herbybib's Reviews (329)

3.5 stars.

Didion’s written reckoning with loss, love, and the loneliness of sorrow is undoubtedly beautiful to behold. To my end, I couldn’t help but be pulled away from wholly resonating as so often her retellings exposed intimately a life of relative wealth and privilege.

I could not quiet the voice in the back of mind that wondered often how differently, and possibly more brutally, these events would be experienced from the place of one with much less. Didion’s job in her writing was to remember, not to grapple with this reality and I cannot count her position against her (grief is not contained by one’s social position) but it did ultimately take away from my personal enjoyment & fulfillment with the text.

i posted a whole review when i initially finished this novel and have since deleted it and lowered my rating to a one star.

9 months after reading & I am still thinking about how infuriating and bleak this book was for me. there’s no doubt Doerr can expertly craft a sentence but with over 600 pages, that’s the only redeeming quality I could find

Also, very importantly, I will never forgive the way Seymour’s character was treated and do not understand why more people don’t talk about this!!!

“If I lost the ability to hurt, I also lose my grasp on joy. Those brief moments of contentment that make consciousness worth the voyage.”

this was 5 stars for me up until the last 3-4 chapters, when most books let me down. when it comes to endings, I am hard to please!

a gruesome, unhinged good time & definitely worth the read.

unless you listen to Game of Roses you will never understand why I love the professional sport known as The Bachelor (and that’s okay)

these books are definitely too sappy and YA for my taste but I have to finish the series at this point.