juliannewarren12's Reviews (73)

Ugh this book was sooo good. The characters are lovable and the banter between Clementine and Iwen is so cute. The romance wasn’t very in your face but I preferred that personally. The discussions on grief was so raw and real. I thought Clementine was a great representation of someone grieving and it really struck home. The magical element was cute, not complicated, and executed perfectly. I will be reading this again. 

Super emotional and interesting memoir. Very eye opening to the struggles of surviving poverty and navigating gov assistance. 

Stephanie’s

’happy ending’ felt so glossed over and didn’t get the recognition it deserved. I would’ve loved to hear more about how she made her life in Montana and how the stability changed her life for the better.

Motivational and lighthearted. A little repetitive but not necessarily in a bad way. 

Explored very interesting topics and I think it could’ve been very good if written differently. This felt like porn with an apocalyptic side plot. There were too many characters introduced, many unnecessary, which was way too hard to follow. The characters were not interesting either which made it hard to read. Was highly recommended so I was disappointed to DNF this. 

13 year old me would’ve ate this up. This book is so cringy as an adult but is perfect as a teen/YA book. Plot is super predictable and cliché- the endless Taylor Swift references don’t help either. It was an easy read that only took a couple of hours, perfect for reading in between tense books. 

This story was very cute and fun to read in the moment but it was missing something. It didn’t feel so much like a thriller, more so a mystery with an emotional side plot. I did not guess most of the twists but the reveals all felt underwhelming. I think this book would’ve benefitted from 1st person or more multi POVs than just Annie and Charlotte.

I think it would have been really cook to include Henry’s POV and have them both show their sides of looking for each other after decades apart. Even Fatima’s POV could’ve been super interesting since she had interacted with both of her parents without them knowing. 

I also think this story wrapped up too nicely… it would have benefited from leaving something unfulfilled. Also I get that

Annie purposely solved everything but it felt too convenient. I think more suspense/thriller elements would have shown better is Annie didn’t put all of the clues together… there needed more to go wrong.

I enjoyed reading this in the moment and finished it in a day but it left me unsatisfied with the structure/flow. If I didn’t enjoy the storyline so much it would probably be 2 stars. 

TW if you don’t like reading about revenge porn and sexual harassment SKIP THIS BOOK 

I wanted to DNF this book for the first third. It took until the last 100 pages for me to actually be interested but even then most of the twists were predictable.

The only twist that shocked me was Will being “Steven”. I even guessed the killer pretty easily.

 

It was interesting in the end but it took way too long to get there. The whole frat and rape culture was a little too much in my opinion. I hatttteeeddd the men (which is the point) to where I genuinely didn’t want to read this. Having to read the way the men talked and acted made me want to crawl out of my own skin. The main women were enjoyable but I didn’t even want to read their chapters since the men ruined this story for me. 

This book is only above 2 stars since the last 100 pages were so interesting.

I get that this story is supposed to be dark and that Will is an awful guy, but hearing about to sexual instances that ruined Alice and Olivias lives just made this unenjoyable as a young woman myself. I’m glad Jules and Olivia made up in the end.

 

This memoir was a beautiful story honoring the author’s mother. It was a very raw take on caring for a sick family members and all of the struggles that come with. It is intertwined with personal recounts of traveling and growing up half Korean in America that were equally as interesting. 

I think this quote was so impactful:

This memoir makes me want to go home and hug my mom and never take that for granted again. 

God of the Woods was amazing. I was so interested, it pained me to put the book down while reading. The twists were interesting and I didn’t predict until right before the reveal. 

Liz Moore does a great job at balancing the flashbacks and alternating character POVs where it is not confusing to keep up with. I enjoyed which characters she chose to give a POV from and how everyone from “all sides” were represented. This genuinely made me interested in both the characters and the plot. 

Everyone online seems to hate the ending but personally I adore it.

Judy respecting Barbara’s wish to disappear was powerful in my opinion. I especially enjoyed the simplicity of the last scene: “Do you want me to leave you alone?” “Yes.”  I felt like leaving the conversation at that was very telling and was an interesting balance of closure and non-closure. I can see why people would find it a let down if they were looking for a dramatic end OR no end reveal, but the ending that was written almost feels more life-like.

This was easily one of the best books i’ve read in the past year. 

Too hard to keep track of everyone. I couldn’t get past the first few chapters because it was too hard to remember all of these names with their stories switching back and forth.