I received a review copy from Greenleaf Book Group through a Goodreads giveaway; all opinions are my own and honest.

2.5 stars

"Nobody has ever kind of tried and produced an amazing result."

There's some really solid advice, and it's clear that the author is an expert. That said, I don't totally agree with the refrain that you have to give your fledgling business your literal all, whether you're sick or your family needs you: a clear recipe for burnout. (Even if it's totally necessary as the author asserts, it's definitely not something I personally could follow since I value my health and personal relationships, so sue me.)

My main gripe is that the writing style kept me from taking the content as seriously as it deserved to be taken — some of the section headings were just A Lot, and the metaphors were abundant and extensive and very imaginative. They could've been totally omitted to make the book much more concise ... and no-bullshit.

3.5 stars

This is adorable! The art is vibrant and adds layers to the simple sentences; the themes are clear but not blatant; the only part I wasn't totally satisfied with was

Spoiler

the sudden 180 decision to stop playing into everyone's perception and being a bad seed, though it's also valuable to remind children that they, too, can just decide to be good

.

A reread, throwing it back to middle school. More of a remember-when/older kids' book than a deep read, but Rangers - and Will - are still pretty awesome. I'd recommend it for my younger brother's reading list (though we don't quite share our taste in books).

3.5 stars - 3ish stars for the first half, 4ish stars for the second half

I almost DNF'd this so many times, because exposition-Eleanor struck me as Sheldon Cooper's personality meets Cady Sinclair's backstory. Misanthropic narrators and I don't tend to get along, especially when they're as judgmental — and worse, in denial about being judgmental! — as Eleanor is, at least in the beginning; at times it also feels like the reader is being invited to laugh at the autistic-coded character, which I never like. Maybe that wasn't the author's intention, but that's how it felt to me.

A lot of her social commentary also felt ... cheap, for lack of a better word? Like the jab at McDonald's "hot beverages may be dangerous" labeling, it's something that's probably crossed most people's minds, it's just that Socially Awkward characters can get away with actually saying it. (It's a legal liability thing, by the way, which I would've thought a research-loving character like Eleanor might have known. Or maybe not, if she just chalked it up to "society is inane and everyone is stupider than me.")

And beyond that, honestly the narrative just felt monotonous and bland: if Eleanor doesn't care about anything that's happening, or anyone around her, or even herself really, why should we?

But oh, the second half of this book. There's so much character growth, and it's not the personality transplant/sunshine epiphanies that you get sometimes.

Spoiler

I am absolutely here for destigmatizing therapy — although Eleanor was beyond dismissive initially, I'm so glad she listened to her friend and her GP and gave it a fair chance, and that it was helpful for her. While "curmudgeon learns the value of human relationships" and "emotionally-starved adult learns the value of vulnerability" aren't my favorite tropes, I think in this book it's tastefully done. And while the hints at a love triangle made me roll my eyes, I did like that Eleanor and Raymond don't actually end up getting together in the book, leaving it all open to the reader's interpretation.

So all things considered, in hindsight I wouldn't have deliberately picked this for my first novel of 2020, but it was a decent read. And sometimes that's all we can ask for.

content warnings:

Spoiler

past physical & emotional (child) abuse, past domestic violence & abusive relationship, major character death(s), death of a child, alcoholism, suicidal ideation, ableist language, implied past rape, fat-shaming

rep:

Spoiler

possibly-autistic MC with depression & likely PTSD

-----------
CONVERSION: 9.1 / 15 = 3.5 stars

Prose: 8 / 10
Characters & Relationships: 8 / 10
Emotional Impact: 7 / 10
Development / Flow: 4 / 10
Setting: 5 / 10

Diversity & Social Themes: 3 / 5
Intellectual Engagement: 3 / 5
Originality / Trope Execution: 2 / 5
Rereadability: N/A
Memorability: N/A

A fascinating read that gives new meaning to various aspects of the multilayered TMI 'verse, with great examples and personal accounts. Learned some new things; this is a great addition to the fandom that I want to read again and again.

The oversimplified summary of this book could be boiled down to "Have fun and be yourself" — not inherently bad advice, but it wouldn't be especially helpful if Bradbury didn't include specific writing exercises and attitudes to go along with it. Luckily he does.

Honestly, though, I don't think his poetry is particularly good (at least, the poems included in this book). I also found it a little tiring every time he name-dropped another person or magazine that he worked with. Of course it all does help establish credibility for dispensing advice, but I found it a bit incongruous with all his talk about focusing on the craft instead of the fame or money associated with mainstream writing success.

-----------
CONVERSION: 11.25 / 15 = 4 stars

Prose: 9 / 10
Intellectual Engagement: 8 / 10
Credibility: 10 / 10
Organization / Structure: 6 / 10

Emotional Impact / Interest: 3 / 5
Rereadability: N/A
Memorability: N/A

3.5 stars

Sometimes poetry just doesn't resonate with a reader, and that's okay. I can still appreciate Vuong's mastery of the English language and the sensitive topics in these poems, even if I don't really feel the words as much as I would like to.

I received an advance review copy from Sourcebooks through Netgalley; all opinions are my own and honest.

I believe that this book was written with good intentions, and I was at least engaged enough to read through to the end. Even if I had major disagreements and/or reservations regarding a lot of the advice.

To be quite honest, some fundamental ideas in this book made me uncomfortable. The first is the publication of excerpts from a dead daughter's diary; for all I know she would be happy with this use of her words, but if my mom even read my journal I would feel mortified and betrayed. Either way, several of the quotes didn't seem relevant or totally applicable, so I wasn't sure they were necessary in the first place. The author also unironically refers to "authors as diverse as Mark Twain and Jack Kerouac"; the way relationships are discussed seems to dismiss the existence of not just aromantic individuals, but people who are genuinely happy being single; there's also a distinction drawn between "women" and "girls" (women, it is implied, are better, more Adult) which just seemed unnecessary.

In some sections, the logic just didn't make sense to me. Habits are only effortless after they've been formed, for example: to create new ones, you have to deliberately design them, incorporate them into your life, and practice them until they actually become habits. Also, maybe it's just my interpretation but "Our only job in life is to try, fail, try, succeed, try, tweak, and try again until we either succeed or we get tired of that particular experiment" seems to read as "We either keep trying until we succeed or give up" — and I can't honestly agree with that binary, or the idea that it is our sole purpose in life. Readers are also told to essentially ignore pains (such as when beginning to work out), which is not good blanket advice because it can be a signal that you're doing something wrong and therefore hurting yourself. Potentially seriously.

Finally, I couldn't really tell whether there was rhyme or reason to the organization of the worksheets, since they ping-pong from the positive to the negative — if I were actually filling them out, I would find it jarring even if I was just looking for one in particular. And as someone who enjoys a good personality quiz, the polarized answers made them seem more gimmicky than insightful.

2.5 stars

Hm. I'm kind of torn between knowing I'm one of the twentysomethings who needed this kind of kick in the pants to figure out my life instead of counting on things working out some day, and annoyance at the author's patronizing attitude toward a highly-generalized demographic. A lot of the anecdotes seem exaggerated for dramatic effect, or else they lose believability in representing an aggregate of twentysomethings.

The abundance of statistics demonstrate that a lot of research was done, but (based on study specifics and the nature of experimentation) I'm not sure all of them were as conclusive as they were made out to be; there's also underlying assumptions that most readers are financially relatively well-off (or have parents as a safety net), want to get married and have biological kids, et cetera.

Although I believe life advice by definition can't be one-size-fits-all, that seems to be the approach this book takes. It's also somewhat alarmist, which lowkey irritates me. But there is some good advice, and I think I'm intelligent enough to isolate that and forget the rest.

-----------
CONVERSION: 7.5 / 15 = 2.5 stars

Prose: 6 / 10
Intellectual Engagement: 3 / 10
Credibility: 7 / 10
Organization / Structure: 4 / 10

Emotional Impact / Interest: 3 / 5
Rereadability: N/A
Memorability: 2 / 5

I received an advance review copy through YA Bound Book Tours; all opinions are my own and honest.