he really goes all out in destroying every aspect of his life.

It was cool to see aro/ace rep because that's still not something I've seen much, but at one point she gets outed after telling the person to keep her sexuality between them and it's never commented on. It's just apparently no big deal in the narrative that her trust was broken. That really rubbed me the wrong way.

Sara Zarr is still really great at capturing small stories about small lives that feel so realistic in their smallness, but the ending was almost a bit too climactic for the rest of the story. A lot of her books just kind of stop because that's how life works, but this one got dramatic. Off screen dramatic, but it still didn't really fit right.

I dunno, I wouldn't say don't read this book. It's not bad and I'm sure if you connect a little more to the main character you'd enjoy it more than I did. I still think Sara Zarr is great, but this one didn't do much of anything for me.

I don't have much to say about this one. It's under 200 pages, but took me two months to read because I couldn't get into it. As such, I don't think any review coming from me is super reliable since I didn't experience it the way I'd prefer.

I kept waiting for something about this to grab me and it never did. I don't mind short books. Honestly, I kind of prefer them to longer books because I'd rather a story be told as succinctly as possible. But it felt like Johnson was cramming a 300 page story into a book half its length. It felt like so many events were skimmed over and only touched on briefly.

I never got a feel for any of the characters either. It wasn't like they were poorly crafted or annoying, it's just that I couldn't tell you a single characteristic of any of them. I finished this book two weeks back and it left no impact. At one point there's a train crash that kills people and I felt nothing.

I dunno. It's rare that I read a book that makes me feel literally nothing like this one did, but I was also in a bit of a reading slump and going through a rough time at work and reading it over the course of several months was definitely not the way to go. So I can't really put the blame on the book when it might have been hugely impacted by my mood. I'd be down to give Angela Johnson a second chance, though, because I don't have any negative thoughts on this book.

I was a little torn between three and four stars on this book because while I did thoroughly enjoy it, I didn't love it. But ultimately I decided this deserved a solid four stars. It was just such a good book all around. Yvonne spends most of the book struggling with not knowing who she is or what she's meant to do with her life, and she's such a well developed character. I didn't always like her or agree with her, but I loved reading from her perspective.

I absolutely adored the portrayal of cheating in this book. Or, I guess "cheating" would be a better way of putting it. Yvonne dates two different guys simultaneously and isn't exclusive with either of them, but goes out of her way to hide the fact that she's seeing someone else. Kind of cheating-light. But I loved the portrayal of it and the discussions it brought up. She's a confused kid at the end of the day who isn't sure what path her life is taking. She's trying new things and trying to find herself as a person, and she's not always treating everyone the best but she also isn't vindictive or trying to hurt people. It straddled the line between not justifying the cheating but understanding it so well. Someone can do something bad without being villainized by the narrative.

One thing that did make me a little uncomfortable was the relationship between Yvonne and Warren. Yvonne is 17 at the start of the book and it's implied that her relationship with Warren had been going on for a little while already (at least several months, but she's known him for two years). Warren is 21. There was discussion on the age gap and what it meant for them, as well as the characters feeling uncomfortable with it to varying degrees, but I still wasn't a big fan. It affected my experience of the story more than I think Colbert meant it to.

This book is so very small in many ways, which I love. It's what I always harp on with Sara Zarr's books as well. Yvonne feels like a real person in all those tiny details. It's not huge or dramatic or life altering, it's just her life. And I loved that.

This is one I'd highly recommend, especially if you like low key contemporary YA. Brandy Colbert is definitely an author I'll be picking up again.

This book is fun. Like at the end of the day, that's the review. It's a military sci-fi book about old people joining a space army, but it's just a fun time. If that sounds like your kind of thing, you'd probably love this.

I really enjoyed it, but I didn't love it so much because I don't get along very well with lighthearted books. Which is not to say that this is fluffy because there's a great deal of death (it is war, after all), but the part of the book with gravitas and sadness and serious discussion of topics definitely felt like it came in second to the good time feels. I'd rather have a bit more seriousness.

There were loads of interesting topics brought up, like the morality of the army in general and what it meant to be following commands and the overall issue with the de-ageing process, since no one joins the army before 75. I think I wanted a bit more of that, but it was really well done and such a well crafted world.

My other main issue was how fast this book felt. I think it could have been slowed down a great deal, but then it probably would have become much more serious and that's just a different book. It wasn't trying to do that, so it's a little hard to fault for just happening to be something that isn't my favorite. I just wish it had taken a little more time to develop everything more.

I really liked how the science was handled. I struggle with science a lot so any book that's especially heavy on it is always going to be an issue for me. The science in this book was either simple enough that even I could follow it or just wasn't super important to the story. I skimmed a few sections that were heavy on it, but overall, as a science illiterate person, I'd give this a solid thumbs up.

I know this whole review sounds a bit negative, but I really did enjoy this. The characters were well done (even if there were quite a lot of them and they were occasionally hard to keep track of) and the world was fascinating. I really liked the political elements and how the military's role in the world, both positive and negative, was handled.

This is the first book in a series, but I don't think I'll be continuing on. Not out of a lack of enjoyment, but this book had a good ended. It just feels over to me. I'd much rather have one good standalone than a whole series and after the closure I was given, I don't feel the need for more, even if the other books are quite good.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. It was pretty far outside my comfort zone, but it was so worthwhile and so much fun.

Honestly, I didn't love this book quite as much upon reread. I did still quite enjoy it (four stars isn't a nothing rating), but it wasn't one I fell in love with.

I did still quite enjoy the characters. Lauren and EB have such distinctive personalities and voices. I love when you read a book with two narrators who sound like different people. I'm pretty sure I could turn to any random page in this book and know immediately who was speaking just from their tone. In my mind, that's one of the strongest aspects of this book and one of the reasons I'd highly recommend it.

It also captures the pre-college life so well. Both characters are in a transitional period, trying to figure out if they should keep up friendships and relationships and dealing with leaving their family. It's a period of ending before college has a chance to begin. But it's so well done. It's one of those books that feels so real in that way.

As for the negatives, it does feel a little melodramatic at times. It has such a real, down to earth vibe (like a lot of Sara Zarr's books), but then the characters just have down and out fights or there are secret affairs or a million other things. I think it could have been toned down just a little bit without losing any of the story.

I also don't think it handles race very well. One of the main characters dates a black boy and I found a lot of the discussion on that very cringey. Like I definitely think it needs to be discussed and I'm glad they at least tried, but at one point she even says she thinks black babies are cuter. (I'm writing this way later so I can't think of any other examples, but I just remember kind of cringing every time they tried to discuss race.)

Overall I do think it's a good book. It's definitely worth the read, especially if you're looking for something college focused. Sara Zarr is a great writer and while I don't love Altebrando as much, I did still enjoy both sections and I'd recommend giving it a go.

I think this book is worth every bit of hype and praise it has gotten. It's great and fascinating. I love memoirs because they're essentially just a character study, one person exploring their life and the experiences that they found important. This book is such a great memoir.

I really loved the way she handled memory. Her home situation was incredibly abusive growing up and even as an adult her parents were gaslighting her, and you can really see the influence on how she experiences the world. There was almost a distrust of herself and a reliance on the way other family members remembered events. She's constantly adding notes to make this clear and while it's definitely sad to read, I enjoyed it from a literary perspective.

I don't have any real negatives on this. I'm trying to word this next thought carefully because I really don't want it to come across as too negative (I did so very much love this book). I think for me it lacked a little depth. Like I wish she had explored her beliefs and the change in them more. She does this a little with racism, but I wish she had opened that up to her whole world view. I know that wasn't exactly the point, but it was something that felt like it was talked around, or like she was trying to keep from being too political.

Which brings me to my last point, which is less about the book itself than an observation I had because of what else I was reading at the time. Westover grew up in a very sheltered, very fundamentalist household and to her, BYU felt like a liberal paradise. She never once brings up what I think (maybe) is referred to as the morality clause, or how conservative BYU is compared to much of America. It was particularly interesting to me just because I happened to be reading another book at the same time written by a transwoman who had gone to BYU and very obviously did not see it as a liberal paradise. I think that was something that may have influenced my prior point about how I wanted more in depth discussion. In that way it did feel a little like something was missing. But that's just one of those things you get because of the subjectivity of memoirs, and I do like that aspect. It was just something on my mind as I was reading this.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend this if you like memoirs. It was a solid one and definitely one that made me think quite a bit. I'm glad I finally got around to picking this up. I devoured it in like three days, despite how slow my reading has been lately.