ellaellaellaetc's Reviews (494)

 got this as a christmas gift and started and finished it on christmas day which was fun! extremely mid though unfortunately. definitely walked in thinking this was going to be a rivals to lovers high school story (WHICH IT WAS MARKETED AS!!!!!!) but this ended up being a ya story about a girl who starts a feminist wave at her high school with a romance sideplot and while you know slay, good for her, i am past the age in which I care to read about these stories. they mostly discuss things that I already know and understand and most of the time they lack subtlety, depth and some extra nuance that think should be there for obvious reasons. while I think it's so important for these, especially a story like this that had and an almost all Asian cast (which the book would NOT let you forget about omg) I simply don't care despite the many redeeming qualities of this book, they shouldn't have marketed this as a romance because that's going to mess with people's (MY) expectations and therefore enjoyment, I wouldn't have picked it up if I knew what the book was about cause I'm not the target audience for this :////// whatever 

 this was pleasant but ultimately pretty forgettable book. while it was formatted and written in a great way, it didn't really offer anything that new or exciting that isn't already common sense. despite this, i did really enjoy it and it was wonderful to read a business book that wasn't like "PROFIT🤑🤑 EXPLOIT🤑🤑 MONOPOLIZE 🤑🤑" even though marketing is arguably manipulation??? whatever, if you're interested in marketing/how ideas spread then this is a quick and pleasant read however if you want anything deeper then I suggest further reading 

 i really thought that I would love this but I unfortunately was very bored and did not really get the point of this. benson's pov was kinda fun at times (his and mitsuko's relationship was so interesting and fun!! love how that developed) but omg had to slog through Mike's. Benson was kind of an unlikable character in a semi fun sad hot girl (guy??) way but oml mike was just unbearable. i didn't understand at all why mike and benson should be together, even in a like "unhealthy relationship but we love each other"way cause they didn't even seem to really like each other at any point in their relationship and they had literally zero chemistry. the themes were not exciting and once again the only thing i really enjoyed was benson and mike's mum trying to get along. didn't care about anything else and I didn't care about mitsuko and benson all that much. benson is a terrible name btw. 

dnf-ing at 14%, I only started reading this because I heard there was a scene in it that could make this book my cruel summer book pick for my Taylor Swift song/book spreadsheet (apparently the couple have a secret relationship or something like that) HOWEVER. I don't really need or want to read a romance book between a girl who got r*ped  and a guy who is friend of the r*pist and said guy also accused her of lying about it??? tbf it actually isn't as bad as it sounds cause he was like 14 when it happened and didn't really understand and just went along with it pbut like still that is actually still very bad??????  the bar is just so low that's why it's not as bad???? also if this book wasn't pitched as a romance maybe I could have enjoyed it (like of this was meant to like explore this guy overcoming his prejudice and really looking into himself and that being the primary focus of the book) I could have really enjoyed this but also wtf.

the only reason why he ends up realising that maybe he's wrong and she did tell the truth is cause he sees that she has a kid from the r*pe and he's like damn she's a good mother and didn't abort the kid which means that she's a good person (I'm afriad that if I kept reading there also might be more pro-life propaganda 🙄🙄) and before that he has that thought process of maybe she isn't lying he FIRST thinks that she got knocked up by someone else then accused his friend so that she could get money for it???? tf?? and then she doesn't wanna be his friend again cause obviously, and she's like he only wants to talk to me to appease his guilt and her mum is like "honey.. you should accept his apology instead of beinghung up on this and being sad, it's a bad example for your daughter" um girl???????

maybe this is realistic or whatever but if I reads romance I've got to actually like both of the characters as wile this is definitely WAY better than it would have been and made the love interest Ia total total dick, it doesn't matter cause this story didn't really need to get made in the first place, not personally the things and to escape into a romance ://// no thank you

I think the experience of reading this book was heavily enhanced by the two actors for belly and jeremiah from the show narrating it, especially belly's actress oml like she fr was acting so hard during this book and desire lots of cringey stuff she managed to make it sound natural, what a queen. this was overdramatic in a way that I liked but oml belly is SO annoying. both her and conrad are insufferable and jeremiah is too good for belly I hate how she treats him. I also really liked the non-linear story telling of this book but I was sad that we didn't see more stephen :(( 3.75 stars

guys i think this healed something in me. although I wish quan got more of an arc in this book cause he's my favourite character from the other two novels, I loved this with my entire being and was addicted to this book. ahhh I can't even explain it, there was so much heart in this <3

this was... underwhelming. i loved the first one, hated the second and I was just okay with this one. i hate it when mystery stories resort to secret family members and messed up family trees and I could not remember who was who's kid and who were half siblings or who was secretly adopted by who I just couldn't be bothered. i also couldn't really remember the plots of the other books that well even though I watched a summary and I didn't care enough to search when I didn't understand something they referred to. this was felt like it was written a poorly done everybody lives/nobody dies fanfiction for a different series written by a 15 year old, each character feels like a parody or exaggeration of something that actually exists but it was made in earnest. all of the characters are very bland with personality types thrust upon them that they don't really embody. xander was so fucking cringe oml, author tried wayyyy to hard to make him quirky and silly and goofy🤪🤪 and tried to tell us that him and avery were besties???? no???? yes they interact but they're not that close and I hate that the author kept insisting that they are. UGH JAMIESON BROOOOOO I hate this guy. he kept being like "I'm so damaged, I always makes the wrong decisions, I'm such a bad guy, I'm so dangerous" but girl he does nothing?? also personally I find him really annoying and him being like "thrill seeking" or whatever doesn't feel real, like the author keeps making up personality traits and says that about the characters even though they don't act like it.

and I did not buy their relationship sorry.  BTW I am a grayson girlie all the way

and grayson was so done dirty here oml, he was so whiny this whole time and he didn't contribute anything to the story he was just like 😔😔😔 emily 😔😔😔 it's my fault😔😔😔 I was meant to be the best😔😔😔 like dude I don't really care? max was annoying as always however while I could ignore it in the first book cause I enjoyed the other aspects i couldn't let it go for this one, same silly🤪🤪 goofy 🤪🤪 complaints as I did for xander. her whole "doesn't swear" thing where she says mother-faxing and like slimehead or whatever tf she says instead is so cringe I had to immediately block it out every time she spoke. alisa was also barely in this one and she's my favourite character! oren slayed as always and tbh I actually really enjoyed the ending with her giving away 96% or something like that to a charity trust thing and the ending with the reveal of her own games, I thought that was a very fun way to maybe introduce a spin off series?? tbh I actually really love that idea and even though I haven't enjoyed 2/3 of writing from this author I would highkey read that series it sounds so fun.

also the final chess game with the stakes was slay I liked how she purposefully lost to Avery only so that she could challenge brian or whatever his name was (i finished the book 20 mins ago and I already forgot, I know that Brian isn't right but I'm just gonna call him Brian to make this review easier). HOWEVER. idk why when she pulls up all these new terms for the chess game she also doesn't say "also Toby can stay hidden and he can live with me now" what???? also I have no idea why threw his game with eve??? genuinely can someone pls explain why if you read this I don't understand?????

anyway, even though mostly had things to complain about, I though that this book was OKAY. i will definitely forget the entire plot within like one week but I didn't actively hate it like I did with the second one in the series, 2.5 stars

finished this a few days ago but held off on writing a review cause I didn't know how I felt. i loved this at the start but then  I started to get bored many times (this is a long book!) and every now and again there would be a quite sexist observation and I would be like 😮 at the same time I can see that this was really ahead of it's time back in the 1800s so... maybe a 3.75 stars

guys... i cannot express with words how much every single particle on my body FELT this novel. like reading this was an out of body experience for me I truly truly was so moved by this. there's a lot of books that I love and call my favourites that I would recommend to everyone and that are like "objectively" good books. this book is obviously amazing and well written but this was the perfect book for me and I read it at the most perfect time in my life where I really needed this. i just can't even explain it. i love to reread my favourite books a year or two or five after my first read of them just to see if I have a new perspective on them and I'm very excited to do that with this book, i think no matter what this book will remind me of my life right now and what I'm going through like guys this book is why I love reading. i was so entertained and felt so much emotion like genuinely flooded with emotion I connected to this book and these characters and the messages of this book more than I have with anything in a long time if ever. i just. guys!!!!! i was reading this on the bus and then literally had to put it down and do something else because this book moved me to tears and it was so embarrassing crying on the bus to silly little words someone thought of, wrote down and words that I was then consuming. i love literature man