coralinejones's Reviews (556)

don't care. don't wanna read graphic rape scenes either

I'm in this weird middle area where 28 pages in this book made me cry and I was highlighting nearly everything. I felt the words on my page with my entire heart and I had a feeling this book would destroy me while also teaching me something about myself? The people around me?

What ended up happening was this book transformed into a sitcom. A blabbering, annoying expedition about unlikeable, unrealistic, nonsensical, argumentative characters who just said and did literally anything... Because... Humor? This book wasn't funny to me.

I don't want to say my humor is strict, but I HATE corny, quirky, millennial humor and this book is just that. The interrogations (or, rather, interviews) were the WORST. I know the author and his characters were being very on the nose here by pointing out how these people are idiots, and how these interviews were some of the worst these policemen have ever given, but it became too much after a while.

It's a shame because we started out with so much heart; genuine beautiful writing from the first page. I loved how everyone's story started to mesh and combine into one. Then, like I said, it kind of just turned to shit? Like if you were an amateur painter and accidentally mixed one too many colors together. Then you tried correcting your mistakes but now your painting is one brown mess. There's still beauty here, to some, and it was going so well, initially, but the end result is what it is. Some may love it, others may appreciate it, some may give it the benefit of the doubt.

A Stephen King book I actually enjoyed? Is it true?

I debated my rating while reading this book, ngl. The beginning was SO solid for me. Absolutely 5 stars. I adored the set up and thought I was in for a wild ride, and while the ride was crazy and interesting, it stalled and felt a little stale for a good chunk in the middle. It had everything I typically dislike about Stephen King novels. Bloat. A lot of people attribute this to his world building but, I personally, did not care for so much explanation of Jake's day-to-day knowing what the bigger plot of this novel was going to be. 

I also wasn't expecting romance to be such a huge topic of discussion. If you know me, you know that romance tends to weigh down books for me. I don't necessarily mind romance when it's a minor subplot, but the romance here took over so much of the narrative I kind of didn't care.... But the fact that a Stephen King novel was able to capture my overall attention and cause me to read this at every given second because I HAD to finish... 4 stars

OKAY DON'T KILL ME. WAIT LET ME EXPLAIN!

I absolutely could not stand the pacing of this book. I know in fantasy, or really any series, the second book is oftentimes used as filler so when the story progresses there's meat for books three and four. I get that! But the amount of BLOAT that's in this book ripped me to shreds in a bad way. This novel is almost 900 pages long and nearly half I did not care about. I don't understand why, either. I loved book one and thought the pacing and everything was spectacular. I was gripped and couldn't believe how the book ended. But book two? I couldn't wait for this to end.

First of all, Vin kept getting on my nerves. Considering how much development she's gotten since the beginning of the story, I don't understand why/how she's still really naive? She makes such stupid choices. I know she's a teenager but I feel like, because of her upbringing, how smart she was in all of book one, and how much safer and protected she is in this book her personality and actons would switch up a bit? But no. I also HATED the romance in this one. I didn't like Elend in book one but understood why he was there. In this one he felt like the most incompetent ass character amongst them all, and so much of the narrative revolves around him. And the love triangle? Please.

Funnily enough, I actually liked Zane more than Elend and found him compelling and interesting to read at least...

Sorry to be the outlier. I continued to read because I do plan on moving onto book three, as others said it's loads better, but I am beyond disappointed in this one.

i don't even care to slog through this and potentially put myself in a deeper slump for no reason 

Beautifully written; a remaking of a classic, "Little Women", and yet I found myself bored for a good chunk of this novel's runtime.

That fact alone upsets me as I was pretty obsessed with what this book had going for it once I started it. I declared this read a 5 star and was preparing to purchase a physical copy for my collection. I loved learning about William and felt for him dearly. Julia was interesting to me in her college days and their romance was quite cute (coming from someone who tends to hate romance 80% of the time). I had a feeling of, "Yes, this is what reading's all about!" and had many highlights up until William hurt himself, by which I started to piece together some plots, figuring out what was to come, and then became bored.

Now, I wasn't bored because the plot was predictable to me, I was bored because there were several times the book could've just ended and it didn't. I was bored because Julia's actions didn't make much sense to me and she frustrated me time and time again. I was bored because the book kept leading me on and on and on... And on and on. It took forever to get to where I knew it was going and I barely cared by that point.

Regardless, I enjoyed the nods to Little Women. I loved discovering bits and pieces about this dysfunctional family even if they got under my skin at times. Despite not loving this book like I initially thought I would, I will miss these characters when I start my next read.

God, I love Millie.

I'm surprised I liked this book as much as I did. Maybe it's because I'm a little too much like Millie, I have to admit... I could not find it in me to hate her, the world was cruel to her and she had every reason to act the way she did. In fact, Sarah was worse!

I've read many of these "sad, depressed, cynical girl" books and while many of them feel the same (unnecessarily gross, annoying, and abnormal), this book no different; in fact many times it reminded me of All's Well by Mona Awad, however I can't help but mention how likeable Butler made her main lead compared to the other books in this sub-genre. I think too many authors get caught up in making their characters so unlikeable that it makes their entire novel hard-to-read... Annoying to get through. A chore, really. But Millie was so easy to understand and relate to. She really didn't do much to warrant the way people treated her and her reactions to the world around her was straightforward to me!

I get her! Fuck capitalism! 

I'm very disappointed in this. Breasts and Eggs was a read I was highly anticipating for a long time. The cover is so gorgeous and I've heard nothing but raving reviews about the commentary here. Unfortunately, after book one ends-Breasts-and we submerge ourselves into book two-Eggs-, the story changes so drastically that all my previous enjoyment got thrown out the window. I almost forgot why I was enjoying the novel in the first place.

To start, Breasts is a novella about a small family of women. Natsu, her older sister, and her niece. There's a lo about growing up poor, the mistakes mother's may make with their children, the struggles of poverty and self-image, especially as women get older. It was all very engaging. However, there was a scene at the end of chapter three that felt a little transphobic, to say the least. That aside, learning about Japanese society for single-women in the twenties and thrities and how they may struggle captured my attention. Some parts were even relatable.

Then we get to Eggs. Ughhhh.

Now we follow Natsu a few years later as she expresses her desire to become a mother. She's a published novelist and her sister and niece are nowhere to be found, at least for a good chunk of the book's remaining runtime. Odd. She does not like having sex and is navigating Japan trying to get on board with donor sperm insemination. This, despite many people's negative opinions on the procedure, including kid's who never knew their real father's/families because of this? I don't know. I'm sure there was something there, but again, I did not care.

Each passage is so long and meandering I can't help but call them boring. Maybe it's because I care so little about motherhood and wanting kids; so much, if not all of, Eggs was about Natsu wanting to have children of her own, whilst disliking intercourse; I wanted to bang my head against the wall.

In fact, there's an entire scene where Natsu is speaking to a donor and I kid you not he talks on and on about his sperm and how good it is. How fascinated he is about his own cum and how he has power fantasies about impregnating women because of how power his sperm was. He just kept TALKING. I was so tired of it.

Both halves of the book don't really come together in any way that's significant or meaningful to me. Eggs is twice as long as Breasts and didn't have anything interesting to say in comparison. I think Breasts is the only part of the book with reading and I wished the author either continued with that novella or simply published it on it's own.

I guess.