let me start by saying that this book is okay. 

i liked sadie; she's this perfect student and a people pleaser but she also has this bitter rivalry with julius and these emails that she keeps in her drafts. now the way she goes about life when these emails are sent out is very inspiring i know that if i was her i would probably move states. i also liked how her personality in school and at home are very contrasting, and i really liked her relationship with her mom. her mom seems very understanding. justice for her mom btw that dad is a bum! i would have liked to see sadie's relationship with her classmates(besides abigail and julius) be more developed though. we also could've probably seen more emails as these things were apparently the equivalent of a nuclear bomb hitting the school but i didn't actually see this. 

julius was also kinda interesting; his relationship with his brother was realistic(there are definitely some people ik who struggle with living up to their parents and their siblings). again, i would have liked to see julius have more development with friends. as a love interest, i thought he was okay. his relationship with sadie was cute. julius going to see her at the bakery and winning her the medal was sweet though i did like that. i will say though i have no clue on why they were beefing but their interactions were funny 

the writing is pretty good; i'm not one to say much about writing but the pacing was good. i finished this book really fast and it didn't feel like it was dragging to me so i'll consider it good. 

HOWEVER the main fault i have with this book and ann liang's books in general are that they are too repetitive. like there's the main character girl who attends a fancy school. she gets in trouble some way and ends up having to co-exist alongside her love interest, who she dislikes for one reason or another. the main characters are always these perfect students who like try so hard at everything. the love intersests are always these academic rivals. like...we need to switch it up. i like the author, but maybe just once we don't need the perfect protagonists and the academic rival-to-lovers. maybe she's found her niche and i get that she might want to write what she's good at but her books are going to really start feeling one-note if she keeps with her current trend. 

overall this book was okay. but i also think her books are starting to feel a little formulaic which is not great. however, if you like academic rivals-to-lovers, a complexish protagonist, a snarky yet caring love interest, or any of her previous novels, you'll definitely like this book 

thank you to netgalley and scholastic for the arc!

samantha shannon gets on the computer and cooks like this woman has never released a bad book in her life. i loved the expansion of this world; the bone season series builds upon itself and just gets better and better as it goes. arcturus and paige were horribly romantic; i loved their scenes together in sheol 2. he's a good man okay! i also loved the new cast of characters; le vieux orphelin is a favorite of mine. we need the bone season 5 and we need it stat after that ending

i don't know if it's me or the book but i found myself not liking this as much as i used to love the pjo books. it's still a solid entry though. 

the scene where izzy goes off on her parents was so powerful like she was finally standing up to them oh izzy i love you

read this after the movie(i love you havana rose liu) and my heart kept on falling into my ass every time a new development occurred like i am not meant for thrillers

this book made me start to appreciate chemistry again after the trauma of my sophomore year class of chem. 

also six-thirty is the best book dog there was, there is, and there ever will be. UGH when 

elizabeth brought home mad and six-thirty was like "i brought you chalk!!!" my heart melted

 

i've been in a reading slump and this is the book that brought me out...oh i love sibling relationships and being chinese and loving your family ohhh

i can't believe the mom was doing all that crazy

tepid and a snoozefest. was not interested in any of the characters and i felt that the side characters in particular could've been much more fleshed out. the story didn't really move anywhere. probably my least fav read of the year. 

also ya authors need to stop referencing social media things because the mentions of "abgs" and "subtle asian traits" took five years off my life and dates this book so horribly. like in what world would that be okay?

i'm definitely too old for these