I was so excited for this one, but I’m going to have to file it under “misleading synopsis”.

I thought that this would be an in-depth analysis of mythological women/monsters to women today or historical women. What it was, was using mythology to bring up issues in her own life, namely fatphobia and sexism to name a few. 

Anyways, I’m tired of misleading blurbs and synopses - it’s 2021, get it together 

DNFing because literally nothing has happened besides cleaning out a storage room and a kid jumping on a woman in a pool 

Overall, this is a fantastic memoir. I can't think of any other memoir that I've encountered where the author shares such a vulnerable part of her life - being a young, undocumented Chinese immigrant in New York. 

Wang truly showed all of her vulnerabilities that a young child can have. Insecurities in learning a new language while trying to adapt to an entirely different way of life is something that most of us cannot relate to. 

This story will stay with me for awhile as I regularly find that stories that about survival, upheaval, and endurance  are ones that I find myself thinking about constantly and will usually recommend to everyone.

I would've given this five stars if the pacing would've been a little more consistent. While I understand that Wang was writing this from the perspective of her child self and children that age do not have consistent pacing, tighter pacing would've cleaned it up just a bit more.

I think it is worth mentioning because I've seen many other reviews complaining about it - that this is a memoir, not an autobiography. A memoir covers a chunk of time in someone's life while an autobiography usually covers a person's entire life.

It says a lot, at least to me, that when an author can successfully pivot in a whole different direction for their latest book, that the author is talented. To those who may be wary of Groff’s books due to early abundance of snakes in other works - don’t worry, no snakes appear in this one. 

I didn’t know what to expect going into Matrix, but I’m glad I went in without reading reviewers beforehand. While the story centers around an Abbess in an abbey in England, you do not need to be religious to read it in my opinion. Nor do you need to be Catholic. Yes, I was a bit confused at first at the different level of nuns within an abbey, but I quickly got the hang of it.

I think Matrix is a story of built on strength, perseverance, and sisterhood and I can’t wait to discuss it with my bookclub

Cute, fun read for the weekend but wanted more romance/more time to see the relationship play out

If you're looking for a short, quirky book centered around work chat and drama - I highly recommend this one. It has a mystery, it has drama, it has workplace romance. 

If you don't use Slack you may be a bit confused on the set up of the chats. I use Microsoft Teams for work and I was still a little confused on the chat set up. I also found some of the chats gimmicky and some of the messages unnecessary. I feel like the chats between Tripp and Beverly could've been shorter as I found myself getting so annoyed with Tripp. 

I enjoyed trying to figure out who Lydia was and what she did as well as what happened to Gerald. I just think it could've been cleaned up a little bit more. 

However, I do wish my coworkers would send some fun messages like some of these. Fun playlists? Sign me up. 

If only I could go back to the time when I was so excited that my copy of Leave the World Behind showed up without the Read with Jenna sticker on it and then go back further and stop myself from buying my copy.

If anything, I went into this knowing it would probably be a hate read. Most, if not all of my friends said they would be suprised if I didn't hate it. They were right, I hated it. 

I DNFd after 30 minutes, 4 chapters, and 19 pages. My mom tried to read it before I did and it took her SIX months to finally decide to DNF this 241 page book. 

Beautiful prose (albeit a little too much detail) was overshadowed in over explanation in just the 19 pages I read. 

I drew the line at reading about a penis doing sun salutations. 

My main take away from the 19 pages I read - vacation makes you horny.

However, I think this would make a great book club book since the ratings seem to be either 1-2 star or 4-5 stars. Those make for the best kinds of book club discussions. 

An atmospheric, twisty, and fast paced read set between London and Scottish Highlands - perfect for the upcoming snowy season! 

Grab a blanket, turn on a winter ASMR room, and dive in. You won’t want to put it down. I easily could’ve read this in one sitting if life didn’t get in the way.