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nerdinthelibrary's Reviews (926)
ContemporaryAThon: read a book with a peach-coloured cover.
content warnings: fatphobia, homophobia, vomitting
representation: fat protagonist, Mexican main and side characters, gay main character, Black main and side characters, wlw side character, Chinese side character
I need Julie Murphy to know that I love her and would die for her prickly female protagonists. This is the second book I've read of hers (though I have seen the film adaptation of Dumplin') and this one was also a complete slam dunk with me!
This book follows thirteen year-old Sweet Pea as she approaches the end of seventh grade. After her dad came out as gay her parents got divorced and her dad is finally moving into a new house, which happens to be only one house away from where Sweet Pea's mum still lives. While trying to adjust to her new living situation, Miss Flora Mae, the town eccentric/advice columnist, entrusts Sweet Pea with helping her with her advice column while she's off to see her sister.
As I said, I adore Julie Murphy's prickly female protagonist, and Sweet Pea is no difference. She does things that will make you tear your hair out and scream "WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?", but all of her actions are incredibly understandable. She's a thirteen year-old who's dealing with lots of confusing things in her life and she feels like she can't really talk to anyone about it. She also feels so bad for doing mean things after she does them, and it's hard not to immediately forgive her.
As with all her other books, Julie Murphy sprinkles in some important discussions throughout this, too. Sweet Pea is fat and has grown up feeling mostly comfortable in her own skin because of the support of her parents, but those little insecurities are still there and they're heartbreaking to read about (one scene in particular where she describes being in 3rd grade and all the girls comparing their stomachs made me nearly start crying). With Sweet Pea's dad being gay, there's also discussions of homophobia in their town, highlighted with the discussions around him and one of his old friends who hasn't accepted him.
This book in general just has great diversity throughout. Most of the main characters in Sweet Pea's class are people of colour, their teacher is queer and has a wife, one of the other girls is also fat, and Sweet Pea thinks her best friend, Oscar, might like boys. All of this is extremely casual, even when it's used to further a larger discussion, and I love that Julie Murphy was able to incorporate her usual themes into a book written for a different age range.
I think people underestimate how hard it is to write for a different age range than you're used to, and Julie Murphy does it pretty expertly here. Her writing style never feels pandering, just simplified and clearly from the eyes of a younger girl. Something I think is especially impressive is how funny this is. A lot of authors, but especially YA/Adult authors, really struggle with making middle grade funny because they don't really seem to understand the sense of humour that pre-teens have, but Julie Murphy nails the dorky sincerity of thirteen year-olds making jokes.
This was extremely short and sweet, and I adored it. Julie Murphy's middle grade debut is an absolute success, and I now want to force this into the hands of every child I know.
content warnings: fatphobia, homophobia, vomitting
representation: fat protagonist, Mexican main and side characters, gay main character, Black main and side characters, wlw side character, Chinese side character
I need Julie Murphy to know that I love her and would die for her prickly female protagonists. This is the second book I've read of hers (though I have seen the film adaptation of Dumplin') and this one was also a complete slam dunk with me!
This book follows thirteen year-old Sweet Pea as she approaches the end of seventh grade. After her dad came out as gay her parents got divorced and her dad is finally moving into a new house, which happens to be only one house away from where Sweet Pea's mum still lives. While trying to adjust to her new living situation, Miss Flora Mae, the town eccentric/advice columnist, entrusts Sweet Pea with helping her with her advice column while she's off to see her sister.
As I said, I adore Julie Murphy's prickly female protagonist, and Sweet Pea is no difference. She does things that will make you tear your hair out and scream "WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?", but all of her actions are incredibly understandable. She's a thirteen year-old who's dealing with lots of confusing things in her life and she feels like she can't really talk to anyone about it. She also feels so bad for doing mean things after she does them, and it's hard not to immediately forgive her.
As with all her other books, Julie Murphy sprinkles in some important discussions throughout this, too. Sweet Pea is fat and has grown up feeling mostly comfortable in her own skin because of the support of her parents, but those little insecurities are still there and they're heartbreaking to read about (one scene in particular where she describes being in 3rd grade and all the girls comparing their stomachs made me nearly start crying). With Sweet Pea's dad being gay, there's also discussions of homophobia in their town, highlighted with the discussions around him and one of his old friends who hasn't accepted him.
This book in general just has great diversity throughout. Most of the main characters in Sweet Pea's class are people of colour, their teacher is queer and has a wife, one of the other girls is also fat, and Sweet Pea thinks her best friend, Oscar, might like boys. All of this is extremely casual, even when it's used to further a larger discussion, and I love that Julie Murphy was able to incorporate her usual themes into a book written for a different age range.
I think people underestimate how hard it is to write for a different age range than you're used to, and Julie Murphy does it pretty expertly here. Her writing style never feels pandering, just simplified and clearly from the eyes of a younger girl. Something I think is especially impressive is how funny this is. A lot of authors, but especially YA/Adult authors, really struggle with making middle grade funny because they don't really seem to understand the sense of humour that pre-teens have, but Julie Murphy nails the dorky sincerity of thirteen year-olds making jokes.
This was extremely short and sweet, and I adored it. Julie Murphy's middle grade debut is an absolute success, and I now want to force this into the hands of every child I know.
content warnings: discussions of underage drinking, a near-death experience and the threat of sexual assault
representation: main f/f relationship, main indian pansexual character, main bisexual character
“I appear to be experiencing a mid-life crisis at the age of nineteen. Or some kind of late-onset teenage angst. Essentially, just a big old pile of sad that’s been caused by various failures that I am responsible for due to being an absolutely pathetic mess of a human being.”
Review can also be found on my blog.
This is a 10k short story that Alice Oseman wrote on her blog in 2016 about her side characters, Becky Allen from Solitaire and Raine Sengupta from Radio Silence, and portrays them meeting on New Years and the rocky relationship they develop.
As someone who loves both Becky and Raine and wishes they had have gotten more in the respective books they appeared in, this was great. I loved their dynamic with each other so much and seeing where they (particularly Becky) are after their novels.
If you liked both of the books these characters appeared in (or even just liked the characters themselves) then I would recommend you check this out :)
representation: main f/f relationship, main indian pansexual character, main bisexual character
“I appear to be experiencing a mid-life crisis at the age of nineteen. Or some kind of late-onset teenage angst. Essentially, just a big old pile of sad that’s been caused by various failures that I am responsible for due to being an absolutely pathetic mess of a human being.”
Review can also be found on my blog.
This is a 10k short story that Alice Oseman wrote on her blog in 2016 about her side characters, Becky Allen from Solitaire and Raine Sengupta from Radio Silence, and portrays them meeting on New Years and the rocky relationship they develop.
As someone who loves both Becky and Raine and wishes they had have gotten more in the respective books they appeared in, this was great. I loved their dynamic with each other so much and seeing where they (particularly Becky) are after their novels.
If you liked both of the books these characters appeared in (or even just liked the characters themselves) then I would recommend you check this out :)
This was absolutely fascinating. Normally I would be opposed to reading poetry through audiobook but Carol Ann Duffy's voice captivated me so much that it really worked for me.
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1) Revenge of the Living Dummy ★★★½
content warnings: violence, threats, descriptions of the undead, general creepiness (all fairly tame)
Review can also be found on my blog.
This is one of the few HorrorLand books I don't remember too much of, and after re-reading it I can see why. This isn't a bad book by any means, just underwhelming after RotLD.
As usual, the book is split into two parts. The first is siblings, Billy and Sheena, who are spending the summer with their uncle, Dr. D. Things start to go downhill when Dr. D suggests they try finding a legendary pirate ship said to have disappeared and now be inhabited by a ghost crew. When they go down Dr. D somehow goes missing and Billy and Sheena have to try to find him and survive the seemingly very real ghostly crew. The second half is a continuation of the HorrorLand story started in RotLD, with Billy and Sheena being mysteriously invited and running into Brittany and Molly, as well as meeting another kid brought under mysterious circumstances, Matt.
Even if this one wasn't as good as RotLD, particularly in the building of fear and suspense around the creature/monster/thing the kids have to fight, it was still damn good. The audiobook was great, as was the narrator, Jeff Woodman. There's one part towards the end where the background noise is quite loud and then completely cuts off, making the atmosphere even creepier. I also ultimately really liked the overall story, and am looking forward to continuing.
(Also, I have no idea what's up with the cover of this one?? It makes it look like it's about a sea monster, not ghost-zombie-creatures. Not a criticism of the book as a whole, just something that annoyed me the entire time I was reading it.)
content warnings: violence, threats, descriptions of the undead, general creepiness (all fairly tame)
Review can also be found on my blog.
This is one of the few HorrorLand books I don't remember too much of, and after re-reading it I can see why. This isn't a bad book by any means, just underwhelming after RotLD.
As usual, the book is split into two parts. The first is siblings, Billy and Sheena, who are spending the summer with their uncle, Dr. D. Things start to go downhill when Dr. D suggests they try finding a legendary pirate ship said to have disappeared and now be inhabited by a ghost crew. When they go down Dr. D somehow goes missing and Billy and Sheena have to try to find him and survive the seemingly very real ghostly crew. The second half is a continuation of the HorrorLand story started in RotLD, with Billy and Sheena being mysteriously invited and running into Brittany and Molly, as well as meeting another kid brought under mysterious circumstances, Matt.
Even if this one wasn't as good as RotLD, particularly in the building of fear and suspense around the creature/monster/thing the kids have to fight, it was still damn good. The audiobook was great, as was the narrator, Jeff Woodman. There's one part towards the end where the background noise is quite loud and then completely cuts off, making the atmosphere even creepier. I also ultimately really liked the overall story, and am looking forward to continuing.
(Also, I have no idea what's up with the cover of this one?? It makes it look like it's about a sea monster, not ghost-zombie-creatures. Not a criticism of the book as a whole, just something that annoyed me the entire time I was reading it.)
content warnings: bullying, dismissive attitudes towards a characters' identity
representation: transgender main character
@ anyone saying that this book had a "tOo HapPy EnDiNg because it's uNrEaLiStIc" fuck off, lgbtq+ kids are allowed happy endings!!
Had to get that out the way because I've seen some reviews that annoyed me. I loved this book so much. It was adorable! All the main characters were so great. I loved that Alex Gino showed a variety of reactions to characters finding out about Melissa (Kelly being excited, Scott being indifferent, her mum being confused, etc.) but never showed any outright hate. There are bullies in the book, but they just think she's weird and their bullying isn't specifically related to her being transgender.
The ending was so wonderful I had actual tears in my eyes. And the audiobook was great, too. Jamie Clayton was so good at acting it out, and I love that they got a trans actress to do the narration. I hope that every kid gets to read this, whether to help them understand their identity or to help them understand someone else's.
representation: transgender main character
@ anyone saying that this book had a "tOo HapPy EnDiNg because it's uNrEaLiStIc" fuck off, lgbtq+ kids are allowed happy endings!!
Had to get that out the way because I've seen some reviews that annoyed me. I loved this book so much. It was adorable! All the main characters were so great. I loved that Alex Gino showed a variety of reactions to characters finding out about Melissa (Kelly being excited, Scott being indifferent, her mum being confused, etc.) but never showed any outright hate. There are bullies in the book, but they just think she's weird and their bullying isn't specifically related to her being transgender.
The ending was so wonderful I had actual tears in my eyes. And the audiobook was great, too. Jamie Clayton was so good at acting it out, and I love that they got a trans actress to do the narration. I hope that every kid gets to read this, whether to help them understand their identity or to help them understand someone else's.
This was great, but it didn't have sexy Carrie Anne Moss so the movie is superior.
“‘What’s your name?’ she asked.
‘Call me Covid,’ he said.”
I don't think I've ever found a book harder to rate. This is simultaneously the worst and best thing I've ever read. The main character almost shoves a test tube full of coronavirus up her vagina. If that sounds like something you would enjoy, this is on Kindle Unlimited and is only 16 pages long, check it out. But otherwise run far, far away.
1) Kissing the Coronavirus
2) Kissing the Coronavirus 2: The Second Wave
And with that, the greatest trilogy to ever be written is over, ending as all trilogies should, with the protagonist becoming COVID and having sex with every woman she sees. The Kissing the Coronavirus series really said gay rights.
2) Kissing the Coronavirus 2: The Second Wave
“She pressed the ‘on’ button on the COVID-19 machine and it thrummed to life in a similar way to how her vagina awakened at the thought of big tits smushed against her face like the intern’s in the canteen...”
And with that, the greatest trilogy to ever be written is over, ending as all trilogies should, with the protagonist becoming COVID and having sex with every woman she sees. The Kissing the Coronavirus series really said gay rights.
