oliviasbooktalk's Reviews (271)

One of my all-time favorite books. If someone wanted to get into reading classics, this is a great place to start. No other book handles biblical allegory the way this one does, and it feels like there could be a whole university course over the depths of this piece of literature. Everyone needs to read in once in their life and I hope to see it more on social media. Timshel.

While I enjoyed the first 100 pages, overall, I did not enjoy the book. When I rate a book 2 stars, it means I did not enjoy it, I would not recommend it, but I did finish it. I did not believe in any of the relationships, the conflicts were immature, and the personal development was lacking. This book takes place over the course of 10 years, and I wish there would have been pattern and consistency in the year lengths and chapter lengths to make an easier reading experience. I hate to say it, but this felt like fluff and miscommunication spread out over those 10 years, and had to remind myself they were in their 30s by the end of the book. I think this had such a strong concept, but the opportunity to generate discourse about a complex love triangle was missed. Do not go into this thinking it is a cute Christmas-time book. 

This is dark academia, psychological thriller excellence. Told in dual timelines, back in college and presently at their 10-year reunion, this book unravels the secrets of five friends as they figure out what actually happened to their mysteriously murdered (during senior year) sixth friend. This book will have your jaw drop on more than one occasion and it is so fascinating to follow the first person perspective of an anti-hero and morally grey, unreliable narrator. 

I don't know if I can properly emphasize the impact this book had on me and how much I truly treasure it. While following the rise and fall of the fictitious band Daisy Jones & The Six, this book highlights the moral ambiguity and interpersonal complexities that comes with being a rock star. The love triangle we follow has incredible depth, tension, and complexity, and I was so surprised how much I liked being unsure of who to root for. Every girl wants to be Daisy Jones, Camila is the MVP, and Billy is troubled, yet trying. I opened this book expecting it to be fun and exhilarating, like Rock N Roll is, and it was so much more. I was crying at the end and still think about this book almost daily. Some people don't like how this is written as an oral history, but it read as if it were a documentary, which I didn't mind at all. I wish the large album era section of the book was actually divided into two, maybe into three, for a little bit of a break. This is my first book by Taylor Jenkins Reid and it will not be my last. I cannot recommend this enough.

Cute, fast read. I still don't know how I feel towards the fake dating trope, but the first half of the book (with the wedding and wedding weekend) was very entertaining and had me hooked. After that, the second half of the book was lackluster. I wish there were more connections with us (the readers) and the characters, rather than having miscommunication and secret reveal that fell flat. Specifically, I think it would have been stronger if we, the readers, would have known the reason of the park project's significance from the beginning. It would have contributed to the tension at the wedding with racial biases/racism, created higher stakes with Alexa getting the project approved, and heightened the importance of holding Drew accountable for his white privilege. Also, I wish Alexa's confidence in her career carried over to her self-esteem in her personal life. I did not like the miscommunication and the ending felt like fluff. Overall, it read like someone watched a movie and wrote what they just watched immediately after.

This was a classic whodunnit murder mystery. The book follows the POV's of five people at a lavish wedding on a secluded, creepy Irish island. All five have a motive and one actually is the killer, with the added twist of not knowing who gets murdered until the end. I thought the island descriptions got to be a little much after a while—we get it, it's a creepy place. This book was thrilling and fast-paced, I felt so anxious and tore through it, and it tied up all lose ends and connected everyone's stories perfectly.