*Edit* I originally gave this book three stars, but after doing some additional research about Christopher McCandless, I've decided to lower my rating to a two star. Basically, the author strung together this tenuous novel based on some very shaky 'evidence'. He ignored pieces of evidence that didn't fit his narrative, which I find very manipulative and frustrating. I'm leaving the bulk of the review up because I still think it accurately represents my viewpoint, but doing the extra research has left a sour taste in my mouth regarding this novel and its author.

First of all, I do think that the book is well-written, for the most part. It was obvious that Jon Krakauer did extensive research when he was crafting this story, interviewing the McCandless family, the people Chris met on his journey, and various other experts to provide context and background information to the narrative.

I also liked the fact that he included the stories of other nomads/explorers in order to draw parallels and/or show the differences between them and Chris. He even includes stories of his own adolescence, which makes this book semi-auto-biographical in nature as well. And I think that's where my problem lies.

I don't mind that Krakauer uses his own wanderlust to illustrate that such a thing is common for people who are naturally adventurous, but it felt a little like he was defending Chris McCandless's ignorance and ill-preparedness with a 'boys will be boys' kind of excuse.

There is also a part, about 40% of the way into the book where he asserts: "McCandless wasn't mentally ill," as if it's not even a possibility, to which I would ask: How can he be so sure? I was waiting for some actual evidence to back up his assertion, because there are so many points throughout the book--both before and after this point--that could lead many to suggest that Chris McCandless may have suffered from some form of mental or emotional instability.

In doing a little research after the fact, I came across an article that his sister wrote where she talked about their tumultuous childhood at the hands of physically and emotionally abusive parents. That kind of thing happening to a young child can cause mental instability, especially if a person is already predisposed to it.

I read another article that suggested that he may have been suffering with undiagnosed schizophrenia. The author of that article points to the fact that many of McCandless's journals are written in the third person and the fact that he randomly decided to start calling himself by another name. I also see it as a possibility when you look at his strong distrust for any kind of authority figure of body. Couple that with the fact that schizophrenia is most likely to present itself in males from the ages of 15-25, and I think there is a strong case to be made there.

Even Jon Krakauer himself on page 120 says that Chris "had a darker side as well, characterized by monomania, impatience, and unwavering self-absorption, qualities that seemed to intensify through his college years."
Later on the same page he quotes one of Chris's college friends who said that Chris changed drastically during his college years. He became much more introverted and cynical. When the friend saw him after their sophomore year, he greeted him by saying, "Hey, good to see you, Chris," to which Chris's response was "Yeah, sure, that's what everybody says."

All that said, neither I nor the writer of the aforementioned article are psychologists, so it isn't for me to armchair diagnose anyone. But I feel like it is irresponsible of Krakauer to assert that Chris wasn't suffering from mental illness when there is no earthly way he could know that.

The story of Christopher McCandless is tragic, regardless of his mental capacity in the months before and at the time of his death. The idea that he was so close to help (he was only about 25 miles from Healy, AK) and yet he may as well have been a thousand miles from another living soul is just heartbreaking. And I want to give the author the benefit of the doubt and say that he isn't trying to manipulate the story of Christopher McCandless to make him look like some sort of misunderstood romantic hero, communing with nature in order to find himself, but I wish there had been a bit more about how ill-equipped he really was. It was there, but it was always rebutted by Krakauer talking about some other adventurous person doing something similar. It definitely felt like Krakauer felt a certain level of admiration for McCandless, and that's just not something I can get on board with.

As a person who lived in Alaska for 30+ years, I have a healthy respect/fear of the Alaskan wilderness. I have personally known many people who have died or gone missing directly because of the Alaskan Wilderness. Boating accidents, hunting accidents, encounters with wildlife, encounters with poisonous plant life, plane accidents, four-wheeler accidents, starvation, dehydration, exposure (freezing to death), and just plain disappearing into the wilderness. And most of those stories are about people who have lived in Alaska for years if not decades. Many of them are Alaska-born. Because Alaska doesn't give a fuck.

There is a huge difference between Henry David Thoreau communing with nature while living in a cabin near Concord, Massachusetts and being on your own in the Alaskan wilderness with no map, no compass, and no food. For crying out loud, Walden Pond is less than two miles from the city of Concord. TWO MILES. And it was where Thoreau was born and died. He wasn't exactly all on his own. He had friends and family help him with things like food, shelter, clothing, and fuel. So for McCandless to take that and turn it into 'live in an abandoned bus in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness' is not romantic or admirable. It's foolish. It's ignorance and hubris. Because, again, Alaska doesn't give a fuck.

Intention and intellect are irrelevant without common sense, and while McCandless may have possessed the first two, he was completely devoid of the latter. I know that it sounds like I am being harsh, but I am just frustrated that this is portrayed as anything other than what it is: a completely preventable tragedy. Just a little research and preparation could've resulted in an entirely different outcome. And I think that is the most sad thing of all.

This was okay. There are bits of really lovely writing, but I was pretty bored if I’m being honest. Not my favorite classic.

I thought this was so cute! The story itself was enjoyable and the art was fantastic. I don’t know how/if this differs from the original edition, but the owl crate exclusive edition is absolutely gorgeous.

My one quibble is that I wish it had been longer and more of the information from the ‘handbook excerpt’ had been more seamlessly integrated into an actual narrative rather than learning about all of that through what is essentially a textbook entry.

That being said, I loved this and want to read more by Katie O’Neill in the future.

This is the first book I've read by this author, and I'm not sure I will read another. I was really disappointed with the execution of this book, and I honestly don't understand the hype.

I thought the premise has promise, but in the end I found it utterly predictable. I saw the ending coming for most of the book. I actually had convinced myself that it couldn't possibly turn out the way I thought it would. I thought I was looking at a red herring. Nope. It ended up being pretty much just what I thought.

Perhaps my biggest issue was the writing itself, primarily the dialogue. I feel like this book was written by someone who has never encountered teenagers before, and is only going off second-hand information when constructing conversations between these characters.

There are a few instances where actual swear words are used, but more often than not we are treated to words like 'effing', 'eff', 'witch', and 'freaking', instead of their more salacious counterparts. Funny enough, the author had absolutely no issue with words like 'slut' and 'whore'. The pages of this book are liberally sprinkled with both of those words. But heaven forbid these teenagers use actual curse words.

Also, Zoey was the worst. The author's attempt at redeeming/defending her just made me angry. She treats people awful, but according to our protagonist it's different than the way other mean girls treat people because her nastiness was a 'means to an end.' She even says at one point that Zoey had an honor code that *usually* included not stealing other girl's boyfriends...usually. I just couldn't stand her. And I'm not sure what the point was of Michaela and Cole. Cole was pretty much a carbon copy of Zoey, and Michaela was the good girl of the group, but neither were present for almost the entire book, especially the second half. I'm not sure what the point was of their characters even being there.

There were a couple of moments that were actually creepy for me, but for the most part this story fell completely flat for me, and the ending was a big pile of exposition. It felt like the author had written herself into a corner and gotten bored because the end is 100% tell and not show after the fact.

Again, I don't get the hype.

Well, I did it.

Listen, this book is fine. There are things about it that I really appreciate. As far as female protagonists go, I greatly prefer Sarene to Vin. I really love the premise of this book and I like the relationship between Raoden and Sarene. But my goodness. This is far too long. Every single time I thought the pace was going to pick up and we were going to get some fun action, it came to a grounding halt.
I usually enjoy books with intricate political intrigue, but I just could not get into this like I wanted. For starters, I felt like there were too many characters. Perhaps if I'd been reading the physical copy of this book I would've had an easier time of keeping them all straight, but I just found myself confused most times.
I wish more of the book had taken place in Elantris itself. Some of my favorite sections were when Sarene was in Elantris with Raoden, working to make conditions better and getting to know each other as well. When it went back to Hrathen and that whole story, I was almost immediately bored.
I also find it kind of ridiculous that there is only one female character of consequence in this book. There is a subplot in the first part of the book that entailed Sarene trying to teach the women of the court to be more independent and self-sufficient, but it was forgotten by the midway point of the book and after that we hardly saw them at all.
I guess my main problem with this book is that it needed to be trimmed down. There wasn't enough entertaining plot for 622 pages.
I do think it's possible that my issues with this book could also be explained by the audiobook. The voice actor just did nothing for me whatsoever. I felt like his narration sounded more like he was giving a history report and less like he was telling a story. The voices he used for the male characters were okay, but not great, and he didn't even try with Sarene's voice.
I know that this was Brandon Sanderson's first published work, and it's obvious that he has a great talent, but I feel like this book just isn't as strong as some of his others.

I love gymnastics and the Olympics, so when I saw this book and the fact that it was written by Gold-medal gymnast Shawn Johnson, I figured I’d give it a try.
I had low to no expectations going into this book. I assumed it would be a fluffy YA contemporary, and that’s exactly what it was. The story wasn’t anything unique, the plot formulaic. That being said, I thought it was cute. I liked her friends, family, and the love interest, and I thought the passages talking about the behind-the-scenes of the gymnastics world was really interesting.
My main critique for this book stems from the overall conflict of the book, which is that Charlie is hiding her involvement with gymnastics from everyone outside of her family and fellow gymnasts because she doesn’t want to be treated differently at school. Maybe this is something the author actually went through, but for me it felt like contrived conflict that went on far too long. At a certain point, you’d think that she would realize that she’s causing herself more upheaval by her duplicity than she would by just being open.
I also felt like the ending was a little rushed. Even so, I enjoyed this book. It’s not a new favorite or anything, but it’s a nice palette cleanser as I’ve read a lot of intense and emotional books recently.

3.5 stars
The first 3/4 of this book is a solid 4-4.5 stars for me. I liked the premise, and the writing was really compelling. I thought the author was able to create some really good tension in the plot and between the characters. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like the ending of the book paid off that build-up. I also thought the romance between Kelsey and Ryan was WAY too quick, even though I liked their scenes together. I also thought Kelsey made some really terrible decisions that didn't make much sense except to move the plot along.

I had a crazy idea of what I thought the twist was going to be, (that's not a spoiler...it's a thriller...they have twists.) so when the actual ending came, I was underwhelmed. I just didn't feel like the book went far enough for me. Perhaps that is because it is a YA thriller, but I don't think that can really be used as a justification for the lackluster ending, especially when you learn all of the details of the truth.

This is the first Megan Miranda book I've read, and I'm excited to check out some more from her.

TW: reference to rape and other sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect.

I had zero expectations going into this book. I was listening on audiobook while I was doing housework (multitasking! YAY!) and as it is a relatively quick audiobook (4ish hours on 2x speed) I was able to get through it in one day.

That was probably the highlight of the story, if I'm being honest. It was quick, and I got chores done at the same time. Other than that, this book was more of a miss than a hit for me.

I just didn't really care for this book. I know that if it had been a physical copy I was trying to read, I would've DNF'd it early on. I didn't like the main characters, especially Jill. She is the worst for most of the book, and even when she starts treating Mandy like a human being, she loses any redemption she had in a pointless love triangle where she is the dirt bag. And seriously, I don't understand why either guy liked her.

The dialogue was mediocre, the characters were one-note, and the plot was tired. Things like molestation and rape felt glossed over. And the fact that Jill's dad had passed away the year before didn't affect me at all. Mostly because Jill treated everyone around her like her own personal punching bag. It's hard to care about someone's grief when they're being a straight-up bitch on every single page.

Also, and this is totally 100% nitpicky and I totally own up to that fact, but the audiobook narrators weren't very good. The one who narrated Jill's parts was specifically annoying. She mispronounced several words (pho was repeatedly pronounced 'fah', and gyro was pronounced 'jai-roh'.) Maybe some people wouldn't think that's a big deal, but it kept taking me out of scenes where they were talking about food. I didn't take off anything from the actual story because of it, but it was annoying.

I didn't think the writing itself was anything to write home about. The author's use of description was lacking at best.

I don't think I'll read another Sara Zarr, but never say never.

4.5 stars
I loved this so much. I will give a full review once I can get my emotions in check.

3.75
I saw this on Overdrive for audiobook and the cover intrigued me. When I read the synopsis, I was further intrigued. This is a multi-generational family saga about immigration and culture and the decision to retain or eschew said culture.

I liked this book. I liked this a lot. The first half was especially compelling. I liked the characters and the family dynamics, along with the discussion of what life would've been like for an immigrant family from India in the 70s and 80s in New York City.

Unfortunately, I felt like the characters in the first half were much stronger than Shanti and Anna. Their stories were more interesting, and I felt like they were thoroughly developed. It felt like the author really wanted this to be multi-generational, so she added in a couple scenes from Ranee's perspective and then a short section from Shanti and Anna, without really taking the time to develop their characters. The worst part is, after the time jump we completely lose Sonia's and Tara's POVs, which were the ones that I was the most interested in. I also felt like all of the POVs, while in first person, felt very distant and disconnected to me, which is ironic considering the title of the book. I wanted to connect more to them than I did, but the book was all telling, no showing. It literally felt like someone was telling me a story of something that happened to them rather than a novel about a family. Like when Sonia and Tara's

father dies, we are told about it after the fact, in a way that feels very clinical.

I just wanted more. And yet, I'm rounding my rating up to four stars because there was so much that I did enjoy.