Hunger Games meets Percy Jackson in this adventurous fantasy novel. I love how diverse the characters are and THE TWIST LATER ON IN THE BOOK!! I’m going to have to read the second one now. I love Aiden Thomas, and this book didn’t disappoint. I loved the plot and the characters were loveable. I love the lgbtq aspects of it all. I’m excited for the next instalment in the series. 

I’m writing this review a month after I finished reading it, so I don’t remember everything I was going to say, unfortunately. But I will say that I remember starting this book and not really being too invested (all the political talk kind of bores me), but I ended up getting sucked in and really interested in what happened with the characters. I love the inner struggle the main character has, and I felt the pacing and writing was well done. 

This book was very mid for me. 

While the premise is great (I’m all about YA thrillers) I had a hard time because I felt like I wasn’t on the journey with the main character. She kept gaslighting herself into excusing mysterious behavior for 75% of the book!!! It was probably meant to be a slow-burn, but I just found it slow and annoying. Going into this book, I knew creepy things were going to happen. And it’s written in a way that a reader with any lick of sense would know what’s going on. So I mainly wanted to smack the main character and was annoyed out of my mind. 

I did love the representation of mental illness and addiction, though. Overall, I thought it was well written. 

This was really well done! I’m a sucker for graphic novel memoirs, and I loved how this one tackled large topics like immigration, family dynamics, and belonging. I really don't know much about Korean culture, and it was so informative, coming from a memoir standpoint. This story is told in a way in that almost everyone who reads it could relate. Anyone who has ever felt helpless or distant or like an outsider will see themselves in Robin (Chuna) Ha. 

I also loved how Robin was able to have a character arc. At the beginning, Robin was very opposed to moving and was thinking very inwards about everything (which is definitely allowed and valid), but at the end, it was nice to see Robin finding understanding for her mother’s actions in moving them from one place to another. It shows real growth and while that wasn’t a main plot point for the book, I still appreciated the complexity. 

On another note, this made me want to start drawing again. 

This was cute, and I am all about middle grade books with diversity representation. I love that there is an exploration of identities and the various reactions to coming out as gay. 

I didn’t really relate much to the characters, and perhaps that’s because I’m not the target audience, but I’d also argue that it’s because of how it’s written. It didn’t feel, to me, how 13 year old boys generally think or speak. I am not a 13 year old boy, so I am aware I’m not the best judge. But the cadence and sentence structure of some of the dialogue didn’t match the speech of a 13 year old boy for me. 

Eventually, I was able to just accept the fact that that was the case for this book and these characters and could continue on with the story. Wow, this story had some heavy-hitters right from the start. I love how it doesn’t shy away from complicated home-lives and things “normal” kids don’t deal with. And how it’s handled was well done in that it gave our main characters a really nice character arc of being kinder to themselves and with a new understanding of the people around them. 

I didn't have any choice but to give this 5 stars. Wow - I absolutely love Alexis Hall's writing style. I love how Luc and Oliver are written, their humor, their insecurities, their love for one another.

Being the sequel to Boyfriend Material, the relationship between Luc and Oliver continued strong, but was written so well that you could tell they had been together for a couple years at this point. 

I loved the plot and the bouncing between weddings of friends and not-friends and the pressure of weddings.

I will say that the last couple chapters gave me so much anxiety - but I'd like to think that's a good thing (it shows I'm invested in the characters and their situation). I ended up having to take a break from reading it for a day or two because I was so worried what was going to happen. 

I'm going to miss Luc's humor and sarcastic wit. I'm going to miss Oliver's caring love and proper language. This is definitely a series I will reread again and again. 

I may be biased, but I don’t think I can give anything Heartstopper less than 5 stars. I just love the characters so much. I find them well-rounded and lovely and I’m completely infatuated with their relationship. 

This little novella reminded me so much of my own high school relationship, and it hit hard. I found it well written and the plot was more emotionally-dependent than anything else, and that was ok. It gave us a little bit more insight to the thoughts and feelings of the characters. 

Wow! This was such a fun collection of stories. I loved that every story made me insert details for myself, which allowed me to reflect on how they story affected me. For example, the main character of each story could be the same person, or not. They could be whatever gender (and I always imagined a masculine person for some reason - but that made me look inwards and ask myself why I imagined it that way). 

It’s honestly a feat of storytelling by having the reader provide their own details, making each story mean something different to every reader. 

The way this was written was absolutely gorgeous and so well done. Brian Selznick (who is a great guy - I happened to meet him at a public library conference) has a talent for manipulating mundane words into meaning something more. 

I highly recommend this fantasy of short stories! 

Ah, this was so great. I absolutely love both Delilah and Claire. I love how different they are, but they were still three dimensional characters and well developed. 

I’m possibly obsessed with Delilah. I love her attitude and look. I would fall for Delilah if I met her in real life. 

I also enjoyed the secondary characters. Astrid was the greatest stick-in-the-mud step sister. Iris was hilarious, and I want to be friends with her. 

I was invested the whole time. It’s a great queer, predictable love story, and I’m HERE FOR IT. 

The only thing that makes it shy of a 5-star rating for me is that the seggsy time was always ✨perfect✨. And while that’s nice and all, it would have been nice to have a seggsy time that was realistic? It can still be hot and steamy, but it was like the seggsy time was the absolute best, and a little cute mishap or something would have made it more realistic. I would have connected to it more.