Cute enough. Sort of like All the Wrong Questions meets City of Bones. The plot is a little simple, even for a middle grade book, with most of the "big reveals" being super obvious. Also, there are fully adults in the building (including a retired detective) and yet it's it he kids that work everything out. Like every SINGLE adult in this book is basically worthless!

A good first book of poetry. It had moments that left me sitting there really thinking about what I read. But some of the poems just didn't work for me. A little too short, a little too telling instead of showing. Otherwise a totally amazing collection. Still well worth the read. The trigger warnings for this book are more or less exactly what you'd expect (racism, sexism, including mentions of rape and sexual assault)

Oh yeah I'm INVESTED now! I cannot wait to read book three. This book blends history and fantasy seamlessly, weaving a story that is so close to real. I think it's a truly fantastic book that really challenges the genre of middle grade. I'm SO HECKING jazzed that this book exists because I would have been overjoyed to read this as a young person.

This is a case of a book that had everything I should have loved but really didn't do it for me. I mean, this literally could have been amazing. But I thought the writing was really not great and the characters didn't feel like real people most of the time, more like devises for the story which is never my personal jam. I also didn't care for the world building all that much tbh. IDK it isn't even like I really hated the book I just was so distressingly underwhelmed by it...

TW for this book include:  Death, Gun violence, Animal death, Xenophobia, Gore, Suicide, and Violence

It's too bad that this one misses the mark, I enjoyed the other books in this series but this one didn't work for me. I didn't particularly like the characters nor did I fully understand or like the romance. The side characters all felt pretty bland as well. It just wasn't as fun of a read as the others which is probably the real reason I'm so disappointed because, whatever flaws the others had, they were fun reads. This one, not so much.

This is an entirely different story from The Deep but I loved it. This was a challenging read both in terms of the themes and the way the story weaves in and out of time and in and out of POVs. But the challenge made the story, as it were. The detail, the world building, the characters, the way it takes you by the throat and never lets up, this book is just incredible. I will say that part of the challenge of this story is that involves a lot of people causing pain to a lot of others. Please read with caution and note the trigger warnings. Rivers Solomon is now up there with Jemisin and Gaiman as authors I will pick up anything from, no matter the context. Between this and The Deep there is no doubt in my mind that people will be reading and discussing Solomon's works for generations to come.

Longer review to come but needless to say this book totally deserved to win the Newbery award this year.

This book is incredible and timely and perfect. Thomas is a master at mixing in the poetic with colloquial, turning seemingly simple sentences into literary punches that strike hard and fast, leaving the reader breathless. It brought me to tears multiple times.  I think the world needs more stories about this. Mav is a complicated person because all Black young men are complicated. He struggles with doing the right thing because we all do at some point. The way Thomas depicts his struggles is so touchingly real. I felt like I could reach through the book and hold these young people. Also, the (slight spoiler) twist of having this tie in loosely with the Dear Martin universe is AMAZING. Angie Thomas is I suspect the best living author of YA and I'm so glad that she exists to put these incredible stories out into the world. 

Eh. This is fine. The narrative voice was probably the most interesting part of it but it mostly just.... Ok, I don't know how else to say this but it is just so... Straight. I found the characters dull I found the plot too slow, I thought it would have worked better as a short story or a novella. I wanted to find these wealthy white women sympathetic and sometimes I did but mostly I just rolled my eyes aggressively at them. 

I don't necessarily have a lot to say about this one. The rating is a little lower because aspects of the writing style weren't hitting for me and it sometimes felt repetitive in a way that didn't feel intentional or poetic. Overall, however, it is an extremely powerful if difficult read with characters who are filled with humanity and flaws. There are a lot of triggers in this book, more than I could possibly hope to calculate but keeping in mind this is a book about slavery and more or less every sort of trigger that might come with that as well as those that might come from homophobia. It's a lot and it isn't a "fun" read but it was a good read that had a lot of truly interesting things to say.