moserk's Reviews (128)

This little 11-min audio from everyone's favorite gender neutral blob might just be you new favorite comfort read. 

Daily gentle reminders/mantras.

I always feel so strange at the mere idea of rating a memoir....but I found this particularly well done and hey, a 5-star rating never hurt.

Psst...Tom Felton narrates the audiobook and it has a bonus chapter not in the first publishing. Enjoy.

There's a reservedness about Tom's story where he shares while keeping certain pieces close and without oversharing or speaking ill of others. Yes, there's some behind-the-scenes bits on Harry Potter - but it's much more than that. 

Love the premise - YA read with big themes and their intersectionality:

but execution fell short of my high hopes + left me wanting more. That said, really happy to know this exists in YA.

The pace felt rushed - just 50 more pages to shed more light, please! And some pieces really lacked clarity - although, maybe some of this is due to the focus on character/topic diversity, which again, I much appreciated. I (literally) felt like this story was all over the place - couldn't keep our location sequence sorted.

Worth noting: I had both a physical and audio copy of this and understood better during my physical chapters. At first I thought the detail disconnect was a symptom of my audio portions, but a quick peek at other reviews tells me that I'm not alone here. 

Setting aside my thoughts on the setting and the author's handling of a modern-day Romeo & Juliet but with an Israeli girl and Palestinian boy, this still missed the mark and fell incredibly flat for me.

I found the split POV difficult to follow (if not for the audiobook, I undoubtedly would have misinterpreted Jamil's sections as Ronit's words and vice verse) but appreciated the use of ghazal poem structure (although, I understand this requires at least a 5 couplet structure, and note that Ronit's first ghazal is only 4 couplets).

It's a 1-hr read if you feel called.

To say I 'enjoyed' this would be wrong, but I'd recommend the read, yes. My heart absolutely aches for our main character.

Xavier "Scarecrow" Wallace is a mixed race MMA fighter looking to return to the ring following a 1-year suspension, while also battling CTE. Parallel to all this (as if it weren't enough), Xavier is forced to watch his father (Sam) battle dementia, an ugly disease which soon reveals a side Xavier never knew existed - one that might well explain why his mother left his father all those years ago; some people aren't what the seem once their filter is removed. 

A heart-wrenching story of many battles, both in and out of the ring. I found it heavy, but well written. Feels like one that will stick with me awhile.  

Always. Read. The. Epilogue.
I contest some of the final pieces being believable, but the epilogue's reveal got me good.

Entire plot line gave me the ick - grooming and teacher/student relationships will do that. Unfortunately, I imagine this is well written as far as those types of things go. Not my favorite Freida, but another quick audio. 

Required reading as unfortunately, there's a number of direct parallels to today.  

A stark reminder of an incredibly dark time in our not-so-distant past, but focused on the pieces your prior history lessons likely skimmed over or excused to the Civil War South. Understanding the Midwest's part was sobering, as was understanding how many people (especially women) were not only complicit, but also actively engaged in perpetuating such horrendous things. 

A compelling listen, though I found  myself occasionally struggling to keep everything straight; I'll take ownership there though, as nonfiction isn't my typical so strictly listening might not have been the best move.