One of my new favorites in the historical fiction genre! I'm not particularly educated about the Vietnam War and the author did a really good job at introducing me to the historical reality of the war. The characters were well developed and the plot was well crafted. I really liked that it focused on the experiences of women, both during the war and after the war. 

There were so many devastating moments throughout the book that really made me grapple with the reality of the Vietnam War. I felt so connected to the characters that I really empathized with everything that Frankie went through.

Despite an incredibly silly (and intriguing!) premise, I found the message to be very inspiring!

I liked Lauren’s character. I liked seeing how her perspective changed as she came to terms with the husbands. I found the plot to be a little slow at first (hence why this book took me three weeks to read) but once I got into it I was invested! I really liked Lauren's friendship with Bohai.

I really enjoyed the ending. I thought that it made a lot of sense to Lauren’s character arc that she didn’t get to know Sam.

The plot leaned more towards speculative fiction and literary fiction than science fiction and thriller. I was really interested in how the technology and science of the Ovum-to-Ovum innovation converged with the societal and political response to the new technology. Even though it was science fiction, it felt very realistic.

My favorite part of this book is Jules's character arc of coming to terms with her feelings about being a parent. The final twist —

the fact that the eggs were mislabelled, meaning that the baby might not actually be the biological child of Rosie and Jules

— did a really good job of resolving Jules's character arc. In particular, I loved this quote from the end of the book:  

This book really grapples with homophobia, so be warned that the amount of homophobia in this book is staggering. It isn't really resolved either — it's clear to the reader that this is something that Rosie and Jules will have to deal with for the rest of their lives.

The premise was super interesting — a girl who was told the exact duration of every relationship before it even started. I liked the main characters: Daphne, Hugo, and Jake. Daphne had good chemistry with both Hugo and Jake which made it more exciting to find out which man she ended up with.

I thought that the beginning was a bit slow. I think that the author added too many flashbacks to Daphne's previous relationships — it was hard to keep the characters straight when we were introduced to like six ex-boyfriends. Plus, all of the ex-boyfriends were very one-note, which made them pretty uninteresting to read about.

The ending was the best part. Everything from Chapter Thirty-Three onward was perfect!

Thought-provoking social commentary written in a way that was enjoyable to read. The book grapples with race and class in an interesting way, allowing the main characters to be both right and wrong at different times within the book. This book leaves you with a lot to think about. 

The characters were all very well-written. Alix and Emira were both written with a lot of nuance, which made their actions feel very believable. There was an interesting juxtaposition between Emira’s lack of ambition versus Alix’s over-ambition. I enjoyed the bond between Emira and Briar. 

There was so much good buildup in the beginning and then the ending kind of let me down. I was expecting a much bigger twist at the ending, and while there was a final twist, it felt pretty unbelievable to me.

The fact that Hudson and Eve were in a friends-with-benefits relationship and it never came up during Eve's narration of their affair means that Eve must not have known that he was a student, despite the fact that he was the school's star quarterback.

Furthermore, that final twist completely undercut any message about how abuse is inherent within student/teacher relationships.

By presenting a positive student/teacher relationship between Hudson and Eve, the author is basically claiming that student/teacher relationships can be healthy as long as the student is mature enough.

The author did a very good job of keeping the character's voices very unique across different perspectives. Addie reads as a teenager while Eve and Nate read as adults, both in their own narration as well as in others' narration. 

Overall, while I found Part II to be disappointing, Part I was very compelling to read. The slow build of the relationship between Mr. Bennett and Addie had me on edge. The different manipulation tactics that he used on Addie were extremely unnerving to read. 

 More of a literary mystery than a mystery thriller. This was a very heavy read as it dealt more with understanding the factors that led to the death of a young woman and less about actually solving the mystery. A lot of topical themes were addressed: the ethics of true crime, the #metoo movement, consent and power dynamics within abuse. 

 

It’s definitely not a classical mystery — there isn’t a lot of closure in the case as the book both starts and ends with the wrong person in prison. However, this feels more purposeful since there is a strong theme of unfairness present throughout the book, specifically how to cope with the unfairness that is present in the world. 

 

I found the narrative device of having Bodie address all of her narration towards Mr. Bloch to be a bit confusing. I understand that it’s meant to emphasize that his abuse of power and sexual misconduct were a factor that led to Thalia’s death even if he himself didn’t kill her. However, I think that this message could have been conveyed in a less clunky way. 

Well written and well-researched. The deep dive into fraternity drug culture was really interesting to read. Reading about these "frat bros" and their certainty that they wouldn't face any consequences for their actions (which for the most part, turned out to be true) was downright horrifying. The author does a fantastic job of setting up Rob's betrayal of Mikey as the climactic moment of the story.

My main criticism of this book is that the author goes out of his way in some places to remain neutral while describing the fraternities. I think a greater amount of criticism would have made a bigger impact on the reader, particularly since the author was himself a "frat bro" in college.

I really enjoyed the mixed media format. It made me feel more engaged with the mystery because of the way that all of the evidence was presented. The mystery had a lot of complex and unique twists and turns which made it really compelling to try to figure out. My favorite twist was definitely

the reveal that the script for Divine was written by Holly

. The only twist that I figured out on my own was

the reveal that there were multiple Hollys.

I really liked the set-up for the mystery. The investigation into the psychology of how cults work was very interesting. My only qualm with this book was that it was difficult to keep track of all of the side-characters, since most of them were presented only through email or text message. 

What I was promised: a journalist’s investigation into how her participation in a longitudinal study at a young age affected her future. 

 

What I received: the whining of a woman who spends an entire memoir desperately trying to blame her own failures and shortcomings on any external source she could find. 

My main issue with this memoir is that it failed to deliver on its own premise. In the final chapter, we find out that all of Breslin's data from the study (save for her pre-school intake form) was destroyed. While this cannot be helped (this is nonfiction, after all) it makes for a very uncompelling end to Breslin's personal journey. In the end, I just don't understand why this memoir was written (and I don't think Breslin could come up with a compelling reason either, since she admits that this book was originally intended to be journalism, not a memoir).