coolfoolmoon's Reviews (357)

emotional reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Ever since this book came out all I've heard is people wahwahwah about the incest when there is a MUCH LARGER, MORE IMPORTANT THEME AND PLOT POINT to the story. AND!!! Emezi says the two books that inspired this one in the acknowledgements!!! They did the work for you and people still didn't get it!!!! You people make me sick. You lack media literacy, reading comprehension, AND critical thinking skills.

Akwaeke Emezi, the person that you are. You've done it yet again. I can't wait to read all their books. They are truly amazing.

In my notes I put Vivek was her grandma reincarnated. The grandma the baby. This may have been intentional but if it's not I'm saying it as fact!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous informative reflective relaxing fast-paced

Very cool to be a marine biologist AND a good writer. This lady hit the lotto.

I loved the book and all but it's glaring that she didn't mention the Indigenous people of this area. She does mention white settler colonialism ruining / affecting wildlife and urban sprawl, and mentions how animals reclaimed a little bit of what their lives used to be during 2020 lockdowns, but again, NO mention of the Tongva people. Very weird. Treehugging white liberals seem to always miss that. It's also more than just forgetting people were in LA before us, because she does mention what this beautiful Mediterranean-esque landscape used to look like, and then in the end says people need to learn that we cannot be removed from nature, but never mentions the people who already knew that. For a researcher she's missing a huge part of history.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
reflective fast-paced

Great art. Beautiful art.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This book was mentioned by one of my film professors in our class about the Hollywood blacklist era and I'm so glad I remembered it. You can see why HUAC hated his ass he was a genius!

The audiobook was performed so well but also the intro from the mom really made me emotional. Then I was like fuck this book is gonna fuck me up too isn't it? And then it did. I didn't cry but you really feel every emotion. A book that can truly be universally understood.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
reflective tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

SO short! Too short! I still have questions!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
lighthearted reflective fast-paced

I don't think the title fully fits, but it's evoking the poem which is evoking a storm, and that's what's perfect. Beautiful photos. The poem parts that weren't from Henson's journals at one point started to feel like nonsense.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional reflective tense medium-paced

All these poems are lovely. Like heartbreaking but wonderful.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Meg, you owe me for emotional damages! You owe me for something! My time back! I am owed!!!

Sick and twisted! But the book isn't bad. The best part is the creative writing. Extremely, vividly, wildly creative. 

This should be a lesson to all parents: if you're a bad enough parent your family tree might end up looking like a diamond!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging funny informative inspiring tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

What an amazing and PERFECT book!!! I was imagining the book being taught in English classes and how this would've made me so excited to read. I was so excited to read it at 24 years old, I read it without the audiobook! What a cool challenge to have kids try to write without certain letters! The history of the island is also interesting too, which meant for students learning bigger, more archaic words! I knew I was gonna give it 5 stars before I was 25 pages in. 

It's also a good representation of so many things kids will encounter as they get older. Idol worship / fanaticism / religious cults, fascism and political activism against it. What a perfect book! What a perfect book!!!

Unrelated to the book, whenever I get a new pen I always tested it by writing "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." I find out IMMEDIATELY I've been writing the sentence wrong FOR YEARS!!!!! I know there was a time when I wrote it right! What happened!!!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

So dramatic. I liked it better than the second book but not enough that I want to read the fourth book that's gonna come out. I take back what I said in my review for the first book.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings