It was a cool concept and had some vaguely interesting characters, but there was always something that was <i>just</i> lacking somehow. It needed a little more substance to draw you in a bit more.

I'll be interested to see what the changes are for the movie next year. 

 It surprises me that a story centered around gaming and gaming culture could be so fucking tedious and bore me to tears in some aspects. I'm sorry, but most interesting parts of the story were the descriptions of the games that they made and the stories of them as children, because who they are now are just pretentious, obnoxious assholes.

I honestly liked one character and it was a side character--both of the main characters annoyed the crap out of me half the time. Sure, everyone has flaws, but miscommunication is one of my least fucking favorite tropes in a book and that's half of what this is and Sadie is nearly insufferable when it comes to blaming everything in her life on someone else.

My rage about the characters in this book alone makes me want to give this book 2 stars, but I'd say it's probably like 2.5-3. I actually don't understand why I finished this. 

 It reaches out. 

 I've read a lot of fake dating stories (it's one of my favorite tropes) and this was actually one of my favorites so far. There wasn't unnecessary angst, no miscommunication, the girls were generally up-front with one another and their character growth was gradual and understandable. I also loved being immersed in new culture and getting learn about how it shapes these girls and their families as they grow up. 

 I've gone through a lot of emotions these past few months that I never expected to experience. It's put me in a strange place in my life. I just randomly stumbled across a tik tok video of Brene having a discussion with someone about energy levels in relationships and it touched me enough that I tracked her down to find out more about her and that's when I reached this book.

Even though this isn't necessarily an advice book, per se, it resonated with me in so many places because of the wild mixture of emotions I have felt recently that felt so contradictory -- sometimes even at the same time. This was something Brene mentioned in her book and it was like an aha! moment because I kept saying to myself "how can it be possible that I feel like this but also this; it just doesn't make any sense" and it gave me a little more peace of mind that I wasn't quite as crazy as I worried I might be.

I cried many times listening to this (it was great to listen to Brene read this, by the way, because she does a great job reiterating subjects that are sometimes difficult to comprehend on first listen), probably because of a validation of things I am currently feeling but also hearing things that sounded like what might be what others around me could be feeling and I never considered it that way before.

I recommend whole-heartedly. This isn't a difficult to read science book (even though the research is there), but something that speaks to you easily on a human level. 

 I've been having the worst luck with YA recently so I was really glad to be able to finish this one and enjoy it. Such a strange premise, but ultimately you get sucked into this world of witches and townsfolk who are desperate to save their island by any means. It gave me such Carmilla vibes--even though they weren't vampires--it had that dark, grittiness to it anyway that I couldn't stop enjoying.

All the characters were flawed in some way, though Lina could sometimes border on Mary Sue territory. I really liked Eva's character, though, and wished there was more of her POV in the book. It felt a bit lacking on her side.

It wasn't perfect by any means, but the enjoyment of it (and the decision to stay up late and finish it) was enough to get it a four star. 

 I'm still so surprised how little I've heard about this series! I was honestly blown away by this first installment, especially because the cheeky title made me think it was going to be more of a comedic sort of book, but it's definitely quite deep and full of the feels. I really, really loved this and all the characters were great in different ways. Very excited for the series to continue.

Audiobook narration was on point as well! Awesome accents all around, especially with those southern twangs. 

 I'm sorry, I just can't get past the same repeated phrase over and over again. Especially when it's so cheesy. The world is interesting enough, but I can't deal with the way the characters talk--especially when three different characters say the exact same fucking thing. 

 I'm so tired of trilogies. Some of these stories just stretch too long and what is in-between or at the end just isn't that good.

I honestly just didn't care for the end of all this. I think that constantly creating a new big bad that you have to fight after you finished with the one before doesn't work. If you have one that can work throughout the books, then fine, but the breaking up of antagonists in this series just didn't work for me.

I'm sad to not have enjoyed this much because the first book was so good to me, but then it took me like a year to read all of Shorefall and this one I just kind of forced myself through so I could say I was done with the series. 

 I'm not totally sure how I feel about this one because it took a lot of really important themes and basically glossed the fuck over all of it. I understand that we couldn't go day to day through Charlie's situation, but it was basically just a 'recap' through it and once again, it was told through Nick's eyes. Does no one else see how that's kind of fucked up? It's not Nick's story to tell and yet he keeps telling it.

When it came to Charlie's journal entry it was pretty much less detailed because Nick had already covered most of it so no need to rehash it all, yeah? Why is Nick continuing to tell us about Charlie's mental health? It is great that he's supportive, but it's still not his place to give us Charlie's story.

As someone who has suffered from depression for 10+ years, I would be extremely pissed if someone else tried to tell what <i>my</i> depression is, because it is <i>mine</i> and no one understands it more than I do.