nerdinthelibrary's Reviews (926)

1) The Invasion ★★★★
2) The Visitor ★★★★★

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Tobias
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Holy crap, this book was a wild ride from start to finish. It's definitely not going to win any awards but it was such a fun read.

I read this for the emojiathon challenge 'read a book that involves sports' because football is mentioned suuuper briefly and I wanted an excuse to include this book. Boy am I glad I did because, in case you can't tell, I loved this book. In my opinion, David Levithan is at his best when he's writing short stories and this book only further proved that to me.

The way the stories interconnected was clever and oftentimes very subtle, and I surprisingly found myself loving the poetic writing that I usually hate. Now into my ratings for each individual story.

smoking [5/5] What a great way to start this book, holy crap
tinder heart [5/5] At first I wasn't into it, but then I fell head over heels in love with it [TW: eating disorder]
Love Songs for Elizabeth [4.5/5] This was so adorable, but I took off half a star because the format of songs could sometimes get a bit repetitive
On the Inside [3/5] I found this one just okay. To be honest, I appreciated it more in a later story when the protagonist returned
My girlfriend is in love with Holden Caulfield [1/5] The only one I genuinely didn't like
suburban myths [3.5/5] Another one that I appreciated more later
Gospel [5/5] This may be the definition of unexpected favourite
lying awake beside you, these thoughts run through my head [4/5] The writing of this story is easily my biggest praise of it
Fragments [3/5] Fine is probably the best way to describe this one
the day [5/5] The story alone was great, but when I figured out the writing technique I was blown away
Strong [4/5] I'm not gonna lie, half the reason I like this one so much is because of how much I loved tinder heart [TW: eating disorder]
The Patron Saint of Stoners [5/5] For some reason I really related to this one
Writing [5/5] The story by itself was fantastic and then the way it connected with so many of the ones that followed made me love it even more
Your Sister [4/5] This story just builds and builds to such a satisfying climax in a way that you wouldn't expect from only a few pages
Comeuppance [4/5] This reminded me of fan-fiction, and I mean that in the best possible way. It specifically reminded me of the many character studies I've read, which are a personal favourite of mine
the grocer's daughter [3/5] It was sweet but ultimately had no substance to it
Experimentation [5/5] Easily the funniest of them all, which made the emotion towards the end even more impactful
Unlonely [4/5] I didn't entirely understand this one but I loved it
escapade [5/5] Platonic relationships at their finest
Possibility [5/5] The perfect conclusion to an amazing book

If I were smart enough to average out my ratings then it would probably be 3-4, but I'm giving it a 5 anyway because I loved it and because I can.

Edit 06/10/18: Jaime from the future here to say that I finally figured out what the rating would actually be. There was a possibility for 100 stars in total and I gave it 83, which averages out to 4-4.25 stars.

DNF'd at pg. 304

I was so excited when my friend loaned me this book, and I was really into it for the first 40 pages or so. It seemed like it was going to be a zombie apocalypse but with elemental magic.

Then the chosen one bullshit kicked in.

I didn't really care about any of the characters except for Katherine, and this book has some of the worst insta-love I've ever read. It was also just really boring. Even when exciting things were happening, like battles and revelations, the way it was written and my lack of investment in the characters made it impossible for me to care.

I was determined to finish it but it got to a point where I was skimming entire chapters so I can't continue.

*1.5

Okay, I'll admit, I went into this book expecting to hate it. The first 200 or so pages were a pleasant surprise because while it's definitely not good, it does have an addictive guilty pleasure quality to it.

But then the romance really got started and it became sickening insta-love full of unhealthy tropes and any personality Bella had in the first half was lost.

I wouldn't say this is the worse book I've ever read but I'm definitely not going to continue the series.

I'm typing this on my phone so this'll be super quick

Things I liked:
— Leigh's writing is, as usual, incredible
— I have adopted all these characters because I love them all so freaking much (except for one. you know which one i mean if you've read it)
— The diversity was a+ with 4/5 of the characters being poc and Nim being the beautiful fat lesbian that she is
— FEMALE FRIENDSHIP FUCK YES!!
— The last 60 or so pages were so intense and it was so freaking good!!

Things I didn't like:
— The book really screeched to a halt for me whenever it would get really plot-heavy
— I wasn't a fan of either of the romances

Overall I really enjoyed this book and am so excited for more of the DC Icons books and whatever Leigh writes next 😊

*3.5

Another great addition to the 39 Clues series with a fast plot and on-point characterisation, I'm looking forward to more of C. Alexander London's contributions

*0.5

I originally gave this 3 stars when I read it in 2014 when I was thirteen. Now, in 2018 at nearly seventeen years old, I tried to re-read it and DNF'd it 16 pages in.

I definitely understand why I loved it years ago; I had just read Divergent and The Hunger Games so I was in that dystopian phase and only just started reading YA. But now I've read far better YA (far better dystopian, too) and could tell this wouldn't be my cup of tea.

In those sixteen pages there is far too much explanation of things that could have been more naturally inserted (mostly a lot of forced world building), a lot of telling instead of showing, majority of the characters were already annoying me, and I could see hints of future girl hate (which I've heard is very present in the sequel).

I wish I had've read the entire trilogy when I was thirteen because I would have loved it and at least had good memories of it. I would only recommend this to people just starting to read YA (ages 10-13 mainly) or people looking for a quick guilty pleasure read.

I've finally read my first Patrick Ness book!! After this one, I'm so excited to read the rest of his books.

It's a pretty plotless book following one day in the protagonist, Adam's, life. It's more interesting than it sounds, I swear. It's about the different relationships in his life (his best friend, his boyfriend, his ex and his family mainly), the way these relationships change over the course of the day and how this changes him.

The diversity in this book is pretty great too. In terms of sexuality, Adam is gay, Angela's sexuality is fluid, Linus is gay, and there are other side lgbt+ characters. In terms of race, Angela is Korean, Karen and Renee are black, Enzo is latino, and there are other side poc.

The reason this is 4 stars and not 5 is because of the secondary plot which is about the ghost of a girl who was recently murdered. I'm not going to lie, about halfway through I stopped reading whenever this plot showed up. It didn't affect my enjoyment that much I just didn't think it was overly necessary or had enough correlation to Adam's storyline to justify it's presence.

Something that no one is mentioning that I think everyone should know before reading this is that there is a scene in which Adam's boss comes onto him and implies that Adam needs to have sex with him in order to keep his job. The scene is pretty short, but it is discussed multiple times after. One of these discussions involves someone accusing Adam of leading on his boss. Personally I was unaffected and it didn't lessen my enjoyment, but I think people should know this before they read it.