I don’t know how to start this review because im so profoundly affected by the book I just read that to explain why would literally be writing it all over again but worse. I feel like this is the type of book that creeps up on you in that the actual reading — the words, the way Ferrante (& translator Goldstein) constructs these sentences — is very pleasurable of course but you don’t realize how much so until you leave it behind. I feel like the best way i can describe my immediate gut reaction closing the book is mourning? Mourning my two brilliant friends who are no longer in my life?

Okay another thing I love: the way Ferrante’s storytelling feels SO naturalistic, with things weaving in and out of your life instead of it being very “this thing happened with a rising action a climax and a falling action and then this thing happened” which don’t get me wrong im not disparaging. But I adored the feeling of reading about Elena & Lila’s lives and going “!!!” when something came back into the story in a way that echoed. (I’m writing this very freely so forgive me if this doesn’t make sense) but I think that’s what I love - the way things echo in this book, the past “before them” that Elena and Lila cannot know and then what eventually becomes THEIR past. And I think I just love how… YEAH. THAT IS HOW IT IS. THAT REALLY *IS* HOW IT IS TO BE A YOUNG GIRL AND THEN A SLIGHTLY OLDER GIRL AND TO HAVE A FRIEND LIKE THAT. who’s brilliant because they are just good at things and just good in ways that you’re not and they’re just GOOD, even when you’re not, who’s both, you know, brilliant dazzling, but also THE LITERAL SUN to you. And this isn’t really a spoiler but im still marking it because

ohhhh my god they are EACH OTHERS BRILLIANT FRIEND and they are each other’s “childish folly” they have to outgrow im gonna start crying and throwing up FOILS in the most tragic painful way possible because they didn’t have to be. but they also did have to be. They could have continued to play dolls together for the rest of time but also that is a fairytale world that couldn’t have been.

Selin found dead in a ditch

Got recommended to me as having Severance vibes and while that is kinda there in the  evil corporation making people do something fucked up…. but instead of pushing its premise the book felt like “what if incredibly fucked up thing that already happens to and greatly affects poc outside of the west… also happened to white people “

Intelligent thoughts to come tomorrow because I need to get to sleep — but I love that this was a “stay up an hour past when I wanted to go to bed” type book because it means the slump is well and truly over. Haymitch is just my little guy. I love him. If I think too hard about him I will cry. I did cry, like a baby, for like the entire final fifth of the book. As always the pre-Games part of the book eats the hardest. and i can see what other people might interpret as Flaws but i truly dgaf because this was just wonderful. Man I just. Man. Like oh wow 

INSANE. At some point I kinda lost track of what was going on but decided ok whatever I’m just along for the ride…… and man was it quite a ride!! Alex: she ate and she ate and I’m obsessed with her. Darlington:

when they said he got eaten I was so distressed…. DEMON? WTF? ok sequel hook…. Ok me when im definitely reading the sequel…

. I thought the worldbuilding and magic was so fun (idk if that’s the right word with how dark everything was but still) even though there was just…. So much of it….. and at some point I just had to be like “what the hell sure”. I get why this is divisive because I both ate it up and also had to push myself through. Most importantly I think the reading slump is gone!! Yay!!!

Adored Gawad’s literary voice. Was actively sad for the novel to end because even though it made sense I felt like I could have followed Amira and Lina and Sami for years or decades and still want more — all three are so well-realized that they feel like friends, or maybe cousins whose lives you hear about once a year because you only see them once at Eid. I’m not Arab so I couldn’t Relate to everything but I think it’s more important and powerful that i Resonated with it - that final part almost had me crying what with how so many muslim Palestine activists have been targeted by ICE. Even more wonderful was listening to this DURING Ramadan, during long thirsty walks where I dare not run for fear of sweating out the little water I have in me, or while cooking my iftar meal. And also can i mention how phenomenal the audiobook is?? The narrator really slayed the house boots.

I liked McBride’s writing and was really enjoying the book but everything went downhill for me after Chona

got raped and died.

Like i know that’s kind of the inciting incident but I wanted to know more about her!! Likewise I liked the vignettes at some point it just felt like there were too many characters and too much going on while also being BORING because there’s so much happening besides the main storyline with Moshe & Nate & Addie & Dodo. Idk was just underwhelmed, the book felt disjointed and like I kept waiting for it to come together in a satisfying way but it never did :(

Powerful & poignant, not to mention SO engaging - I listened to the whole thing in one sitting. The audiobook is especially well done imo

So this was a bit of a mess for me. Did I have a lot of fun reading it? Yes but I think a large chunk of that came from the fact that my friends had before and we could talk about all the bonkers plot developments. I appreciate how hard Raasch commits to the bit (even if the humor sometimes overstayed its welcome and undercut some of the more serious beats (the Oh Yes Daddy fingerguns incident just during a Plot Conversation. WHY!)). Also I actually really enjoyed the political plot (and the worldbuilding in general, though the marked dancing-around-religion of it all is weird to me. Like, it’s Christmas. It’s not religion-neutral and never has been, as anyone who doesn’t come from a Christian background will tell you. Like I’m saying this as a Muslim who really likes Christmas (well, the aesthetics of it - we celebrate on New Years Eve), it’s objectively weirder to ignore it completely than have a quick “we used to do mass but one of Dad’s first initiatives as Santa was to make the holiday more inclusive, it’s still there it’s just optional, because for some people joy comes from their faith and that’s cool!” Like let’s go into the history of how these holidays came to be like this please??). AND I liked Coal & Hex’s relationship when they were more Together, but it was suuuuuuuch a mess getting there. Very underdeveloped and lacking any tension (which again is why I appreciated the political plot). They’re cute together but the thing I (and I think many romance readers) like in romance novels is the How - not What will they be like when they get together but How will they get together, especially since these two guys had so many obstacles! But they felt a bit irrelevant and not in a romantic way! I also fear my boy Hex might be a bit underdeveloped though I think that might be coming from the single-pov and just how In Coal’s Head we are — Hex comes off very Book Boyfriend who just strolls in and sets everything right and it doesn’t necessarily feel like Coal is doing all that for him. I would have loved a slower burn, or maybe even more history between the two of them (not romantic but like a “oh that’s a fellow royal i sometimes saw as a kid, ive always been a bit scared of his family, when did he get hot?). I have more technical complaints w the writing style too but that was more of a case-by-case basis.

 Overall: I think this could have been a delightful first draft to a book that’s both really fun and good but as is it’s like… “weirdly better than what you’d expect and pretty endearing but still kind of mid”. Truly the Literary Hot Frosty. I understand every 1-star and 5-star review equally.

Intriguing premise but I found the pacing to be very off (especially with the heavy focus on the present-day timeline throughout the book — this could have been an extended epilogue bc it’s not like the “mystery” is very mysterious or hard to guess) and the technical aspects of the writing weren’t very good either (show don’t tell is the FIRST thing you learn!!)

So preface - I loooove the movie so i was very excited to read the book. And the first 80% I liked just as much!! I loved getting the little minutiae that translated to the screen as setting/production design - since you have to write it all out on page it felt like I was getting a more in-depth look. However movie Benitez knocks book Benitez out the park — don’t get me wrong he STAYS being my favorite character but I was actually shocked at how mid his speech (

you know, the one that won him the PAPACY

) was compared to how hard he aaaate in the movie. It feels like in the book

he became pope because everyone else was disgusted by Tedesco but mad af at Lomeli — therefore the most “pleasantly agreeable” candidate, the pure one (the innocent one? Hahahaha)

whereas in the movie it happens because

he genuinely represents a brighter future for the church going forward, and wins not because others’ scandals bring them down until he’s the only option left but because he genuinely is the best man for the job in that college of cardinals

. However I still really enjoyed reading this! As for best adapted screenplay?? For me it’s still Nickel Boys, easy — both films really do elevate their (already great!!) source material but I think Nickel Boys just does it in a more interesting way. That said would not be mad at a Conclave win. Cardinal

Benitez

if you’re reading this the Catholics lowkey need you