hfjarmer's Reviews (394)

"These days when I don't feel "queer enough," I try to remember that queerness isn't a box to check—it isn't even tied to a goal."

This book fell a little short for me. I went into this expecting a book about queerness and bisexuality/bi-culture, but instead it read much more like a memoir about the author's life and was very heavy on hook-up horror stories with queer trivia sprinkled in between. It was only really about bisexuality in the fact that the author is bisexual. It reads much more like a millennial-cringe version of Melissa Febos' "Girlhood", but a touch more queer. I wanted this book to feel validating and insightful. The writing did make me chuckle at times and felt akin to talking to your older sister/cousin.

Additionally, a couple of the essays felt a little self-righteous. She writes a lot about the process of unlearning her privilege, but in a way that feels performative. It's not that I doubt that Winston has put in the work to unlearn many of her inherent biases, it's just that I don't think she needs to write a whole chapter about how well she is doing in her unlearning journey.

I saw another reviewer say this book is like an intro to queer-studies and social justice and that you'd be better off skipping this in favor of the other queer writers Winston mentions, I agree with that.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is gross girl-core at its finest. I loved this book. It was funny, sad, disturbing and basically plotless. The main character is, essentially, insufferable. She is a pretty, well-off, privileged white girl, living in New York City in 2000-2001 who decides the best way to process all her grief over the back to back deaths of her parents is to sleep for a year. She finds a quack psychiatrist, Dr. Tuttle (my favorite character), who I pictured as Professor Trelawny with a prescription pad. Dr. Tuttle is all vibes and she gives our lovely main character countless sample packets, miscellaneous prescriptions, and pays absolutely zero attention to anything the main character says. Then there is Reva, the unnamed narrator's self-proclaimed best friend. Reva is a disaster in her own right and though she is depicted as a bit needy and neurotic, she seems to genuinely care about our narrator who, in turn, finds Reva to be intolerable in her own way.

I love an unreliable narrator, so I ate this book up. Everything the reader knows is fed to us through the heavily-sedated lens of the main character. She is bitterly depressed, and I think the author did a good job of narrating the selfishness of someone who is deep in a depressive episode. The ugly things that are said to push the people that love us even further away.

Not everyone will like this book. In fact, a lot of people don't per the reviews I've read through, but if you like dark humor, the macabre, and no-plot-just-vibes stories, it is definitely worth the read.

First thing's first, I did not realize this was a YA book until about five minutes ago when I was reading through the reviews, but it does make sense knowing what I now know.

This book was overall very okay. I'll admit it was my first non-Sarah J Maas fantasy book, as I'm still very new to the fantasy genre. The Cruel Prince was a very okay read, for me. I grumbled a lot about the hundreds of pages of worldbuilding in the ACOTAR and Crescent City series', and was initially happy and surprised to find that The Cruel Prince comes in at under 400 pages. Unfortunately, I now know why worldbuilding is so important in this genre. I felt like I was just plopped into the middle of a world and had no bearings. Not much was explained to the reader, and I felt a little lost. I will no longer groan about worldbuilding.

My other qualm with this story was the lack of emotion I felt throughout the book. It was a quick and engaging read, but it lacked the emotional punch that I had grown used to. Again, I'm sorry to compare so much against ACOTAR, it's just what I know, so far. It read as though Black knows all the things that make a great story, but left the emotion I want to feel while reading. The story was there, but the writing felt mechanical, clinical, rather than evoking feelings. I wanted more from the characters.

On a positive side, I really liked the main character - Jude. She has a "take no shit" attitude and fears nothing while simultaneously fearing everything. I think utilizing the "faeries can't lie, but humans can" tale as a centerpiece for the plot was clever. I enjoyed the sibling dynamics and the familial themes.

I'm not sure I will read the other two in the series.

3.5 Stars.

I always enjoyed and connected with John's books growing up, and I am happy to report that the teen angst in me still recognizes the teen angst in John Green. Reading this book after having spent the last few years really engaging with his content on other platforms (YouTube, podcasts, TikTok's, etc) really allowed me to see his personality shine through in this book, much in the same way I felt Hank's personality shine through in An Absolutely Remarkable Thing.

I related greatly to Aza, having struggled with undiagnosed OCD in my childhood, a lot of what Aza describes is all too familiar to me. I do think John's books all follow a pretty similar plot pattern, so the plot wasn't anything groundbreaking, but the overall tone of the book and the complications of trying to understand yourself in a world that by all appearances is out to get you resonated enough with me that I really enjoyed this read.

I overall enjoyed this book. I was engaged throughout the story, and I found it relaxing to read a book that wasn't seeking to create a massive adrenaline rush in the reader. There are no huge twists, no gut-wrenching drama, it is simply a story. Despite liking the easy-going nature of The Vanishing Half, this book did leave me wanting more. Brit Bennett touches on a lot of topics in this book - racism, domestic abuse, queerness, and classism - among others. I finished this book and felt I had read a story, but didn't feel overly moved to reflect on anything in particular, I felt unsure of what I was to glean from the story. I wish she had explored these topics in more depth.

I was pleasantly surprised by the trans story line in the book, and really loved Jude and Reese's relationship. I wish we had gotten more from Reese's story line in particular, but considering the four different narratives/story lines that we flipped back and forth between, I'm not really sure that was possible.

Overall, I thought this was an enjoyable story about identity and the ways our communities shape us.

3.5 STARS

Ending aside (I knew it by the way), I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first Crescent City book, or as much as other books by Sarah J Maas. The number of third act plot twists felt like she was just trying to twist everyone's mind, but in a way that felt a bit overdone rather than well crafted. And as much as I like Bryce and Hunt, their chemistry is seriously lacking, especially when compared to the Feyre-Rhys romance. I know they are different characters, but I just didn't get the same feeling with these books as I did with ACOTAR. And if I read "slid into home" one more time I was going to throw the book away. That being said, it was still a Sarah J Maas book and overall I still enjoyed it, the ending alone was crazy and I am excited to read the new one when it is released.

Was this good? No. Did I read ravenously? Yes.

After reading Becoming a few years ago, I had high hopes for The Light We Carry. Truthfully, it fell a little flat for me. The first section of this book, had I not been reading it for my book club, would have been enough for me to DNF and not think twice about it. If these chapters had not been written by the Michelle Obama, it could've been pasted directly from any one of a thousand blogs with similarly generic life advice. Part One read more to me like a cheesy self-help book, geared more toward middle-aged, probably white women. It lacked Michelle's voice in any meaningful way.

Parts two and three really turned things around for me. Finally, Michelle! I loved her chapters about marriage and motherhood, about code-switching and "going high". While the lessons didn't get any more unique, they did come with that signature wit and voice that I loved so much in Becoming. I thought her discussion of the phenomenon of code switching was an excellent introduction for individuals who might be new to the topic, new to the idea of being an "only", as she put it. I liked that she discussed her educational and occupational difficulties as a black woman in a way that was reflective and digestible for those who may be considering these things for the first time without sugar coating the reality of her (and many other) women's experience.

Overall, I expected more from this book, but I'm glad I pushed through and was still able to find the Michelle we've all come to know and love.

This book was exactly what I expected it to be. No more, no less.
Legends and Lattes follows an ork named Viv who leaves her life of headhunting behind to pursue her dream of opening a coffee shop, a "gnomish" delicacy and totally new concept to the people of Thune. The story is the embodiment of a perfect story plot line with a distinct intro, rising action, conflict, resolution format. The story is incredibly cozy and I could picture myself in the warm and inviting environment of Legends and Lattes. A simple and mindless read in all the right ways.

I really wanted to like this book.
As an avid reader of essay-style books and with all the positive reviews, I had high hopes that Tolentino was going to deliver a set of witty and incisive essays that left me feeling reflective and tickled. Instead I just feel as though I've missed the point, like I've been left out of an inside joke. My biggest qualm with Trick Mirror is that it didn't feel like Tolentino really said anything. Her essays felt more like reports, and she really heavily relied on quoting other authors to the point where I felt her work was severely lacking in her own voice. I didn't feel like any of the topics she brought to light were really revolutionary in any real way. We know weddings are flashy and expensive, we know sexual assault is a major problem on college campuses and are chronically underreported, none of this felt new or interesting to me. Additionally, I was not a huge fan of Tolentino's writing style. Her sentences were often extremely long and felt disjointed. I think the excess of quotes made this even more obvious to me, and it felt like she wrote the whole thing with a thesaurus open. I kept reading in the hopes that the next essay would be better, and was just continually disappointed. Honorable mentions for 'I in Internet' and 'Always Be Optimizing'. I am willing to admit I may have just completely missed the point of Trick Mirror, maybe I'm not smart enough to understand Tolentino's worldly insight, but even so I did not enjoy this book.