nerdyprettythings's Reviews (515)

These books are so inventive and the magic system is interesting and something you want to follow, but I think NK Jemisin is a master of creating characters. Each character is so real. They all are deeply complex, and every would-be hero is flawed. I can't wait to get my hands on the third book (and to reread the series again in the future).

I’m not 100% sure where to start with how I felt about this book, but I loved it. I love when a book presents multiple deep examinations of female characters and gives us an opportunity to watch them grow. To do that with all five women and have me genuinely caring about all of them and their relationships with each other was some genius from Carolina de Robertis.

This is one of the worst books I've read, and not just because the writing is bad. Don't get me wrong, the writing IS bad, but it's not the worst thing about this book. Each topic the book approaches, from relationships to mental health, is done in the most damaging way possible. Basically, the thesis of this book is "bitches be crazy." It also felt like the author wrote the book in sections, in no particular order, and forgot what she'd written about the characters. At least one of the characters disappears halfway through the book, and the characterization of at least a few things about the main character changes, without explanation from other events.

The main character says on nearly every other page "I'm not crazy, am I crazy? Omg I don't want to make my husband unhappy, he's so attractive." And the answer is yes! She's crazy! Because miscarrying makes women insane! And so is the woman she's stalking (who, except for the stuff thrown into the last few pages is one of the only sympathetic characters). Regina is a woman who doesn't want kids, though, so she had to be a crazy bitch. (also these NAMES. Regina, Thursday, Hannah, Seth. Barf on the complete lack of subtlety in any of that, especially Regina.) And the horrible, abusive man the "wives" all center around gets so little of the author's judgment. I could write a dissertation on this and how bad and dangerous it was, but then I'd probably have to read it more than once.

I literally lol’ed. Samantha Irby’s commitment to comfy clothes and not going out is the quarantine mood we all need right now.