Absolutely fantastic, it’s making me think of how to deepen my community care. I had been planning to celebrate the spring equinox somehow and now I will be turning it into a clothing/household item/book swap as a way to get in some spring cleaning and a giving circle in one! 

The author was a fantastic narrator, I could listen to her all day. I have never listen to an audiobook version of poetry but I’m a big fan!! I would listen for like 10 min before bed every day for a week, and I had a wonderful time. 

I’ve also never read any YA poetry, so I’m not sure how that YA element panned out here - maybe more poems about growing up? 

Regardless, this was really great. 

This was…..alright. Mostly the only thing I enjoyed was the asexual rep & conversations, and the 10 year old daughter named Rebel. The end had me SHOOK and not in a good way. I simply cannot believe how the sentient house plot line ended. 

The pacing for the first 60% was wildly slow, and even with that, the relationship progression happened shockingly quickly. I was baffled when Lucky & Maverick both were like “I can’t stop thinking about you,” and I’m like “based on WHAT!!! You hardly know each other!!!!” It was kinda like insta-love, but not quite. I didn’t get their relationship at all, and even though Maverick said many validating things about Lucky being asexual and how that was fine by him bc he cared about her as a person, he also said things about how it’s important to him that she be attracted to him/his body, which was never really addressed/resolved. So it kinda felt like Lucky was being 100% honest & upfront about herself, and Maverick was like 60% upfront so it was hard to really be sure of where they stood. 

 I know the author was kinda trying to do a third act breakup situation but the motives/rationale were so weak from both parties. Also, it got resolved almost immediately bc there was were only pages left, so there was also no lingering tension bc of it. 

This was only alright. I was onboard for the bonkers premise but the insta-lust (which is quite often detailed by both FMC and MMC) and something about the writing style didn’t really appeal to me. I also was surprised by the intense immaturity of the youngest sister. 

The whole premise is of course built on an elaborate lie, but seeing it get increasingly complex (including hiring an actress mother) was unnecessary and I wasn’t having fun with it anymore. Alas! 

I’m glad I saw someone say that this is not a romance so don’t get your hopes up, bc if I had thought this was a romance (as the cover & description make it sound), I would’ve been extremely upset. Instead, I knew it was more about following Nora’s life in a “coming of age” style situation, which is what it actually is, so my expectations weren’t misaligned. 

The beginning was EXTREMELY slow. I would’ve DNFed it but it’s for my book club, so I persevered. I guess I’m glad I kept going, it did pick up about 35% in. It was difficult watching Nora continue making poor choices & lying throughout bc I knew it had to blow up in her face. Based on the cute cover & title, I was surprised by the dark turns, and how frequently Nora contemplated suicide. 

Overall, this was fine. 

This was fine. 

I was sooo excited for this one, so I was shocked to DNF it. This was essentially a political romance highlighting all the problems with the system, except the politics/system are the holidays. There were tons of shady political machinations by the fathers that I didn’t enjoy bc they forced the protagonists into deals & bargains that were all about publicity, against the protagonists’ wishes. Not enjoyable! And this was unexpectedly a v anti-capitalist take on Christmas. I am anti-capitalist and I love that energy, but I wasn’t prepared or interested in it the book I picked up during that holiday.

This was very interesting and memorable, but I can't really say I liked it. I didn't dislike it, but the constant breaking of the fourth wall and it being a "meta mystery" was often off-putting but not so much that I put it down. I certainly didn't guess any of the turns, despite being warned of them. It was an unusual experience and there were many twists. I will read the second in the series, but not sure about the rest. 

I enjoyed this one overall, though I was surprised at how frequently the editor contributed (she wrote about ⅓ of the essays) so I had to wonder she she didn't want to write her own book of essays individually. But I enjoyed the overall theme of euphoria and hard fought joy from a wide group of trans contributors. 

I simply didn’t understand most of these poems. Not in a way that is a fault of the author, I think it was too esoteric/high brow/abstract for my taste. But after reading 40 pages and not understanding it, I figured I might as well stop.