elisasifaa's Reviews (455)

(4,5 ✨)
This book gave me such mixed signals throughout the entire 300 pages.

It's written in this fun, carefree way, making this an enjoyable read but the topic ranges from light baby talk to racism. The way this book is written takes the heat off the heavy talks, but for a book that revolves around a black girl and two white persons with definitive issues surrounding race, it's a little too fun. I've never seen both sides of racism discussed in such a way before. In total honesty, I never really thought about it in that way as portrayed in the book. The ending was very anti-climatic in my experience; I was really hoping they would talk about it or that Emira would at least admit to knowing about it.

I liked the characters, for the most part. They all seemed very thought out and completed, and I never got to a moment that I felt like was out of character, but my oh my, how much Alix annoyed the living crap out of me.
She is so whiny. She hates the fact she lives in Philadelphia, she hates that her babysitter isn't her property (as we see on Thanksgiving), and she really doesn't give two thoughts to her older daughter.

I'm putting this down for 4,5 stars because I cringed so hard at any pop culture reference. "Umm, das weird," "oop," and so on. This doesn't interfere with the story at all, so it might be a bit unfair of me to kick it down to 4,5 stars. However, my reasoning is that I had to take an actual minute or two from the book to get over it. There are also so many unnecessary details, I have no interest in reading about some woman putting an egg yolk on her food or someone salting her dish?! Just why?

I read this book for the first time, as a child, maybe around 12 years old, and it traumatized me. I was definitely too young to read it, and if I'm honest, I have no idea why I wanted to read it at that age. I did, however, decide to re-read it yesterday after a conversation about child abuse and how its viewed in society.

This book is definitely hard to read, but that's not because of the writing but the story we're following, and that's the point. It's supposed to be hard to read about; it's supposed to shock you with the sheer abuse that boy went through. This is a must-read for everyone; the story makes you evaluate your own life and see it differently.

I can't believe some of the reviews on here saying that "it's obviously fiction" or that it's "fake." That is why people are afraid to come out with their story of abuse and suffer silently. The story follows a kid from 4 - 12 years old. Of course, his memory of these events might be a little skewed or some details incorrect, but that's just how our memory works.

The bottom line is, this is a must-read.

I wouldn't say I liked this book at all.

I got it as a gift a few years ago as a joke; I never got around to reading it because I just couldn't imagine how a book about a cat could be good. I was right because I thought this book was dreadfully boring. To be fair, this book is a non-fiction memoir, and that's not always supposed to be very entertaining and fun. I did go into reading it with the wrong mindset, but I found it so hard to read and so incredibly boring at times.

Now, I read the book in less than 24 hours; that is only because I was hurrying up so I could read something else. I didn't get sucked up into the story. It didn't captivate my mind and beg me to continue reading it throughout the day.

The writing was okay, and I guess I liked how he continues to describe his life on the street and his struggles. However, it does feel like nothing ever happens, there are a few chapters where something fundamental in the story is going on, but it's sparse throughout the book.
Half the book was about how the first one got together, his meetings with publishers and other people related to the book business, and I truly can't imagine who would want to read that.

I'm sorry, but I truly did not like this book at all. The best thing about it might've been the cute drawings at the end of each chapter.

I wanted to cry over this book, I heard excellent reviews, and I hoped for a soul-wrenching sobbing fest. I got my wish, sort of; I shed a singular tear nearing the end of the book...
This book is definitely very sad and makes you wonder about how you're living your life (especially in COVID lockdown!), but it's not earth-shattering sad where you'll sob on the bathroom floor.

I read it in two sittings. Pages 1 through 100 were slow-ish but not in a boring way. I ended up stopping around page 100 because I knew I wanted to finish the rest in one sitting, and I didn't have time to finish it right there and then. I DEVOURED the rest of the book once I picked it up.

The relationships in this book are outstanding! We get small but powerful insights into so many people and get to see how their lives all connect without them ever knowing about it. I'm dying to know what happened to Delilah and Victor at the end since it's not disclosed if they make it or not. I hope they made it, got to say their goodbyes, and I love you's.

I am going to reread it sometimes during the summer. I want to annotate and tab it because I loved SO many moments but didn't want to hinder the reading experience with annotating. Maybe I'll try to aim for rereading when I'm feeling particularly sad or down in the dumps, and that'll help my tear ducts allowing the waterworks to flow.

There is a reason why people can not shut up about this book. It's romantic, witty, easy to read, smutty, but the smut is not just thrown in there, and so incredibly hopeful.

“Someone else’s choice doesn’t change who you are.”

This book is for everyone that wants a feel-good romance novel that hooks you in from the very first couple of pages. "Rule #1: Don't get caught."

I honestly can't describe my love for Alex and Henry in an adequate way.

This book gets all of the stars, thousands upon thousands of stars.