I don't often read romance books but I think I really like them??? I found out about this book from a Booktuber who said that it brought drama and mess.

The growing love between Nathan and Rachel was hot and developed realistically inside the more telenovela drama happening around them. But I struggle to really put the drama at telenovela level. This isn't a critique on the book in the end but I could have done with more mess. All the characters felt real and believable and so it would have been interesting to see how they'd handle bigger dramas. The writing was funny and heartfelt. I rooted for the characters and if I'm rooting for a straight couple???? Babes something is afoot.

Really glad I went back to read this! Listening to the audiobook made much of the funny dialogue and writing land better. “the book is dark and there’s a lot of sex” that’s all I knew about it after forgetting it all when I read a quarter of the book when I was in high school. 

I enjoyed this! Intrigued by the sequels so maybe I’ll get around to that. 

A very unique premise that was refreshingly written. I was really drawn in by the believable characterization from the start. In the middle the book drags for a little bit and

I’m still not entirely sure how long the time skip was to Joseph’s section. Bc if M was like 18 looking I assume then how did his fiance not suspect something?

I just love a shipwreck story. 

Initial critique is that there are no footnotes or markers for the notes in the back. When I look, there are several notes per page (!!) but with no indication on the page. I would have liked to access the notes as I went. 

Cute as heck!!! It has been a while since I read volume 4 and this volume was a great refresher on how much I love the characters and writing in this series. 

As a teacher too, this series (both as comics and as a show) is a great resource for teens to explore these ideas and have examples on how to discuss the ebbs and flows of relationships. Like bro if I got something out of it about communication, then a teen could for sure. 

Bittersweet for the final volume next. I’ll need to dive into the novels maybe???

I enjoyed the exploration of friendship here. A heart-wrenching telling of the author’s friendship with Ken. I was holding out for this to be gay and it never did which is sad but I can’t knock the book for that. 

Writing was funny and poignant. I underlined and saved several quotes. 

“Even then, they understood that American life is unbounded promise and hypocrisy, faith and greed, new spectrums of joy and self-doubt, freedom enabled by enslavement. All of these things at once.”

“Friendship is about the willingness to know, rather than be known.”

“You draw on your students’ energies, and you learn just as much as you teach”

“I hadn’t known rolling a joint for someone else could communicate such compassion and deep care”

A banger!!!!

What a sequel. To best the first is hard and Cixin Liu really did it here. When we jumped forward in time we went much more futuristic sci fi and that’s my shit. I found the various wallfacer stories satisfying but it took us a long time to get there. The mind changing story mostly went nowhere.

were the people mostly mind swapped then? Bc they were so confident and so violently reacted to the battle at Jupiter?

Very curious about the third!

A relief of a read after the third book which didn’t wow me. This one felt more grounded and the characters were engaging to read. I liked the shift in perspective from third to first person, new to the series. 

I’m growing less amused or patient with the repetitive rule explanations. Reactions from the customers seem more appropriate at this point if it affects their decision to go to the past, as he did in one of the stories in this. But I don’t see why the rules are gone over again and again. I read in one of them that the stories of the first book were originally part of separately published chapters? Maybe? From a magazine or blog or something? So maybe it’s that? 

What a sequel!! This kept me fixated like the first one once the action started picking up. I read the first one a few years ago while teaching English so I kept thinking back to those classes as I read. 

I did pause for a long time about 60% of the way through. I was going to buddy read this with a buddy but she seems to not going to read it for forever. I started in the summer and decided to pause right when

Grant’s murder

happened. Shit was getting good so I told her I’d wait for her but as it came to needing something after Dark Forest, this felt perfect. Sorry, buddy 😅😅

The mystery takes a long time setting up. Breadcrumbs are laid out but come together in a satisfying way. The action, the heist, the mystery was fun to read while also being challenging emotionally. Boulley handles the topic well and with respect. 

The characters are complex like the first book and I’m still excited for the first book’s upcoming adaptation!

Immediate thoughts:
Big takeaway is that we better leave Britney tf alone!!! Let this woman live!!

Michelle Williams was an excellent narrator as well.