I'm not quite sure how I feel about this one. I like the ideas of the magic system, but I still feel unfulfilled by the end of the book. Even with discovering new magics or finding out new things about their abilities, you don't really understand it any more than you did from the start of the book, nor do you ever understand how or why the catalyst of the book happened. Without really knowing that, it feels like a cop-out to me; a way to have a big thing looming around without ever really having to explain it deeply or satisfyingly enough, but using it to propel your narrative and characters forward anyway.

I think I prefer Sarah's adult fiction better or maybe this one just didn't vibe with me as much; I'm not sure. I didn't feel too compelled to keep reading on and I was always hoping something a little more interesting was going to happen but it never did, nor did the magic ever make much sense. I did like the characters, though, and that was probably the main reason I kept reading. 

 I'm not a big space or plane buff, so I read this more as an interest in the history of women. And boy, nothing can get you fired up more than hearing how women lived back then and the bullshit they had to deal with on a daily basis. On more than one occasion I was completely incensed with the bullshit double standards men imposed on women back then without applying it to themselves.

Regardless, these women were brave and determined and I know that in the face of that sort of society, I would have crumbled. There's no way I could have the moxie to blaze my own trail through that muck of bullshit. Even though they were strong women, I don't think I would have cared for them personally. They were both petty in their own rights and it sounds like despite all they did, the end of their lives were left to obscurity. 

 I'm not a big fae reader, but this was recc'd by those I trusted and I wasn't let down. There wasn't a lot of weird language around gender and sexuality like I have heard happens in other fae-centric books--though at this point I am wondering if that is just straight books that have that unfortunate quality--and even though there were some high and mighty fae, things were pretty forward-facing for the most part in this book.

But yes, the story was good! I liked the characters. No one was perfect, everyone seemed rather interesting and flawed in their own ways, except for maybe the bad guys who were a little bit flat. I thought the magical world was pretty interesting and learning about magic and how it worked is fun too, especially the few bombs dropped there at the end of the book. It'll be fun to see how things go in the last book. Excited to read the conclusion in May! 

 I'm glad that I still read this even though some of my friend's reviews made me slightly weary. I think the only reason I didn't fall completely in love with this one was because of the second person narration, which was unnecessary, because it would have read the same in third person, and the whole "I'm gonna escape" plot line, which didn't add anything to the story. Otherwise, I really enjoyed this, though I kind of wish it had been told through the eyes of the women who had died rather than those close to them. 

 I'm a little annoyed at the ending not really having any questions answered, but hopefully the second book addresses them. 

 I would have considered this a four or five star read if it wasn't for the ending. I feel like this book makes you think it's going to be about one thing through 60% or so of it and then it just kind of veers into a completely different lane.

The characters were interesting, though, and I was mostly hoping for a more realistic horror aspect and not what things turned out to be at the end. I'm sure others will really love this, but I'm not much for

monsters with little explanation for why they exist.

Also the immense number of times that things were described as hungry made me feel icky. For the context in which it was said, it just felt gross--which I suppose works in the context of the characters and the situation, but the way it made me feel was uncomfy.

 

 I wish I had known this was included with my audiobook of Lock In (and was placed at the beginning of it and not at the end). I would have found it more useful to read before the book to grasp the history a bit sooner, I think. I figured it out along the way, of course, but when you start Lock In, the small summary is brief and I was still floundering for quite a while.

This is a really interesting way to give a history of the virus without being bland about it. Many people's stories provided in their own words (and via audiobook I feel like that comes across even better). I really enjoyed it! 

 I wasn't really interested in this one like I was Crouch's other books. It took me a long time to get through it and at some points I considered just not finishing it at all because it wasn't that interesting. I think it was probably the loss of the human element that made it something I didn't want to read. Most books I connect with because of the characters and when you start to take out their humanity, it makes it difficult for me to sympathize with them and eventually I just don't care about the plot either.

The ideas were there and it was vaguely interesting, but it just couldn't hold my attention like his other books always do. 

 I was really pleasantly surprised by this one. I didn't know it was contemporary, so that was the first surprise and made me a bit wary of how that would work with dragons in the mix, but I liked the way the magic in this world was built. There was a nice mixture of humor and character and family and nothing really felt too slow or too rushed to me.

I liked most of the characters and how they developed and changed and wouldn't really mind seeing more writing based in this world, though this work stood well on its own. It didn't blow me away, but I don't have any real bad things to say about it. A nice, enjoyable read! 

 I was pretty excited about this one because I'm a big fan of werewolves, but it was a pretty big yikes for me. It reminded me a lot of Riverdale in some ways, where the characters were terrifyingly annoying as hell and had hardly any redeeming qualities... and yet Becca never wised up to it and stuck with them for the sake of being popular even though it was kinda clear she didn't really even like it that much.

There were a lot of microaggressions thrown around in this book, whether it was about race or sexual orientation, but it was never addressed and definitely not corrected and it made me extremely uncomfortable (and I'm white). What was worse was that most of it came from Becca's so-called love interest and were directed at her. There was just a huge disrespect for the main black character in the book

and I think the author was attempting to make it seem like she was being powerful and making a choice for herself at the end, but really she was forced to because ultimately her 'friends' fucking sucked. So she winds up being the one who is 'alone and unhappy' yet she was probably the smartest and luckiest one to get the fuck out of dodge. Yet she was treated as the bad guy to be unforgiven when all she did was stick to the so-called rules that they had agreed to in the first place and stand up to the Alpha because of that. She was legitimately right and they made it seem like she was somehow wrong? I don't really understand.

This also tries to address things like female empowerment and sisterhood, yet they call one another fat for being "size four", call their classmates fat, continue to date guys who cheat on them for social status and lines on their college applications???

I finished this because I was hoping it would redeem itself somehow. It didn't. However the artist gets their credit for their work, as it is great and if it wasn't for that, the story would probably be unreadable, truthfully.