I really enjoyed reading this, even if I didn't agree with all the perspectives and it was super hard to get through. The long form essay content was rough, but I made it through. I definitely recommend this if you're interested in butchfemme culture, especially butchfemme history, and you want to hear those points of view.

This book was written so well!! See has a major talent for a historical fiction voice - this read along the same lines as many classics I've read, not feeling like a historical fiction with modern language. It truly felt like the perspective of someone from Lady Tan's time period. Additionally, I felt it struck a particularly good balance at dealing with the misogyny of that period, especially discussing the foot binding, while also showing the actual lives of women at the time. It raised awareness to a super important woman in Chinese history, and I really feel like I learned a lot and got to enjoy a story while doing it.

Definitely giving Kafka a huge break on this book not being the best, due to it being unfinished/postmortemly published. It was okay, confusing as per usual for Kafka. I think I would get more out of it if it was a book I was discussing in an English class. I do find a lot of meaning in the premise of a man being arrested for something and not getting to know what it is, and how you can tie that to authoritarianism and fascism, but I don't think the prompt got to be fully written out and edited to its best potential.

I got the chance to meet Chin through my school, and he was so kind. His story is so wonderful to read back on, and very relatable in a lot of ways. He does an amazing job showing and creating an understanding of an experience that may be different than the readers, and is incredibly honest as he does.

This one is really fun! I think it was a good second part to the series. Going back and reading these as an adult, especially one who read the whole set as a kid, is a fun throwback.

In some aspects this book is definitely a product of it's time, with some very weird quips here and there about minorities. Still, I did enjoy it, though I think I agree with some other people that this probably does function better as a show than as a book - even Pratchett writes at the end that Gaiman is a scriptwriter. Still, the book is fun and cute with a lot of good jokes, and I'm glad it got made into a show to show off it's true potential. I also love that it's a story with a non-compete ending, yet with no sequel. It really makes this feel like a complete world, that keeps going regardless of whether or not we're reading the pages.

This book was incredibly interesting, and I'm trying to read more classics, so I did really enjoy this in the end. I think it's one of the classics I've enjoyed more, honestly, but it was also so hard to actually get through. Much easier as an audiobook than a book. I loved what it was saying and how much analysis you can do on this, plus I did pick up on some of the queer subtext, though also this has that issue many classics have - is it queer subtext or do they just hate women/not see them as people so that the men have much more intimate relationships? Though not the worst one I've seen (and I know this is a product of the times) the book does have a fair share of misogyny.

This book does pair incredibly well with 1984. Its also a very scary future to think about, but as with other books, I appreciate the continued hopeful message that humanity will end up in a better place, which is really what I need for right now.

Though this book ends a bit abruptly, I really enjoyed reading it and learning the story, and now I'm excited to read the next one. Lauren is a very compelling main character, and after reading Kindred I've found that I really like the characters that Butler creates. They feel a bit before my time, despite this story starting exactly in my time (2025). I really appreciate the slight hope in the story, how it seems to portray that even though everything is horrible and will continue to get horrible, you just have to survive until the world is sane again, which is definitely how I feel right now.

OHHH my god. I know a lot of people said the amount of lore was just fan service but honestly I don't care, this book had my mouth DROPPING. I am so invested in the world of Panem, I love every time we get to view another Game and every time we learn more and more about the world. This didn't just feel like a world expansion either, it also felt like buildup for plot I know comes in the future, and establishing things like relationships that didn't make as much sense to me in the Hunger Games. I really did adore this.