2.5 Stars

I wrote a long, detailed critique of this but was interrupted before I got a chance to save it and it was lost. So this is going to be short and to the point. I didn’t like this book. I respect the author for writing about something that was very personal for her, but I didn’t think this book was well-executed. The writing was very simplistic (lots of telling instead of showing), the characters weren’t well-developed, and the characters actions made no sense to me. Also, we had several annoying tropes used throughout that contributed to my dislike:
1. Miscommunication as a plot device
2. True love cures all
3. Illness used as a plot device/plot twist

I don’t see myself picking up more from this author. I didn’t connect at all to the writing. I do understand why some would like this, but it wasn’t for me at all.

2.5 Stars.
When I read Letters to the Lost earlier this year (twice) I absolutely loved it. I was so excited for this companion, especially knowing it was about Rev, who is Declan’s best friend in LTTL.
Unfortunately, I don’t feel like it quite lived up to the hype I’d created in my own mind. It ended up being just okay for me.

What I liked:
Rev. I still liked Rev quite a bit. He does do things in this book that were incredibly frustrating, but when you dig into the psychology of it, his reactions are totally understandable. He experienced severe trauma over the course of the first seven years of his life at the hands of a biological father who was pure evil. That kind of abuse is going to stick with you, I don’t care who you are. It would make sense that he wouldn’t want to let anyone in on what was going on.
I also liked the subplot of his parents bringing in a foster child who was close in age with Rev. I like that Rev was given a glimpse into what his life could’ve been if he hadn’t had his parents take him in. Now, I wouldn’t say he was ‘lucky’, like some of the characters in the book say. A lucky child wouldn’t have been consistently abused over the course of his childhood. But seeing how much worse it could’ve been, I think getting to know Matthew (the foster brother) ended up giving Rev some perspective. I do wish we would’ve had a bit more development in their relationship.
Also, I love Geoff and Kristin and how much they love and accept Rev, Matthew, and every child they take in. I wish that more foster parents were like that in real life. I wish more BIO parents were like that in real life. It would be a much happier world.

2. Declan. I loved Declan in LTTL, and he was great in this book as well. I love that their roles have reversed a bit, with Declan being the emotional support for Rev this time around. Like Rev’s parents, I love that Declan accepts Rev, no questions asked. Even after Rev lashes out, Declan’s first reaction is to make sure his friend is okay because he know that it isn’t like him to act that way. They are friendship goals.

What I didn’t like:

1. Emma. My problems with this book pretty much boil down to my distaste for Emma. Maybe I’m just getting too old, but I couldn’t stand her. She was thoroughly unlikeable for about 80% of the book. It’s too bad, because I liked the idea that she was a gamer and into coding and all of that. Unfortunately, the bits that I liked were totally overshadowed by her incessant whining and self-pitying nonsense.
She treats everyone around her — her parents, Rev, her best friend Cait — like garbage. I get that she is going through a stressful time. She is being harassed by someone online. I totally get that it could be stressful, not to mention scary, to have someone sending vaguely threatening messages that get worse and worse over time.
But, and this is a big but, she doesn’t tell her parents or her supposed best friend because...reasons...and then gets snarky and petulant when they try to have a conversation with her. It just doesn’t make sense. Her reasoning for keeping quiet just didn’t sit with me. She was afraid her mother wouldn’t let her game anymore if she told her someone was harassing her. Okay. That’s a case of needing to straighten out her priorities, but whatever. But to not tell her friend, and then snipe at her friend every chance she gets...Emma is a shitty friend. Sorry, not sorry. She spends the entire book acting petty and jealous toward Cait because of her assumption that Cait has a ‘perfect life’. She doesn’t even tell her best friend when her parents split up.
And then the way she talks to her mother. Oh my goodness. At one point, her mother disconnects the router so Emma can’t get on the internet. Later in the book, after she’s been a rude little B-face to her mother for the 625th time, she says, “If you turn off the internet again I’ll hack into your computer and delete everything.” No. Hell no. I would not only take my child’s computer away, but I would also take her door. That shit is a privilege, not a right. Again, maybe it’s the mom in me, but that would not fly in my house. Anyway, Emma spends the entire book lamenting her awful situation, meanwhile Rev is actually going through some incredibly traumatic stuff. And the thing is, a character being cyber-stalked/bullied is a great idea for a novel. But so little of Emma’s focus is actually on the bully. Most of it is her complaining that her mom is making her miserable by wanting her to be a productive member of society and refusing to stay in a marriage that is a complete dumpster fire. And when the ‘twist’ at the end happens (a twist I called from almost the first page) it just goes to prove her mother right. But of course, that’s never really brought up.
I just don’t like her. I think Rev deserves better than her. Yes, she did have a slight redemption, but very slight. I feel like her character at its core is very selfish and spoiled.

2. Repetition. This book felt very repetitive to me in a number of ways. First off, in the narrative itself. Emma/Rev would receive threatening note. Emma/Rev would be found obsessing over the note by one of their loved ones. Instead of telling loved one what was going on, they would lie. Then they would freak out and have a melt down and then apologize. Over and over again.
They were able to tell each other, sometimes. But then they would start sniping at one another and fight. Then they’d make up. Then they’d fight. Then make up. It was ridiculous.
There was also repetition in the way Emma and Rev’s stories mirrored each other. I am assuming this was done intentionally, but it didn’t work for me, for a number of reasons. One, it became boring. It seemed unnecessary to have both Emma’s and Rev’s POV when their stories and actions were so similar. True, the specific motivations for those actions differed, but not much. They were both afraid because they were being harassed via the Internet. Neither one wanted to confide in anyone. Neither had the emotional capacity to deal with their situations. I feel like 50 pages could’ve been cut from this book and it would’ve been the same book.

3. The romance. I wanted good things for Rev. He is such a sweet person and deserves so much good. I really didn’t like Emma, so I had a difficult time rooting for these two. I also felt like they jumped into a very serious and intense relationship very quickly. And to be honest, even though they could be honest with each other before anyone else, there wasn’t much in their relationship that could be labeled ‘functional’. Maybe if we’d gotten a chapter or two or at least an epilogue of Emma not being a selfish, petty person and the two of them having a real relationship I would’ve liked it more. But as it was, I was very dissatisfied.

This review bums me out. I really thought I was going to love this book. And there are parts I still think are well-written. If this book had focused on just Rev and his family dynamic, I think it would’ve been much stronger.

3.75 Stars
This is a ‘Young Adult’ book, but does have themes that may be a bit mature for people on the young side of young adult...if that makes any sense.

Full review to come.

TW: Self-harm, physical abuse

This book is such a mixed bag for me. My first inclination is to give it three stars, but the more I think about it, the more I don't like it. I guess we'll see where I'm at by the end of this review.

I loved...LOVED The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. It was so beautiful and whimsical and tragic all at the same time. Walton's prose was just amazing and the story itself felt like a modern fairy tale. When I heard about PGTTO, I immediately put it on hold at my local library.

Unfortunately, After a solid beginning and interesting set up, this book lost its way and I was very disappointed with the execution.

What I liked:

1. The premise. There was so much potential for this to be an amazing book. I haven't read many books recently about witches, but this was intriguing to me. The prologue was absolutely the high point of this story. Unfortunately, after the prologue was over there was still 260ish pages to go.


What I didn't like:

1. The writing. I almost put this in the 'liked' category, because there were some passages that were truly beautiful. Unfortunately, this lacked the magic that I was expecting from the person who captured my bookish heart with Ava Lavender, which is really disappointing. Maybe it's unfair to compare PGTTO to TSABSOAL, but the latter was so freaking beautiful on every page. It was so ethereal and dreamlike. I did not get that from Price Guide. There were some lovely turns of phrase, and the beginning was pretty strong, but after the initial set up it really fell off for me.

2. The plot. Really, there isn't much of a plot followed in this book. When I first started reading, I thought that it would revolve around the curse, which was intriguing to me. However, it quickly turned into a messy story about Nor's mother being a sadistic psychopath. The 'curse' was basically ignored after that.

3. The pacing. This book is only 270 pages. It felt like a 400 page book to me. For whatever reason, it just moves really slowly. I think part of that is that not much actually happens in this book. There is quite a bit of info-dumping that Walton isn't able to integrate into the story in an interesting way. At the end of the day, it was a bit of a struggle for me to keep going with this book. I had to make myself keep reading at some points.

4. The characters. I didn't connect with Nor at all. She was fine, but I didn't really feel any strong emotion about her. Even the passages where she is talking about the fact that she has been a cutter in the past. That should evoke some sort of emotion, right? And that's not to say that the psychology behind the writing wasn't accurate. But I just didn't feel anything. And I wanted to, so badly. Also, I didn’t like that Nor never actually deals with the fact that she has this urge, which I think could be harmful to readers who have similar urges.

None of the side characters are well-developed. I liked Judd, but not overly so. Most of the rest of the cast was pretty non-descript. And there were a lot of secondary characters. A lot of secondary characters with strange names. I kept forgetting who people were because they all kind of blended in together. Maybe if the story had been told in first person I would've been able to connect to Nor. Keeping the entire story in third person created a bit of a distance for me.

Also, Nor being this overpowered witch who doesn't really understand her powers but they manifest at exactly the right moment to save the day...convenient huh?

5. The villain. Yes, Fern is also a character, so I suppose this could've gone under characters, but Fern deserves her own entrance in the dislike category, that's how poorly executed she was. I still have no idea why she did what she did. At one point, we are given some lame attempt at an excuse about toxic love being her motivation, but that just doesn't do it for me. She wasn't given any depth whatsoever. In the beginning we're told that she's always been selfish and took what she wanted. THAT ISN'T PROPER MOTIVATION FOR KILLING HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE AND TERRORIZING YOUR DAUGHTER. Sorry, not sorry.

6. Romantic subplots. Insta-love, lack of tension, lack of chemistry, lack of development. And that's just her relationship with Reed. I never trusted Reed for some reason. Even now that the book is over, I still don't. This 'romance' was so lackluster. I would've preferred watching a dishmop make out with a garbage bag. Don't even get me started on Gage, who I actually felt had a bit of chemistry with Nor, but was completely underutilized. What is the point of introducing romantic elements to the story (indeed, as a major part of the curse she laid out for us at the beginning of the book) if she wasn't going to pay it off at all. All of those threads are completely dropped in favor of the Mommie Dearest storyline.

7. The ending. It was so rushed and anti-climactic. Also, since I had a difficult time connecting to any of the characters, the peril they did find themselves in didn't worry me at all. And

Nor killing her mother without even trying was just...no

8. The epilogue. Totally unnecessary. And who was the creepy guy? I'm not actually wanting more of this story, but to introduce some creeper in the last page of the book and expect me to give a shit is absolutely ridiculous. The more I write about the things I dislike, the more I dislike the book.

Other odds and ends:

1. What the heck was the significance of the claw Reed gave Nor? That is never paid off at all.

2. Why have a curse if you aren't going to pay it off in some way? Either have your characters break it or succumb to it. I would've much preferred if the book focused on the curse and Nor trying to break it.

I guess that was my biggest problem with this book. There are too many loose threads and things that are set up and never paid off.

I will still try Leslye Walton's next book and hope that this one was just a fluke somehow. This just didn't do it for me.

DNF Page 135.
Felt like page 335.

I normally don’t rate books I DNF, but I read a large chunk of this book. I skimmed the rest and since then I’ve read spoilery reviews and know that it’s just not going to be a story I will ever like. I am fully prepared to concede that this is a case of ‘it’s not you, it’s me’. That being said, I do not get the hype.

The endless amounts of text on the page with almost no dialogue makes this a difficult narrative to get through. That being said, if the development of the characters had been...present...maybe I could’ve been okay with the structure. But there is so little attention paid to the many (MANY) characters that I honestly had trouble keeping them all straight. The women were there mostly as sexual objects for the men. The only one who was truly differentiated for me was Rebecca...because she ate dirt and sucked her thumb. Not exactly a stellar character.

The characters are written in such a detached way. There is almost no dialogue in this story, and what is there is essentially pointless. It doesn’t add anything to the narrative. It doesn’t provide any insight into the motivations of any specific character. I felt zero connection to any of them. For a book with so many characters...that’s not good.

There is also zero plot to this book, or if there is, it happens after page 135. Now, I’m not saying I need to have a plot-heavy, action-packed story. If the characters and the world are well-developed, I can forgive a mediocre or even non-existent plot. But as I said before, I found the characters lacking.

As far as the world-building, I wasn’t impressed. I enjoy magical realism. But I think my tastes run more toward the whimsical side of the genre. I didn’t get that at all in this story. Yes there were magical aspects to these characters and their surroundings, but I didn’t feel engaged at all while reading this story. The only part that mildly intrigued me was when the town came down with insomnia sickness. That passage was actually interesting. I actually think that would be an interesting concept for a story all in its own. But it only lasts a moment and then we move right along.

That leads me to what might be my biggest issue with this book. It is almost as if we are reading a history of this town rather than a narrative we are supposed to connect to. Despite some really lovely sentences, most of this book is telling, not showing us the world and the characters. As the reader, I felt like there was no room to just enjoy this world because of the rambling dense structure. There’s nothing wrong with letting a moment breathe. But there is none of that to be found in this book.

I don’t see myself going back to ever finish this book. I appreciate that many consider it to be an important and amazing piece of literature. It just doesn’t work for me.

DNF’d Page 62.

Where, oh where do I start? There is an author’s note at the beginning of this book saying that she wrote this before cell phones, internet, etc. Basically, she is excusing the lack of technology in this book, as if that is its biggest issue.

This book is a flipping mess. The characters are paper thin and insipid. The romance is non-existent. The tropes are plentiful. Worst of all, it’s over 400 pages long. There is no way I would’ve made it.

Our leading lady has the ‘not-like-other-girls’ trope down to an art form.

Our leading man, along with his brother, are misogynistic dicks who compare and insult women while being nothing more than just a couple man-whores.
Max in particular is a hypocritical piece of shit. He makes a comment about he actively hates women who smoke. The next chapter, he is smoking. I personally think smoking is absolutely disgusting, but fuck this guy.
Ross, our leading man, isn’t much better. He makes a comment to a waitress at his hotel that she shouldn’t worry about old rich guys physical groping her while she’s working. He tells her it’s actually her fault for “having such a pinchable bum.” 😡 Is that supposed to be charming? Because it’s not. It’s sexual fucking harassment.

Tessa is insipid and annoying. Not only does Ross see her as ‘not like other girls’, but you can tell by the way she’s written that she sees herself that way as well. I saw no chemistry between her and Ross. Their ‘banter’ was awkward at best.

Holly needs to be hit upside the head and told to start respecting herself more and find a guy who actually has a redeeming quality other than the size of his bank account. I honestly don’t see what else she could see in Max. He treats her with nothing stronger than mild disdain.

I don’t usually swear much in my reviews, but I feel like it’s warranted with this book. I also don’t usually give star ratings to books I haven’t completed, but here we are.

I didn’t have any expectations when I began this book. A physical copy has been on my shelves for months now, and I’ve been trying to get my physical TBR down to a manageable level (It’s embarrassing how many unread books sit on my shelves). Since I had a lot of housework to do I decided to check out the audiobook from my library’s overdrive app.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. Last year I read Walk on Earth a Stranger, which I enjoyed quite a bit. This has a similar story—girl(s) left orphaned must go on the run by disguising themselves as boys. The books even take place around the same period of American history, the time of the gold rush and westward expansion. But while I found it difficult to connect to the characters from WOEAS, I really liked Andy and Sammy in UAPS.

This is not a perfect book. I had issues with the pacing, for one thing. I think this book could’ve been 50 pages shorter if the author cut even half of the time Sammy spent fretting about West and if he’d figured out her secret. Actually, the romantic subplot was probably the weakest part of this story—which is another similarity to WOEAS. It felt like not a chapter went by where something would happen to make Sammy wonder if they’d figured out that she was a female. It really became repetitive. Also, the ending felt rushed to me and I would’ve liked an epilogue to show a little of their lives after the fact.

Another repetitive aspect was Sammy continuously justifying others actions by relating them to their Chinese zodiac sign. I enjoyed it to a certain extent, but there are only so many times I can hear, “It makes sense since he’s a (insert sign here). After all, (insert sign here) are always (insert personality traits here)” before it gets a little old.

That being said, there were so many things I liked about this book.

1. The multitude of characters who were from diverse backgrounds. This book explored the difficulties that would come with being a racial minority in nineteenth-century America.

2. The historical aspects were well done. I don’t read many westerns, and I really enjoyed the execution of this one.

3. Sammy and Andy’s friendship. I loved that their relationship was so strong. They refer to each other as sister by the end and I absolutely love that. And while they do talk about boys, that’s not the primary focus of their discussions. They are strong and discerning young women, and they make a great team.

I am very interested in reading another book by Stacey Lee since this book surprised me so much.

This book was fine. I didn’t have huge expectations for it, but it doesn’t contain a trope I tend to like: the fake relationship. For the most part, it was cute and I definitely found myself grinning at times. But at the end of the day it felt like it didn’t dig deep enough.

What I liked:
1. Fake relationship trope. Yes, it’s a trope. But it just happens to be one that works for me. Is it realistic? Heck no. But it’s fun to read.

2. Taylor’s relationship with her stepdad. I thought it was very sweet how close she was with her stepdad. I feel like you don’t see that often in YA literature.

3. The pacing. I zoomed through this book. It was a quick, light read.


What I didn’t like.

1. The normalization of abusive relationships. Evan’s stepfather verbally badgers him constantly. He is also very controlling over Evan’s mother. However, we are constantly told that he treats her so well and life with him is ‘perfect’. Even when she admits that he treats Evan like garbage. I’m sorry, but what kind of mother stays in a relationship with a man who treats her kid that way? But it’s literally never looked at as something problematic.

2. Taylor is a Mary Sue to the extreme. The number of times we are told that she is practically perfect in every way is nauseating. It got real old, real fast. Then, when I thought we couldn’t possibly get any more clichéd, we were treated to the following gem: “I thought I told you before that Taylor’s not like other girls?”
Let’s forget for a moment that this is written as a question instead of the statement it is. But OMG, this line is such a nope for me. What’s wrong with ‘other girls?’
And that’s another problem. There is so much girl-on-girl hate in this book. And not even hate, but endless comparison and jealousy. And it wasn’t just between Taylor and the ‘hot girls’, but also Taylor and the other ‘smart girls’. But of course, Taylor is super special and always comes out on top.
One other thing. We are told alllll the way through this book how amazing and smart and amazing and did I mention smart Taylor is, but she doesn’t realize that Brian and Evan both like her when they start acting like dogs trying to mark their territory.

3. The writing. I wasn’t looking for some award-winning piece of literary fiction, but even going in with zero expectations, the writing in this book felt very simplistic. The author tries to tackle some heavy issues: abusive relationships, divorce, cheating, bullying, and abandonment, among others I’m sure I’m forgetting. But because there isn’t any depth to these conversations, it all feels very one-dimensional. I wasn’t able to empathize or sympathize with these characters because of the way they faced these issues. It all fell a little flat for me. I was hoping for a little more complexity. Also, there were times when certain word choices confused me. I understood what the author was saying, but the words used didn’t quite fit. Also, there were so many instances where the author would bring in some random thought or fact to the story with little to no context or setup just to never address it or mention it again.

At the end of the day, this was what I needed at the moment I read it, after tackling a couple of heavier books immediately preceding this book. It was light and fluffy. Unfortunately, I feel like it was trying to be more, but the execution just wasn’t there.

I do not know what to say about this book. It’s actually really difficult for me to rate it review this, but here goes.

TW: abusive relationship

What I liked:

1. Shakespeare references/metaphors. I love Shakespeare, so this was really fun.

2. The cover. 10/10

3. Unreliable narrator. I don’t read a lot of mysteries or thrillers (this is the former, not the latter), but I do enjoy an unreliable narrator when it’s done well. This book was a total mind f&$@ from beginning to end, and I was never quite sure what to believe.
When I started the book, I felt very sorry for Jaye and everything she’s gone through, but as I began to learn the truth of certain events and see her character develop, my feelings for her began to change quite a bit. I still felt sympathy for the fact that she had gone through this accident and was losing time. That would be scary for anyone. But she ends up being a very selfish person. I actually liked the way the author was able to unpack Jaye and make her a three-dimensional character even in the middle of all of the fantastical things she’s seemingly experiencing.

What I didn’t like:

1. The pacing. This book should’ve been about 50 pages shorter. It became quite repetitive in the middle.

2. The ending. I don’t necessarily need a super polished ending where every single loose end is tied up. And I understand that the author was using Shakespeare’s works to inspire her ending. But I am still not sure about what the heck happened.

3. While I personally liked the Shakespeare references, I don’t know how realistic this would be in real life, as far as a head injury causing these elaborate hallucinations. There is a point where we are led to believe that there may be some paranormal aspect to the story (she sees ‘Romeo’ before she ever meets Rob; she randomly knows lengthy monologues from Shakespeare plays she hasn’t studied, etc.) but it is never actually explained or even explored.

I think this book is going to be unhauled, because I know I’ll never read it again, but I could see recommending this to someone who likes slightly confusing, dreamlike stories with unreliable narrators.

1.5 stars