Charming

Ooh, I want more of this! The art style is charming.

3.5

Such easy reading! I could’ve finished this in one sitting. Delphine’s narrative is good enough to spread thickly over a bagel. I also enjoyed learning about prickly, callous Cecile. This reminded me of my mom’s stories about the Black Panthers. As a little girl, she went for the food, cute boys, and revolution. Anyway, I can definitely see myself re-reading this.

I thought the narrative/dialogue was snappy and entertaining. Mona was my favorite character. The artwork was very bug-eyed and dull, frankly, too ugly for me, but it worked well.

that ending kiss felt weird. I thought Mona just thought of Cosmo as a cute sidekick.

3.5

Well, this book made me start cleaning haha. I took about an hour just to start cleaning and throwing away things. If it doesn't spark my joy, it has to go.

The illustrations are really cute and the chapters are bite-sized to get you going. I thought Chiaki was adorable albeit a mess.

Besides the dated references, this was a cute book. Amy has normal problems, a boy-crazy best friend, and a mom starting to date again.

Gold star for the boyfriend actually being understanding the kiss was against Amy’s will. Another gold star for being realistic in that Nate broke up with her. I don’t think any high school boy’s ego could take that.

Outside of that weird, uncomfortable hamster rape joke, an all right book for middle schoolers.

3.5

Aw, a pretty fitting ending [I enjoyed this series a lot overall, and it didn't have any needless filler.

also, who told Inosuke to look that precious?

]

3.5

"There are no cages smaller than the ones we make inside ourselves, my friend."

[rating from personal enjoyment: 2.5 ]