courtknee__vn's Reviews (677)

This one has always been one of my least favorite Sarah Dessen books but it’s still a great book, especially for its time! 

This book was heartbreaking but so inspiring! I can’t even comprehend what it would be like to grow up and having to fight for your right to just be alive and have basic necessities in the way that Palestinian people have to. It’s unbelievably unfair and disgusting and I don’t understand how we’ve let this happen for so long. The genocide going on currently just makes everything even more devastating! I think it’s especially incredible how positive Ahed has been able to stay throughout everything her and her family have been through and how she’s still able to hold onto hope through it all! This is such an important read for everyone, especially now!! 

Finally starting my Sarah Dessen rereads (and first reads for 3 including this one!) and I’m just so happy to be back in her worlds! While I think I would’ve loved this more if I had actually read it as a teenager, it was still a solid debut and made me feel the same way all of Sarah’s books have! I was able to relate to Haven a lot in the way that she tried to make sure everyone around her was happy even when she wasn’t, in the way she tried to shrink into herself as she grew more and more, and feeling so far behind everyone around her. Can’t wait to continue this journey down memory lane with Someone Like You up next! 

This book was beautiful! It explored so much including race, sexuality, mental health, figuring out what you want from life, and the loneliness of the human experience. Learning about yourself and finding people that understand you and accept the things they don’t understand is so important to being alive. And just because something unknown and different, it doesn’t mean it will be bad! Just a beautiful story all around 🧡

“I think lonely creatures ache for each other because who else can understand but someone who feels the same dark, black abyss?”

This was so cute!! I definitely understand why it’s a fan favorite! Beck & Jacobs were so fun, both when they hated each other and when they fell in love. I loved seeing how their relationship progressed as they slowly opened up to each other and how they were both able to make each other even better than before! Just super cute and very excited to start book 3 now! 🥰

I truly don’t know why it took me so long to finally pick up this book but omg it was beautiful 🥺 like truly heartbreaking but still beautiful and hopeful! This book is about so much but the heart of the story is love. Finding love, accepting love in all its forms, and letting yourself love. While the main storyline was Hannah & Baker coming to terms with their feelings for each other and learning to reconcile those feelings with everything that they’ve been told love should be by the church and the world, it was also about platonic, familial, and self love. Every type of love is important and learning that is so crucial. And while these characters were messy and complicated, it was so easy to root for them all every step of the way! 

So happy to be back in this world (yes I am reading the sadenverse series’ backwards 🙈) and I loved this one so much!! Foster & Zach were so sweet and getting to see them fit together so perfectly even thought they are so different just made me so happy! I’m so excited to continue the rest of the series!! 

This was a fantastic “conclusion” to this wonderfully fun series!! I’m very excited to read the other series’ in this world and then come back to the newer Percy books eventually too! But I really really loved this series and I’m so glad I finally picked them up! ☺️

This was truly the easiest 5 stars I’ve given all year! Like yall, this book is SO GOOD!! I already know I’m not gonna have the words to accurately explain how much I loved this book or give it to praise it deserves but I’m still gonna try! First, I’m just gonna predict right now that this book with be, at least, in my top 3 reads for the year (which is a big thing to say at the beginning of February but it’s seriously just that good)! 

Second, Julie & Elle were both such easy characters to root for on their own and together from the very start! They were both so well fleshed out, so relatable, so vulnerable and flawed, and I just really loved both of them so much! I loved getting to see both of their journeys evolve as the story progressed and even though they both had such different life experiences and different struggles, they also had similar trajectories and vulnerabilities. Julie learning to trust herself and take herself seriously while discovering new things about herself and accepting that her journey is her journey and she doesn’t have to constantly compare herself to everyone around her was beautiful! Elle finding her way back to basketball and learning to love it in a new way while taking care of Vanessa and doing so many things that she never did expected to be doing, all while also dealing with mental illness and chronic pain was beautiful! Watching them both, slowly and quickly, fall in love with each other and learning to trust each other was so beautiful, in the messiest way! I also loved the team so much and even though they weren’t the main focus of the book, I wanted the best things for them too and honestly could read whole books about each of them! 

Third, this world of books that Anita Kelly has created with L&OD, SW&W, & HYGTG has been such a joy to follow these last few years and I’m gonna miss it so much but I think this was a perfect conclusion to them all! The epilogue was such a beautiful way to really pay tribute to these characters and leave us in the most satisfying place. 🧡 

Lastly, I think mental health & the queer experience have been handled so well in these stories (and in such different ways) and I truly cannot wait to read every single thing Anita writes in the future! Please please pick up this book when you can, you will not regret it!! 🧡