I loved how suspenseful and dark his book was! There were some truly shocking twists that absolutely blew my mind. I loved how well developed and twisted all the characters were. I was ready to fight some of the more awful characters, but I mean that in the best way possible! This was also so atmospheric and felt like a classic, but with more modern framing. It had the detailed descriptions and slower pacing of a dark classic, but with sapphic women and direct discussion of sex and controlling/creepy men treated as villains! The only reason I'm not giving this five stars is because I felt the ending was a little anticlimactic. The book felt like it was building to a much more exciting climax than what happened when everything came together.

4.5 stars

This was so well written and atmospheric! The characters were flawed and complex and allowed to make mistakes, which I especially appreciated since this is an all female cast with multiple sapphic relationships. It was dark and suspenseful without being terrifying, which works well for a book written for teens. There was also a theme of not being able to trust authority figures in a crisis, which definitely rings true as we are living through a literal pandemic. I'm not a huge YA horror or dystopian reader, but I still loved this. However, I can see why some people who don't like body horror or who don't like open endings may not enjoy this as much.

I loved the way this showed the experience of not knowing that you have a crush on someone, even if you know your sexuality. That's the thing I related to most in this book, but I also loved the family relationships and friendships in this book. I tend to enjoy books about famous people, so I did enjoy that aspect and how this handles the topic of being a woman in Hollywood and dealing with sexual harassment and intrusive poparazzi. As much as I liked the characters and relationships, the pacing could have been better, especially at the end. I was fine with the very slow build to these two characters getting together, but I feel like their relationship and the book moved way too fast once they finally kissed and decided to start dating. I also personally didn't love that the last chapter before the epilogue ends with an explicit sex scene. It just felt kind of jarring to me. The scene itself was fine, I just would have liked it more if there was something between that scene and the epilogue.

3.5 stars

This was cute, but didn't have any particular impact on me. There were too many sections that weren't part of the main plot and didn't work for me. I do appreciate the queer representation, though, and the dialogue is really smooth and natural.

4.5 stars

This was a really fun read! It has some of the best humor and banter I've read in a romance. I also really liked the balance between romance and other life stuff. There is quite a bet of drama, but that's expected in a romance like this. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is that I would have liked to see more of Richard's perspective, especially since this is so short.

4.5

This took a while to get through and was a difficult read at times, but I think it was ultimately worth it. I really like queer historical fiction related to music so I'm not really surprised I liked this. I also really lie reading about complicated, flawed women in fiction. The friendship at the center of this is nowhere near perfect, but that's realistic. Unhealthy friendships exist and the people in them don't always realize they're unhealthy.
I loved the bisexual rep in this. I could tell Dores was bisexual and not pansexual without the word being on the page, which is rare. There's also so much discussion of privilege related to class, skin color, sexuality, and even talent.
The author shows many different kinds of music in Brazil and outside it at this time and how it relates to culture, privilege, and politics. The book also explored who owns a song and whether or not getting credit for writing a song matters. It was really interesting to learn about a music tradition different from the Western music traditions I'm more familiar with. Music isn't just part of the book's plot and characters. The writing includes metaphors related to music an often uses music to explain what's happening or what characters are feeling. The writing is also very poetic, which is fitting with Dores being a lyricist.
The thing that keeps this from a full five stars is that the pacing can feel a little slow for me, but I understand why, with this being such a character driven story. I just expected to reach certain points in the plot faster than we did, especially since the pacing sped up so much towards the end.

The pacing of this was way too fast, meaning I never cared about the characters. This would have been better as a short story or a longer novella. There were a lot of really interesting concepts that also could have been explored more if it was longer and maybe even set over a longer period of time. There were also some attempts at humor that didn't work for me and took more time away from the things that I was interested in. I think this could have been incredible if it had been executed better.

3.5 stars

This was cute and nice, but didn't have any particular impact on me. I did like the art so I might try another book by this author someday, if one exists.