goatsrsexy's Reviews (604)

I went into this book blind, I just chose it off my long lists of books I've had on hold at the library for who knows how long. I read the Echo Wife a while ago and didn't love it so wasn't sure what to expect from this.

Just Like Home is hard to describe. It's about a woman who goes home to take care of her dying mom who she lost contact with after a traumatic childhood which is revealed to us slowly. First of all, I found it super terrifying. If you were ever scared of the dark or if you still are (like me) parts of this book will probably scare you a lot. Sarah Gailey does a great job of making you feel like you're deep into the story and truly experiencing it.

I've loved a lot of monsters myself, and I understand how it feels to love someone or something that is just wrong. And to wonder what that says about yourself.

The book took a lot of turns that I wasn't expecting and I've seen a few reviewers who disliked the ending. It was definitely different than I imagined, but I liked it. It was very sad in my opinion. This book definitely won't be for everyone but I'd recommend it to those who like horror, gothic novels, and domestic thrillers.

I haven't read this book since I was probably 7 or 8 years old. The interesting thing about that is, when I read this book I was still like Margaret waiting for everything to happen to me. I think without me knowing it this book influenced a lot of my early adolescence and I also think that's something a lot of people can say about Judy Blume books in general.

I see SO MUCH of myself in Margaret. I am also the child of one Jewish and one Christian parent who decided to raise their kids without religion. Just like Margaret I was super curious about religion as a kid and I remember going to all different kinds of churches with my mom's friends, I liked singing songs and eating desserts so overall I remember it being a pretty good experience. I also remember talking to God in my head just like Margaret and I didn't realize it until now but I'm sure I got it from her. In case anyone is wondering I'm Jewish now lol.

I remember being so excited and telling all my friends when I got my period. I remember stuffing my bra to seem cool. I remember being bullied by mean girls and I also remember being a mean girl myself. So many of these things are such universal experiences for North American girls and that's why Judy Blumes books have spoken to so many young girls for decades. 

What really struck me when reading this as an adult was how Margaret always recognized her lack of agency in situations when it should have been given to her. One of the most frustrating things about being a kid is adults treating you like you're not a whole person with real feelings. This book portrays that feeling so well which is a huge deal because seeing it written out like this helps kids see that they are right to be mad about it, it's totally unfair!

I'm just so glad this book held up so well for me and I'm definitely gonna try to read more of Judy Blumes books since I own a bunch of them. Also I can't wait for this move to come out!!

Lucky girl is about Soila, who grows up very privileged but extremely sheltered in Kenya, and moves to America for school to get some freedom from her overbearing mother.

She struggles a lot at first to understand the African American experience and relationship to blackness and racism because it's so different from her own African experience. I really admired the way that although she had a hard time understanding where her friends were coming from, she quickly recognized that there were things she didn't understand and that she needed to put in effort to learn and view things through different lenses and let go of her own biases and misconceptions. She struggles with this throughout the book but you can also see her making huge progress with it. As a white Canadian, the difference between the African immigrant and African American experience isn't something I've ever given much thought to and it was super eye opening for me. I definitely feel that I gained a greater understanding of both cultures through Soila.

Soilas struggle with her mother's expectations was portrayed so well, it was so difficult for me to see her hurting herself and giving up things that were important to her in order to make her mother happy, but I was able to understand where she was coming from even though there was a lot I would have done differently. I loved the people in her life. Her aunts, grandma, friends and partners were all so loving and supportive and they all added so many different things to her life.

Lucky Girl deals with so many things in such a short book; racism and colourism, terrorism, sexual assault, grief, and a lot more than that too. It deals with a lot of heavy subjects and I definitely shed a few tears while reading, but it was also such a beautiful and hopeful story I honestly feel privileged to had read it. I can't believe this is the author's debut novel, I definitely can't wait to read more from her in the future. Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy!

I really enjoyed this short story collection. The author is Argentine and always enjoy reading books from Argentine authors because my mom was born there. The stories were not all necessarily horror (most were) but they were all haunting and spooky. 

Some were extremely disturbing, this book is definitely not for the faint of heart. The most disturbing was No Birthdays Or Baptisms. I still liked it but wouldn't read it again. 

My favourite story was definitely the titular one, it was super short but sad and melancholy in such an ordinary way it's the type of thing l'd like to write myself. Other favourites were The Cart, The Well, Meat, and Where Are You Dear Heart.

While I used to be a big fan of YA, lately I've been finding it hard to get into... But this book was so good!! I think it stands out from other YA contemporaries I've read recently, with just the right amount of magical realism (though it's not really a fantasy novel at all so don't go in expecting that).

What I loved most was the glimpse into a school system that's different from what I'm used to reading about. I once stayed at an international school (not in China though) and always wondered what it would be like to actually attend one, surrounded by so many different types of people.

The way the book tackled class issues from a teenager's perspective was also really interesting, as was the exploration of the experience of feeling like you have to parent your own parents, which can be quite traumatic. Alice's background as a Chinese person who's lived in the US and had to deal with struggling to translate for her parents and stuff but now lives in China again and doesn't need to fill that role anymore made for a unique perspective. And despite being in China, attending an international school means she's still in a very English-dominant world, but doesn't need to worry about her parents in the same way.

I loved seeing Alice come out of her shell and actually start making friendships and connections. I think the book ended super well!

This was a haunting and beautifully written book. The ocean is incredibly fascinating and there was a lot in this book that made me think about our world and everything in it and just how vast and crazy it is. It also made me think a lot about love, and about grief... How these feelings can evolve and change over time, but never truly disappear. There's not a lot I can say about this book, both because I don't want to give it away and because it's literally just hard to explain. You just have to read it and see.

I REALLY liked this! I like reading romance novels about celebrities, I think it's really fun and that's what I expected it to be, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it a lot deeper than a typical rom-com. 

A not super famous actress gets set up with an A-list actor who hasn't worked in a decade, and they agree to do a PR relationship to boost both of their careers. The fake-dating trope can be annoying but I think it worked really well here because this truly happens all the time in Hollywood so it felt more realistic and less silly, it also didn't have a bunch of annoying miscommunication, they figured out how they really felt pretty early one.

This book features a fair amount of trauma, addiction, and grief but it's handled well. It might have wrapped up a BIT too easily in the end but I liked it enough to be okay with that. I also liked the side characters, there were a lot of them and even though we didn't spend a ton of time with them they felt like very real people and the MCs relationships with them felt super genuine.

I liked reading about the film industry and Hollywood, and it's clear that the author of this book works at least adjacent to the industry because it came across super realistically. I love movies so I enjoyed that aspect of the book as well.

Overall this was a great read that was fairly light but also had some depth to it. Definitely be careful reading if you're triggered by addiction or loss.

This was an interesting take on getting closure from your past and on fear of commitment. Full of weird people with super weird motivations, but it was really funny in a smart way. It was pretty slow and I can imagine that not everyone wants to spend hours reading about a fictional character psychoanalyzing their past relationships... But it worked for me overall and I quite enjoyed it. 

The concept of this was fine but the writing wasn't very good unfortunately. Its definitely not terrible but it felt a bit too forced and there was a lot of showing instead of telling. The pov changes were super confusing too.

This was okay. I liked the first half but as it went on it really started to drag and by the end I was definitely skimming to make it to the end. These kind of plots where nothing really happens just aren't my thing, there's nothing wrong with the book