coolfoolmoon's Reviews (357)

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I've been reading physical books along with audiobooks for about two months now and not logging the audiobooks but this edition is longer than the book with extra content so. Yeah. I've already left a review on the book so wow. Just wow. Amazing. What a novel. A little more insight on Amy at the end there wow I love it.
adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

None of this would've ever happened if not for the 2008 housing crisis.

Picture this. You're me. You're in biology class. it's 2014. Your teacher overhears you say you wanna be a writer or you wanna make movies when you get older. She tells you "Oh my gosh, I just saw this movie you'd really like." She softly, accidentally spoils the plot twist, but it's okay you know enough about tv amd movies to know nobody ever really dies except Uncle Ben. So you shrug it off and say, "Okay, I'll still watch it." And then she says, "It was based on a book." brcause she knows you like books. And then she goes, "Oh, wait! It's really mature... Maybe you shouldn't watch it." How old was I in 2014 you ask? FOURTEEN !!! 

Honestly I was reading way worse stuff back then and I've calmed down now. But anyway.

That was, and I don't mean this lightly, pretty fucking amazing. The first third is pretty slow but it pays off so well. And then the second part being titled "Boy Meets Girl"? Even though they've known each other seven years?? Shut the fuck up it's literally true. Wow. And also, amazing.

Every crazy sociopathic calculated woman deserves her own pathetic spineless weasel of a man. Her own puppet.

And even after all that, she wasn't racist? My bar has been met. I love it.

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funny lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The cover is misleading. Not in a bad way. He's holding Thor's hammer but he doesn't dress as Thor, which maybe would've worked in the story's favor. I came for friends to lovers and got it but the rest of the plot I didn't care much for. I was pretty much skimming to the next romantic scene. Which I guess means I should read more romance?

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dark emotional sad 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: Yes

The better the book, the less I have to say about it. Wow. I would highly recommend this and honestly I'll probably even buy it but oh my god I don't think I could read this again. I'll need a couple years. Wow.

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emotional funny 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

Teenage me would've loved this.

I think the movie warped my  little baby brain, so then I ended up liking stuff like The Help and Hairspray, which I absolutely was obsessed with. But the focus on women, bees, connections to mothers and ancestry and selfs... Like ancestry lives within you and also you are your own mother... That white lady kinda popped off writing this. She kinda had a point to make. She kinda dotted her i's and crossed her t's. She kinda had her cake and ate it too. She kinda gobbled ate right the fuck up left no crumbs. She kinda did her thing.

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Okay.

I like stories with kids uncovering forgotten histories and secrets, especially in this place with its feeling of being a forgotten land. Don't like the manic pixie dream next door, but hell it was written in the 90s I'll cut it some slack. I judge books by their covers and I bought this as a teen because it was beautiful. The book itself is nice, fine. Feels like a debut novel. So much of the backstories being told in the form of dialogue instead of just switching perspectives to tell the story in the past took me out of it. If I'm thinking "People don't talk like this!" whenever I read something, I know I'm taking points off. I don't like how quick the ending was, but only because you didn't really get to sit with the main character and the titular character after the mystery's been solved. So it's a fine book like it's okay. It's whatever. I'm being harsh. It's alright.

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Something's missing. I found myself confused through most the book, and not in the normal way that I like to be confused whenever I'm reading magical realism. Something's just not there. I'm not sure what it is, or if this even makes sense, but I realized it about a quarter of the way through, and that feeling just lingered the rest of the time. I would say maybe I need to reread it in the future, but who knows if I will. The subject matter of slavery is already so triggering for me, but with the rest of the triggering content I know I won't pick it up again for, mm, maybe three years minimum. Not to say that the content is explicit or overt, that's just how triggers are, in general.

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

🎬RE👏🏾PRE🎬SEN👏🏾TA🎬TION👏🏾 🎬MAT👏🏾TERS🎬 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 REPRESENTATION MATTERS !!!

One of the best details that gave it extra points is that it's about the same time reading as it would be for an actual script for a regular feature length film. 5 stars for the audiobook. Of the few audiobooks I've listened to, they're produced very dry, just a persom reading to you, but this one has sounds effects and little fun details that make the already vibrant story really come alive.

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

JAN 2023 REVIEW:
This is the hardest review I've ever had to write.

This is the best book I've ever read.

This is the hardest review for me because I don't know what to say. I don't know how to say it all. It's too good. I can't talk about the amazing writing, the beautiful imagery, the twists the turns I fell for every time. It's so personal. It's everything I've ever been looking for. Not even a quarter of the way through I was recommending it to people. Please, please, do yourself a favor, please, read this masterpiece. Buy this masterpiece. Listen to the audio of this masterpiece! Thank me later. I love you.

~~~

NOV 2024 REVIEW:

I first read this before starting my master's degree. Now I'm done. Crazy! I love this book so much. I feel like I should read it after every milestone. I'm gonna get a heart feather scales tattoo next!

I love this book so much it makes me mad. I wish I wrote it. I hope to write something half as good someday!

Also, this was written in the shadow of Trump's 2016 election and I reread it in the shadow of... oh god please don't make me say it... Even with both perspectives, the book just gets better and better. A fine fine wine.

Erin E. Adams you will ALWAYS be famous!!!!!

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

You tease me with a threesome mention and don't make it gay?! How dare!!!
This could've been werewolf Jennifer's Body! (And I include that as a spoiler because just after I asked myself "Who bit her? Who turned her?" I flipped to the last page to see what the last line of the book is and... well... spoilers for that.)


There's clearly a lot of love for the werewolf genre but the story was just fine. I didn't make the connection to the larger themes until after the sort-of climax. And I mean way after. Like, I was reading the last paragraph of the book. And no, I don't mean the last page of the story, I mean the last paragraph of the Acknowledgements section.
Usually, writers (of books, tv, and movies) put in a plot line including sexual assault as a gimmick, like "Look at me, I can mention a super serious topic so you, the audience, have to take me serious now too." Harrison doesn't do that here, and the conversations between Rory, Mia, and Cyndi are treated with care and respect, but the connection between transforming and raging and healing from previous anger wasn't really there for me, until I read that last bit about how The Body Keeps the Score was an influence.


I have never really been a werewolf girlie, but I did watch Teen Wolf all the way through even when it got bad. Those are some of the most exciting and fun parts of the book, even when it gets a little spooky scary ew that's gross.

It's also kinda written like there was room given for a sequel? If that's the case, the book is good enough that I would read that too.

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