housecatstewart's Reviews (114)

If you’ve ever felt out of place or like you were just missing something that everyone else had, this book will rip you apart. Cried and laughed through the whole thing.
I would’ve called this a perfect book if not for 2 things:
First, the mummy dialogue was so over the top that it was almost theatrical lol. It took me out of the story a little bit. Second, the twist at the end killed me. I went from sobbing through the last quarter of the book to just total befuddlement that the author would make that choice. Took me completely out of the ending for the last few pages.
Aside from those two things, it was incredible. I can forgive the twist because of the beauty of everything else.

I really enjoyed the style and ingenuity of this and I can’t think of anything I’ve ever read that was like it. I was fully captivated through the entirety of the book. Seeing everything through Christopher’s detached point of view left so much unsaid for the reader to infer while still giving insight into Christopher's own unique feelings and interpretations of things. I would definitely recommend this if you're looking for something easy in style and pace but thought-provoking in plot.

I wanted to like this so badly and after finishing it and pondering for a few days to see what stuck with me, I finally have to accept I just didn’t love it. The pacing in this felt so off to me. It seemed like it took ages and ages for exciting things to happen, and then the excitement was over in an instant and it was back to Circe walking the island and thinking about the same problems again and again. I don’t mind a “boring” book - I can appreciate the introspection - but Circe as a character was too hard for me to love.

Beautiful and torturous story from beginning to end. David’s efforts to hate himself into being a man he could respect will stick with me for a while.

HOWEVER:
If ever, in the world, in the future, perhaps, there is a shortage of commas, then we, as a society, certainly, need look no further than this novel, where there is an abundance so great, we must assume, readily, that Baldwin considers them tantamount to spaces.

Rating this 3 stars because I loved everything until the ending. I’m actually sick to my stomach. If I could “Misery” Jojo Moyes and make her change the ending, I would.

I would give this 3.5. There were parts of it that really got me, but most of it felt like it just couldn’t quite match up to the charm and humor and sincerity of the first book. It was still a nice story about nice people, which I enjoyed. I probably won’t ever re-read this one but I’d absolutely still read more from Andrew Sean Greer.

I’m rating this 2 stars as someone who has read 2 other Emily Henry books and has gone into each one with an open mind. I totally, completely understand that this is commercial fiction and it’s meant to be a little corny and over the top for entertainment value. It’s just meant to be sexy and fun. It’s not winning any prizes and it’s not trying to be literary fiction and there’s nothing wrong with that.

BUT.

I think in the realm of commercial romance novels and Emily Henry novels, this was SUCH a cop out of a story! She really phoned it in on both the plot and the prose. Maybe it’s because she has this large, loyal fan base now and she doesn’t have to worry about whether or not people will read it because her fans always will, so she just didn’t care as much about making something genuinely tender and charming. At this point she has found the formula that will keep people coming back for more without fault, at least for now. And I truly think Emily Henry could write something more sincere than this but she simply doesn’t have to in order to sell books so she just doesn’t. It’s baffling to me that she’s okay being part of the “we all know this kind of sucks but that’s just how commercial romance writing is” narrative when she could elevate the genre instead. With her reach and popularity, I would love to see her really push things to a deeper level with her next book. If the next one is like this again, it’ll be the last for me, for sure.

As a side note - does Emily Henry actually think moaning while eating is sexy, or does she just think we will believe it’s sexy because she’s telling us it is? Gagged every time lol.

Never thought I’d be crying over Johnny Appleseed but here we are.