bella613's Reviews (551)

I really enjoyed this. It reminded me of John Green's writing. Great for the nostalgia and teen angst but it was also written and narrated very well. I love how well it shows the connection between certain places, things, and words and how they align with feelings and memories. It was cool to hear from the author at the end about what the story means in his own life as well. 
I also have times and places in my life that I see through rose colored glasses. I'm sure we all do. It's easy to idolize parts of your life that felt like the most true and connected moments.

I read this because it was Libby's big library pick (I believe that's what it is called but I do not really know what that means except that it was free on my shelf)
It was not enjoyable by any means, but I do feel like I probably learned from it. I got confused by all the characters and the graphic gore was a little excessive, but I mean, so is war. 

Amazing!
This is a re-read and it definitely holds up. I LOVED this book in middle school and just as much now. If I read it now for the first time it might not be a 5☆ but I'm rating it in tribute of how much my middle school self loved it.
I kind of forgot it existed and I'm so happy I found it again. It's fun, quirky, adventurous, and has cute teen ~feelings~ as well as the classic evil political villian whose worst nightmare is the FL. 
Meyer is a great writer and I love the characters she creates. It's very clearly the start of a series, so the world building is super important and the book kind of ends at its climax. I'm going to immediately start book #2 (even though ik it's not cinder as main lead :/ also I recall much less about book 2. I remembered almost all of Cinder pretty vividly just when I saw the cover. Probably an indication of how much I loved this book because those are memories that have lain dormant for over a decade)

This is my first by Steinbeck. I can see why he is renowned. I knew nothing about it going into the book but I found the beginning similar in feel to flowers for algernon (haven't actually read that one but my high school performed the play when I was a teen) 
I think it was best to go into it without any spoilers so I'm not going to put anything here. But I did cry after I finished it. 
Steinbeck is an incredible and compelling writer. 

I will note that I was very annoyed with the loud music played over the narration for the first 90sec of the audiobook. I couldn't really understand any of the first two minutes of listening. I also just wasn't a huge fan of the narrator. So I'm rating the book, not the audio itself, and would probably recommend finding a different audio recording or reading physical copy.