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gossamer_lens's Reviews (1.48k)
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I'm just... The ending has me stunned.
Overall, this was so far my least favorite installment. It was okay. But the first 50 dragged and I felt it could have been halved and been much better for it.
I'm definitely reading the next book and I just hope there are less whiney moments and honestly in hoping to get more of the last POV we were introduced to in this book.
Overall, this was so far my least favorite installment. It was okay. But the first 50 dragged and I felt it could have been halved and been much better for it.
I'm definitely reading the next book and I just hope there are less whiney moments and honestly in hoping to get more of the last POV we were introduced to in this book.
Wow. Just wow. This was a thrilling read. Khaw punched each chapter with descriptive language that made one feel they could taste, feel, and see the story unfold. The audiobook of this was particularly impactful as there are sections of this in Japanese that I know would have not carried any of the poetry or creep factor that it had had I read it physically. If you like a spooky thrilling read this is a great one to pick up.
Nothing in me wants the first book I picked up this year to be a DNF... I had heard it was cute, fun, and full of great diversity. Maybe it is those things, but nothing about the main character's inner monologue during the first 5% of this book jived with me. She is so done with love, goes on and on about not getting that other people can react differently to the same event, and then goes on a slut shaming of her sister.
*mild spoilers* I had to put down the book though when the main character says her sister has had "8 different boyfriends, which is an average of 0.667 boyfriends per month, or 0.154 boyfriends per week." Like... girl. Be fing for real. That isn't how math word problems work. No test would ask how many boyfriends Danika has had per month... one cannot have 0.667 a boyfriend in a month. One could be asked how many months each boyfriend lasts on average. But nobody can have 0.154 of a boyfriend a week. You either have 1 boyfriend, more boyfriends, or no boyfriends. One can only have a whole number of boyfriends... not a partial. Unless one cut up a boyfriend and only had 0.154 left of him... but that would be a more interesting story and not what this one was clearly going on to be.
*mild spoilers* I had to put down the book though when the main character says her sister has had "8 different boyfriends, which is an average of 0.667 boyfriends per month, or 0.154 boyfriends per week." Like... girl. Be fing for real. That isn't how math word problems work. No test would ask how many boyfriends Danika has had per month... one cannot have 0.667 a boyfriend in a month. One could be asked how many months each boyfriend lasts on average. But nobody can have 0.154 of a boyfriend a week. You either have 1 boyfriend, more boyfriends, or no boyfriends. One can only have a whole number of boyfriends... not a partial. Unless one cut up a boyfriend and only had 0.154 left of him... but that would be a more interesting story and not what this one was clearly going on to be.
I enjoyed the book generally. The characters were pleasant, and the charms were interesting as a plot device. The book felt like generally charming fluff. I have some feelings that I feel I can discuss in the book club I read this for. It wasn't hard to keep reading, but I generally just don't find real life and little happy coincidences to be a very gripping kind of read. For those who do like charming reads about real-life sort of things... and British accents, I would highly recommend this and I would recommend getting the audiobook.
After a week or two of thought I have to add top my review that it just wants my kind of book. But I loved the audiobooks accents and found it to be a fluffy okay read.
After a week or two of thought I have to add top my review that it just wants my kind of book. But I loved the audiobooks accents and found it to be a fluffy okay read.
I really desperately wanted to enjoy this book. From the face of it, it seemed like it should be intriguing. Old-Hollywood glam, Bi-racial main character, LGBTQ+ rep, and a few women trying to climb their way in the world. But... as soon as I started reading I just found myself lacking interest. I kept reading because I knew so many others have liked this book. But gosh... it was a slug.
Considering the diversity of the characters and the writing being okay I'm going with a solid 3-star. But if I had to hear one more time about one of the main characters' coffee table/lack of table observations I would have lost it. There were a good amount of choices characters made that just didn't make sense to me. I hated how jarring the journalist's chapters were. They just broke the enjoyment of anything else that had come before. I also think that the more interesting themes or parts of the story weren't properly explored. Probably because Reid was trying to make several plot twists twist... which would have been fine... except that I was able to see them coming a mile away and so it just felt awkward.
I really did find the Hollywood glam/story of a life part of the book to be interesting and it would have just been fun to get more of that with fewer interruptions.
Considering the diversity of the characters and the writing being okay I'm going with a solid 3-star. But if I had to hear one more time about one of the main characters' coffee table/lack of table observations I would have lost it. There were a good amount of choices characters made that just didn't make sense to me. I hated how jarring the journalist's chapters were. They just broke the enjoyment of anything else that had come before. I also think that the more interesting themes or parts of the story weren't properly explored. Probably because Reid was trying to make several plot twists twist... which would have been fine... except that I was able to see them coming a mile away and so it just felt awkward.
I really did find the Hollywood glam/story of a life part of the book to be interesting and it would have just been fun to get more of that with fewer interruptions.
The writing was solid, the concept interesting. But I always feel like short stories need some sort of thesis or reasoning for being short. This didn't seem to hold any point other than some men suck... And it really held no punch or point for being a short story. It just felt like the idea of a full length novel and would have held more catharsis if it had been longer and could have let you feel anything build.
Overall it was interesting, but it fell flat for me.
Overall it was interesting, but it fell flat for me.
