nerdyprettythings's Reviews (515)

Kristen Arnett has a way of writing that hits me right in the funnies. So many wild scenarios, while also covering some dark and definitely serious topics. This book has the main character getting chased out of a kids’ birthday party in clown costume and also the realization that her mother is a whole person. It’s just something Arnett does so well. Thinking back, it feels like this book did so much with a pretty short page count, building the main character’s relationship with her mom - and relationship to women her mom’s age, her work and friends, it’s all so good. I highly recommend the audiobook, Cameron Esposito was a PERFECT narrator for Cherry. 

Yessss happy pride to me and these messy messy sapphics. Am I into horror romance now...? I loved the folktale vibe of this story, the description of the monster(?), and the small town that might be anywhere your brain conjures when you hear a spooky story. At times it kind of slides between scenes and you feel like you might have missed something, but once I got used to that I think it really fit what was happening here with storytelling and memory themes. And the romance - the MC's love interest is so hot and is also her brother's ex. So messy and I loved it.

Wow wow wow this book is so good and also SO brutal and bleak. AI decides humanity is the problem with the Earth, so it eliminates us, and this book tells the story of some of the planet’s final humans through the lens of an AI who is tasked with recording their experiences. I don’t think I’ve ever read an apocalyptic book that felt so real or likely or called out current times as hard or as well as this one does. It is so broad and entire-planet focused while making me so invested in a few individuals (who it made clear from the beginning could and would not be saved!) It’s brilliant and my gosh was it a rough read but SO GOOD I promise. 

Oh yes quite. Look, imo this book delivers on its premise - a modern, kinky spin on the Persephone and Hades myth. And quite enjoyably, I dare say. I am a big nerd though, so I did find myself wishing there was more worldbuilding - lean more into the politics it set up, with names like Zeus and Hades as political/regnal names, I thought it was a very cool idea. Olympus as the corrupt upper city and Hades as the ruler of the mystical lower city. But then the characters reference Star Wars and have guns and stuff? It’s like it didn’t want to finish going into the universe it made. BUT IT DIDNT HAVE TO JENNA ITS FUN.

So I thought I was just going to tell you that I found this book to be a slog and not for me, but then the ending really pissed me off. I started off a little confused about POVs and what was happening, then as the storylines became clear I was rolling my eyes a little about how all these characters love this one guy and all the women are just tools for seeing him through. And then I laughed around four separate times at how this story is halfway Forrest Gump. But yeah I am not getting the hype. There’s so much romanticizing of the main male character’s bad behavior, by the author and all the characters in the book. He spends his life searching for missing girls but he causes a lot of grief for the three main women in his life (women who, with over 600 pages here, feel underdeveloped). Even the main reveal at the end was something a main female character had seemingly figured out about 3/4 in and just hadn’t been revealed yet. I am bummed y’all.

So this is about a lady who is sexually attracted to planes, wants to be in a crash, and tries to use a vision board to manifest that ending. Though this will be classified (rightfully for sure) as Weird Girl Lit™️, I really was feeling the direction it was going, and I appreciated that the author made her human connections deeper as the story went on. With the character’s one-track mind, I agree with a lot of the reviews that are saying this one could have been shorter. But overall I definitely enjoyed this and would recommend, especially if you like the weirds. It reminded me a little bit of a not-violent Maeve Fly.

Gah it’s so good. It might be even better than the original. It’s like an all stars season. After rereading, I’m even more impressed with what Suzanne Collins pulled off with SOTR. 

Spent a lot of time saying “huh?” But also I kind of loved it and feel like I should take a lit class and maybe reread this right away? I’m very excited to see reviews when this one comes out next week. This book is for you if you’re a fan of books about changes around aging and the roles we find ourselves /and lose ourselves/ in throughout our lives. Along the same lines, it reminded me of the film Synecdoche, New York. 

I am so pleased to inform you that I loved this. A truly fantastic prequel to a series I really loved (and now really want to read again). Not going to say much else right now for fear of spoiling anything, but may add some spoiler hidden notes later! I loved the book and enjoyed spending time in Panem’s horrific regime and away from the real life one for a while.

This is a short nonfiction you should definitely check out. Written by a Black Texan, and published a month before Juneteenth became a national holiday, Gordon-Reed covers Texas history, Juneteenth's, and her own. She's a perfect author for this - a historian who was born in Texas and the first Black student at her elementary school after integration. She took the classes with a whitewashed and hero-worshiping version of Texas history that all Texans had to growing up, and she sheds light on some of those stories here.

To love Texas, or any place, is not to be uncritical of its past or present.