such a phenomenal series shelly parker-chan...welcome to my client agency. i loved the interweaving of baoxiang, ouyang, madam zhang, and zhu's stories. just wish my girl ma could've been more on the page

first 5-star of the year five days in! this was really good. a bit of a slow start for me but once it got going it went quick and i couldn't put it down. zhu is so well-written; someone who will survive no matter what, willing to learn and kill and do anything for her desire. i loved the writing in this; especially around desire and gender. phenomenal read

a very real and enjoyable look into teenhood and what it's like to crave affection, love, and the feeling of crushing on someone

on a s.a cosby kick to start off the year apparently. i enjoyed this book more than the previous work i read (all the sinners bleed).

i think the two mcs in this were very interesting and the story was written well. ike and buddy lee had good chemistry together. action scenes were gripping and interesting, and i rooted for ike and buddy lee to avenge their sons.  

traumatizing read to kick off the year. i'm not a huge thriller girl so idk why i picked this up but i sped through it. while i did enjoy it, i wasn't a huge fan of the writing style (sentences seemed overlong and dialouge was flat) and at a point it was like "okay how much more horrific things can we fit in". it dragged on a bit for me, and the villain could have benefited from more exposition and maybe featuring a bit more

picked this up after seeing the trailer for the movie and was blown away. a profound, incredible, and heartbreaking read. elwood is a beautifully written main character. his relationships with turner and his grandmother are beautifully done. colson whitehead is such a good writer and i loved loved loved how his journalistic writing style lent itself to tell this story. a fantastic book to end off my year

a well-written story that dives into circe. however i found myself not entirely overwhelmed (i think tsoa is better from a story standpoint). nevertheless i enjoyed reading this

a dense and immersive fantasy that hooked me in from the beginning, even if there were points along the way where i got confused. vis is a compelling main character and his supporting cast of characters (especially ulciscor, relucia, callidus, and aequa) are interesting and well-developed. the ending was both intriguing and confusing, and i can't wait to see where this story goes next. also

i think aequa and vis have a more interesting and intriguing relationship than him and emissa and hopefully we'll get to see that relationship being develped further in the next book. #watchthisspace

interesting premise but ultimately the execution was lacking. i think i found myself confused multiple points due to the fractured timeline; i understand why the author may have done it but i think a linear plot would have been just fine. i was mostly just not immersed in mandy as a mc 

enthralling, magical, and incredibly well-written. i loved the setting and the characters. yangsze choo is so skilled; managing to juggle both perspectives and weave together the two main characters' stories together and doing it seamlessly. one of the best books i've read this year