To be honest, I was pretty disappointed by this. It wasn't a terrible book by any means, but I was expecting a lot more. I took a few linguistics classes in college and found them interesting so I was stoked to read a book about the language cults use. Honestly, though, it just came across as really bland and basic. Like there wasn't much information in here that was new to me and she didn't go in depth on any of the linguistics. I'm not trying to say I'm some kind of linguistics expert. I took two and a half (dropped one lol) classes in college. But that's kind of the problem. I only took two classes on linguistics and already felt like I wasn't gaining anything new from this book. I expected a cool deep dive and got really basic information.

It seemed like about half of this book was just basic descriptions of the cults themselves. That could've been fine, but for how many she included in this book, it meant none of them got very much time. She interviewed members of cults and various mildly fanatical groups, but again, just didn't spend much time delving into their experiences. Everything got kind of a brief overview.

It also got really preachy in some parts. Not that I disagreed with basically anything she said about linguistics, cults, psychology, or politics, but it's not very fun being preached to. Especially when it felt like she was kind of talking down to me. Maybe it wasn't intended in that way and other people didn't take it that way, but that's how it felt to me.

The most interesting part of the book for me was when she was talking about MLMs. It kind of seemed like maybe the whole book stemmed from that idea because it seemed to have the most depth and interesting, and the only part of the book where I felt like I might have gained anything.

This wasn't bad. Like the information was fine, it was just so bland and kind of simple. Maybe for people who haven't read much on cults and/or linguistics, this would be a lot more interesting. But if you're looking for a fascinating deep dive, I'd recommend giving this a pass. The most enjoyable part of this book for me was the various people and cults mentioned. I'd pause the audiobook and do a google deep dive myself and got a lot more information than Montell included in her book.

My favorite Agatha Christie so far! This was just a really fun puzzle to work out, and so easily engrossing. I got through it in a day and was also super down to pick it up.

There was way too much time spent explaining things, though. Not just at the end with the little mystery wrap up, but throughout the book. There'd be a long pause in the action just for the characters to sit around and discuss the very obvious things that were happening. Lots of spoon feeding.

Also flat characters and lots of prejudice.

I think I'm just not a big Agatha Christie fan. Like the actual puzzle of this was pretty cool, but that alone isn't enough for me, and everything else is kind of unpleasant.

This is a really interesting book on adoption between 1945 and 1972. It focuses on mothers whose children were adopted, often by bullying, coercion, or force, and the trauma they went through as a result of losing their children.

Most of this book is comprised of testimonials. Giving these women voices, most of whom were made to keep quiet for decades (and some until their deaths), is such a powerful statement. However, it did get a little tiresome at points. Like I feel so terribly for that because it's wonderful that these women finally had a platform to tell their stories, but there were so many and they were all so very similar. They stopped having so much emotional impact on me.

Fessler is an artist more than a writer and I feel like it shows here. The sections she wrote, which were honestly not a lot of the book, felt very dry. I don't think I particularly enjoyed them, regardless of how interesting the information itself was.

Mostly my disappoint comes from wanting to love this book and just not. Unfortunately, it was a little dry and repetitive for me. I think this could have worked if it had been put together differently, but it's mostly about the information for me. It was such a powerful statement to give these silenced women a platform. It's a highly emotional book with a lot of important insight into what many women and young girls went through. Highly recommend, despite my negatives. I think it's well worth the read and probably a better experience if you space out your reading.

I always like Moriarty's books. They're nothing amazing to me, but always a good ride and fun for the time I'm reading them. This was no different.

I love how she takes very small occurrences and blows them up into big dramatic moments. These books trick you into thinking they're thrillers, but they're so often just kind of small family stories where the little things get blown up. I love that.

Some of the characters I was very down for. I could've read a whole book about Logan and his interpersonal relationships. He wasn't the most interesting of people, but he was such a well developed character for all his generic flaws, and I loved his slow growth throughout the book, and especially his continued flaws despite that growth. He may have been the only character I was rooting for.

Some of the characters were very annoying. Lots of melodrama and kind of ridiculous situations. But eh it's fun overall. I'm very likely to forgive a book its flaws if I get wrapped up in having a good time.

A solid four, but also this is a book I'll probably never think about again. I like Moriarty and will definitely continue reading her. I think this was one of her better books for me.

I love the way Mary Roach writes nonfiction. It's almost like a collection of articles that are just slightly edited to tie together. It's fascinating and so perfect for me. I didn't like this as much as Stiff, probably just for the subject matter, but it was still pretty up there for me.

She does try a little too hard, in terms of jokes and such. It felt like those flowed a little more naturally in Stiff and here it sometimes came across as forced. And also just in terms of shock value. It wasn't that shocking actually, but it felt like she was going harder than necessary in the "wow aren't I grossing you out???" Kind of reminded me of a kid who just discovered adults make faces when they burp and think it's hilarious.

I loved the mix of information. A combination of science experiments and medicine and history and people's personal experiences. She manages to cover so much in such an interesting way and it all works together beautifully.

I'm not overly interested in this subject matter, but Roach managed to fascinate me from start to finish. I'd highly recommend this and I'm looking forward to reading more from her.

I liked the fun drama in the beginning, but as the book went along, I just found myself caring less and less. There were so many characters in so many brief scenes that to be honest, I kind of forgot who everyone was. They'd say George was doing xyz thing or Robert had shown up at someone's office, and for the life of me I could never remember who they were.

This book also felt like it lacked focus. There was such a broad scope that I didn't care about anyone or anything that was happening. I didn't get to know any of the characters. I didn't care about their feelings. There was a weird background financial crime case going on that had no bearing on anything in the book and no arc or conclusion. It just felt like a mess.

And it was also really obvious. You knew from the beginning what had happened because that was the entire point of the book. There wouldn't be any reason for a few characters to have POVs otherwise. I thought there might be something more to the ending, but after the reveal, the book just stopped.

I dunno. It wasn't a terrible read by any means, but by the ending, I just didn't have anything good to say about this.

I feel like this book focused on the weaker elements. The mystery was so nothing and bland. I didn't really care about the answer to what happened in the past.

For the first half of the book, the characters were so freaked out about getting caught for something that seemed so underwhelming. Like there would have been a little pushback if Isa had come clean to the cops on page one, but honestly, they were stupid kids who made a stupid mistake almost twenty years ago. It was genuinely not a big deal and not enough to drive the book. And then when something more serious does happen, the characters immediately acknowledge that the initial problem was not very major. Literally half the book.

The climax was dramatic and more interesting, but honestly by that point I just didn't care what happened to these people. This book was dragging on and I was so disinterested in everything.

The more interesting parts of the story were the characters and their growth. If this book had spent less time being a twisty mystery and more time dealing with the grief and trauma of these people who were deeply affected at a formative time in their lives, I would have care a whole lot more. There was so much unanswered about their lives. We never got to see how Isa or the others coped in the direct aftermath, or how they put the pieces of their lives back together. If I was enjoying the mystery element, I wouldn't have cared about this, but the mystery felt so bland to me.

I did really enjoy Ruth Ware's writing style. It was easily engrossing and such a quick read. I'd be down to try more from her, but this is already my second of her books that's gotten lukewarm three stars, so perhaps she's just not the author for me.

If you're looking for something exciting, this book isn't it. It doesn't do much in the first half. The second half was better, but not enough to salvage this book for me. Not awful, but also not one I'd go out of my way to recommend.

Very interesting account of various "basic" games in society and how computers have been programmed to play them and overcome humans. The AI elements of this book were fascinating, basically discussing how computers learn various skills as each games requires different types of programming.

Would highly recommend this to anyone interested in the subject. I struggled quite a bit since it's not a topic of particular interest to me. Computer programming mostly goes over my head and I think Roeder was writing to an audience a little more knowledgeable than me. This was a gift, probably not something I'd ever pick out for myself. But I'm very glad to have read it and did learn a lot.

I had a few mixed feelings on this book. There was so much I really enjoyed, but on a deeper level, I couldn't connect and it didn't feel well developed.

I liked the overall story quite a bit. It's a really cool high fantasy world. It basically deals with the persecution of witches, bad magic, a couple of orphaned kids, and a princess who's been treated like property her whole life.

All of the elements in the story worked, but I felt like everything needed more development. Like I enjoyed the princess subplot, and the subversion of a few princess tropes, but there was so little time spent on it that I never felt like I could connect with her storyline. The brief explanation of the magic system was super cool, but for the most part, I didn't understand how it functioned. I don't need a step by step guide, but they'd mention things like persuasion spells and I want to have a basic understanding of how that works and how it affects people.

There were so many things that weren't explained, or at least not explained until later in the book. There are assassins who are basically hired by the government and there were a lot of weird things around them. People kept talking about the assassin uniform or recognizing certain assassins, which confused me. Until later in the book it was mentioned that assassins double as guards in addition to all their murdery fun. Like I didn't realize this until the book was almost over. It would have been good to know that early on and it would have explained a lot. That's just a small example, but there was so much that I felt was just glossed over that hindered my overall understanding of the book.

I really liked all the characters. Pip is a 13 year old pickpocket who pretty much spearheads the story, along with his sister, their witchy friend, and a teenage princess. Pip is funny and pragmatic and very much behaves like a child, which I appreciated. For all his responsibilities, he felt like a little brother. Even in this fantasy world where children have to grow up young and provide for themselves, you could still see their immaturity. I love middle grade for that.

But as much as I loved the characters, I never quite connected with them emotionally. Some very sad things happen and I want to be emotionally affected. When they're talking about people they care about being potentially dead, I want to feel that pain. And I didn't. It often seemed like the characters' emotions were muted as well. The way they behaved wasn't always in line with how traumatic the situation should have been.

And I think something that contributed to that was how easily some situations were resolved. Something would happen that seemed awful and hopeless and everyone was scared, but then within a couple pages they'd be well on their way to everything being totally fine again. It never felt like the stakes were high enough for what was happening in the world.

I'm a bit confused as to the audience. The story and main characters felt like a lovely middle grade, but the language felt way too mature. Not in terms of profanity or anything like that, but just the overall vocabulary and sentence structure. I don't think I'd have been able to follow this well as a 10 year old. The plot was also sometimes very complex with a lot of moving pieces, that were not always well explained. Even as an adult there were a few times I got lost. I'm sure there are middle grade readers who would enjoy this, but it would have been confusing for me at that age. But I also feel like because the characters and overall story were geared toward a younger audience, the average YA reader would be dissatisfied as well.

I did enjoy a lot of this book, but it felt like it could have been so much better. Either lengthened and much more developed, or simplified into a smaller story. I just needed a lot more from it. But it was a very enjoyable three stars and I'm glad I read it. I don't think this was bad by any means and I'd recommend it to adults who enjoy middle grade fantasy, but I just wanted so much more.

This was fine. I read so many thrillers where I don't have bad things to say, but I don't really have anything positive either. The beginning took me a little bit to get into with the writing style. For the first 70 or so pages it felt stilted to me, but then I got used to it (or it improved, not sure which) and it stopped being an issue.

Honestly, I read this in a day because it was so short and quick, but I'm already forgetting it.

This could've been a recent episode of Law and Order SVU, so if you like SVU's post Me Too episodes about going after powerful men for rape, I'd recommend this. It was mostly enjoyable, just ultimately didn't do much for me.