Reread December 2021

I love Courtney Summers. I reread this book at the very end of the year because I just wanted something amazing to close out 2021. This book hits so hard. I want to give it an in depth review because that's what it really deserves, but I can't think of what to say. Her writing is amazing. I can't breathe while reading this book. I'm just sitting there with a hole in my chest needing to turn every page and god forbid someone try to interrupt me.

Romy is a great character. I love her story. I love her personality. I love her family and her voice and her thoughts. Like as hard as it is, I love being in her head. She feels so painfully real, and that pain is absolutely exquisite.

I really don't know how to describe every aspect of this book as amazing. Summers is one of my favorite authors. Every book I've read from her so far has been 5 stars and this is my favorite. This is one of the best books I've ever read and I'm probably going to keep rereading for a long time. Highly, highly recommend if you've never read this.

***

This book was nothing like I expected it to be after reading the summary. But it turned out so much better. It was a slow paced, character driven kind of book and that's exactly the kind of thing I love. I felt like I was holding my breath for a good half of this book. It felt so real. The emotional hits never stopped coming through the very last page. I read this all in one sitting and coming out of it felt like waking from a dream. The writing, storytelling, and character development were stunning. This book makes me want to go read everything Courtney Summers has ever written.

Not a fan. There were so many annoying things about this book and some of them may have been a result of the translation (originally written in Swedish and I didn't like a lot of the writing), but I'm just reviewing the book that I read.

First of all, the absolute worst thing in a thriller for me, was how many secrets the main character kept from the reader. I don't mean personal secrets or backstory stuff. I'm talking about the main character hears a voicemail related directly to the case and gasps because it answers so many questions, and then just won't tell the reader what it was. She'll find out who someone was having an affair with, and then just not tell you. She'll read an article and not mention what it's about. What is the point in me following along on the investigation if I'm not even allowed the very basic information I'm watching the main character uncover? It was honestly one of the most frustrating things I've ever read in a thriller and I wouldn't recommend this book solely for that. I won't be reading anymore from Lackberg because of it.

A significantly pettier thing is the main character used her full name and her nickname interchangeably. I happen to have the same name as the MC, Alexandra. I have gone by both Alex and Alexandra. As a result, some people call me Alexandra and some call me Alex. In this book, every single character called her both interchangeably. I've never had anyone ever use both interchangeably and that was so weird to me. She'd be Alex in one paragraph and then Alexandra three paragraphs later and back to Alex for literally no reason. It's such a petty small thing, but I cringed every time it happened.

There was also a bit at the beginning when the victim's parents were going on and on about how she couldn't have committed suicide because she lacked the inner strength suicide required, which was super gross. We never circled back around to that thought which is why this doesn't rank higher in my complaints, but it was one of those things that made me dislike this book from the very beginning.

And again, one more small petty thing, in the synopsis it says the main character discovered the body. All the characters in the book reference how she discovered the body. And yet in the very first chapter, we follow the house's caretaker as he discovers the body and then tells Alex about it so she can call the police. It bugged me. Why open the book just immediately disproving the synopsis?

I wasn't a fan. Won't be picking up more from Camilla Lackberg and wouldn't recommend her. By the end, which I easily predicted, I didn't even care what was going to happen. A bomb could have exploded all the characters and I probably would have had the same disinterest. I just didn't think this book was very enjoyable.

This is a nonfiction book about people who have suffered gun violence in Chicago centered around the summer of 2013. I really enjoyed this. It's so heart wrenching. Some of the people are just little kids, who've lost their lives or lost friends or witnessed shootings. I almost wanted to forget while reading it that these were real people because it was so hard.

Each chapter is essentially a portrait of a different act of violence focused on the people involved. Some chapters focus more on the act and some focus more on an individual person who was involved. They read like articles, unrelated except by the general theme of gun violence tying everything together. Each was well written and fully rounded and fascinating.

The only negative I have on this book was that it felt a little lacking to me. This book is only snapshots of the violence. It doesn't offer any outside commentary or analysis, doesn't try to. The most you get is a general "gun violence is bad" kind of gist. Which is fine, I still obviously rated this book four stars, but I did want something a little bit more. I think because it was just these quick portraits, it's not going to stay with me as long as I would like for it to. I think for something like this, I do want a little analysis to go with the descriptions of people's experiences and feelings.

I thought this was great, though, and I would highly recommend. It's really eye opening. It also made me want to read his earlier book There Are No Children Here because he referenced it a number of times. It focuses on two children specifically so I think the more in depth focus might solve some of my problems with this one.

This book was amazing. I didn't know what to expect going in or how dark it was going to be, but when this book hits you, it hits hard and you don't forget it. I cried more than once and I love a book that makes me cry.

One of my only critiques is that that scenes went by so fast. Not so much in terms of the action that happened in them, but the writing itself. I wish it had been slowed down a little more to give you more time with some important events and reunions. It felt like we were speeding through complex emotions.

But I adored the characters in this. I loved Ana, both as a child and a young adult in her two countries. I loved when she went back to Croatia as an adult and noted despite being born there, it was the first time she'd actually been in the country. I especially loved her experiences as a child trying to live her life despite the civil war and normalizing the trauma.

The Yugoslavian civil war is a huge blind spot for me in terms of ignorance. Like even just to follow the basic events that were happening in this book, I had to go read some wikipedia pages to get the general gist of who everyone was and why they were fighting. I've looked up a few more books on the subject to hopefully learn a bit more. I always think it's a good sign when I'm barely finished with one book and already looking up more related books to read.

I'd highly recommend this book. I thought it was wonderful and heart wrenching and just an all around great read. I already want to read more from Sara Novic.

I wanted to love this. I really did. I love books about complex and abusive family relationships. I love books about historical times I know little about. I love memoirs. And yet, this book just fell a little short. It was fine, but it's not one I particularly enjoyed.

For starters, I think it struggled with being too all encompassing. Most memoirs pick a focus and tell the story of the narrators life around that focus, but Mah told her whole life, conception to publication, with what what like equal focus on everything. It felt like too much. Because of that, it felt like an autobiography giving the facts of a person's life rather than a narrative driven story.

The whole thing felt kind of like a summary. The scope was just too wide to delve deeply into experiences. Mah told us a lot about her experiences, but I didn't get the sense that I was there feeling things with her. It felt very distant and separate. I was watching from afar as Mah felt these deep, personal emotions when I wanted to be there with her.

I didn't fully buy that Mah was the perfect person she was making herself out to be. Especially at the end and the deaths of her father and stepmother, everyone was concerned about the wills. Mah repeatedly states it's not about the money for her. It's about the principle of being included in the family. But for someone who doesn't care about the money, she seems very easily placated when some of her siblings offer her some of their money. I just don't understand caring that much about the money of your abusive parents when you already lead a financially comfortable life. It seemed to be a lot more about the money than she claimed.

It was a very sad book. She went through a great deal of trauma with her abusive family, but it never quite pulled at my heart the way I wanted it to. She made me objectively sad, but I was never close to crying and I cry real easy at books. If something is sad, I want to be tearing up and feeling those emotions. In this it was closer to I know it's very sad and I feel bad for her, but I wasn't feeling them myselves.

The most interesting things for me were learning about the history and culture of China. She's born in China and eventually moves to Hong Kong to escape communism with her family and I loved hearing about that part. She talked a great deal about traditions, both her devout Buddhist grandfather and her more modern Catholic parents, and that part I thoroughly enjoyed. It's just unfortunate that I didn't care that much for the main focus of the story. I think perhaps because those things were objectively interesting while the main story was more emotional.

I do think this book was okay, but it's not one I'd recommend. I also don't think it's a waste of time if you wanted to pick it up. Just kind of okay for me.

I truly cannot recommend this book enough. This was a fascinating memoir of a woman who grew up in a patriarchal society, expected to obey her father's every word, and freed herself to live the life she dreamed of.

This book describes itself as focusing on the relationship between Rachlin and her sister, who lived a very unhappy life until her premature death. But to be honest, it seemed more just about Rachlin's life. Her sister was important to the book, but not the true focus in my opinion. She seemed a very secondary element. So maybe temper your expectations there, but I don't think that's a negative thing.

Rachlin starts her life living as her aunt's daughter, as her aunt was unable to bear children. Her aunt was a devout Muslim and then she goes to live with her more modern biological parents, never feeling like she quite fits in anywhere. A lot of this book focuses on family and home, who counts as your family and what makes a home. It's a fascinating story and Rachlin is a great writer.

She weaves the history and culture into the storytelling incredibly well. As a reader, you get such a good idea of what's going on in Iran without it ever feeling like Rachlin has to pause her own narrative to do it. It's all tied together.

This book was great. Rachlin is a masterful writer and has such a great story to tell. It's heartbreaking and touching and an all around wonderful book. Definitely recommend you give this one a go.

I was so disappointed by this book because I really wanted to love it. Like the bones were there. The story itself and the overall plot was fascinating. I enjoyed hearing about Mukta and Tara's lives and I really wanted to love them.

Most of this book is told from the perspective of the two characters looking back on their lives. They already have a distance of the events being discussed and because of this, as a reader I did too. Nothing felt like it was being experienced in the moment so none of the emotion hit me as hard as I wanted it to. The characters were sad a lot, but it felt more like they were talking about being sad rather than actually feeling sad. I wanted to feel sad with them.

The pacing in this book threw me off a lot. Tara goes back to India to search for Mukta and it alternates between the past when they were children and the present day. At one point Tara was talking to her friend and mentioned that she'd been in India for three months. I was gobsmacked. Like I literally thought it had been a few days and here she was talking about months. I've never been so confused about a timeline before.

It felt like there wasn't enough time or depth spent on some truly traumatic moments. Mukta is raped as a young child, and after the fact it's never really brought up again. Her mother is murdered in front of her and it barely feels like a scene in a book. So many things felt glossed over when I wanted them to be explored. When Mukta has HIV, they barely even say that. It's whispered about in vague terms in the narration. That happened with so many events that sometimes I found myself a little confused to what had actually happened.

I almost gave this book three stars just because I did so enjoy the overall story, but I feel it was really let down by the writing style. I was so bitterly disappointed because the whole time reading I tried really hard to love this, but I just couldn't.

God this book was great. It's so rare for me to find a book that so completely absorbs me from start to end. I couldn't put this down for a minute.

It's the brilliant trifecta of wonderful writing, well developed characters, and a fascinating story. It even has the benefit of being based on true events so when I finished this book I spent about an hour on google just looking up various information about the orphanages and asylums. I love when a book makes me want more information once I'm done.

Her writing style flowed really well for me. It was definitely kind of simple, and even juvenile at times because of who the characters are (young, uneducated, and traumatized), but it worked so well with the story. It sucked me in from page one and entertained me so much I read it through in one sitting.

I picked this up at random with another of Joanna Goodman's novels thinking it was a bit risky to grab both, but now I can't wait to read the other one. If it's anywhere near as good as this, I'm going to love it.

I adored this beyond all reason. I heard about this book from a few people, but I never knew anything about it. For whatever reason, I just got the vibe I would love this and I was so glad I was right. This book was wonderful.

I adored Essie. I loved the way she behaved in situations, how manipulation was what she learned from her family and so it was how she lived her life. It was just second nature to her to trick and lie to get her way instead of being straight with people. Every aspect of manipulation in this book was masterfully done.

I love behind the scenes of famous people, especially regular people like Essie who didn't ask to become famous. They're some of my favorite types of books because you get so much discussion on media and how every little decision matters, from their word choice to the colors of their clothes to the style of their hair. It's so fake, but so intentional.

I loved the multiple perspectives. All three were so well developed and I never felt like I was bored with any of the narrators. They all had strong and distinct voices, interesting stories, fully developed backgrounds. I even loved every time it switched because it meant I got to learn more and see more of their world.

The only thing I didn't love was how closely this story was inspired by the Duggars. It's not exactly the same, but the parallels are there and knowing that answers a lot of questions early on. I think I would have enjoyed more mystery than being able to predict certain events because of the comparison.

This is a new favorite for me. I'm already looking forward to when I eventually reread this in a couple of years because it was just that good. I would highly recommend this.

My dislike for this book is partially my own fault. When I read the synopsis on the back of the book, I only read the first half. The first half was all about Louise being strong willed and independent and rebellious, so different from her siblings. This sounded great to me so I picked it up. The second half is all about the romance and is most of what this book is about. She's less wild than she is kind of horny and hooking up with a couple of hot commoners.

This book is, first, a romance. That is the main plot and the main focus of the story. I thought this was more about Louise individually so I had very wrong expectations going in and I don't tend to enjoy romances like this. It was very 'big strong manly man rescues swooning damsel' and I cringed a lot. Not for me. If that kind of thing is more for you, you would probably enjoy this a lot more right off the bat. Again, my bad for not knowing more going into this, but I also feel like the fact that this is a straight romance should have come up earlier in the synopsis. (And there's nothing about romance or even a reference of the romantic hero in the goodreads synopsis. It mentions her marrying a commoner which like, technically true, but he's very gay and uninvolved.)

There was also an assassination plot of Queen Victoria which was so melodramatic and poorly done. That could have saved the book for me since I was less interested in the romance, but that part of the story was so flat and underdeveloped. I think it existed solely to make the romantic hero look like more of a badass by saving the day.

Not impressed, but also I'm not the intended audience so it's kind of hard to judge. If this is your kind of thing, you might think it's fabulous. I have no idea.