OK for the record, I'm not generally a fan of mysteries, or true crime, or "true stories of people who had fucked up things happen to them", but I know a lot of teens are so I try to read some of that stuff once in awhile. The premise of this sounded compelling so I thought I'd read it and maybe booktalk it but honestly it was soo boring to me.

Like I get that they were trying to capture the scary tedium of just like, waiting around for someone to maybe kill you? And it sounds like a genuinely shitty experience that they went through. But it was so boring to read about. Also all the stuff about the dad (who got shot in the face)'s medical experiences was like, real gross. BUT I know a lot of teens (and people of all ages) like to read about gross stuff?? Just not meeeee

I think most of the teens who like true crime stuff like the real fucked up stuff like [b:Cruel Sacrifice|91510|Cruel Sacrifice|Aphrodite Jones|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387663182s/91510.jpg|88292] so IDEK if this is like, crimey enough for a lot of them? IDK IDK IDK

Before reading it, I'd recommended this on a one-on-one basis to kids before when they ask for stuff like this, just based on its reputation. But I don't think I'll booktalk it because I just don't have any enthusiasm for it, like, at all... WHICH is at least partly due to my own tastes as a reader.

I'M late to the party on this one but I'm glad I made it! So funny and so cringe-inducingly relatable. Like a lot of times Greg's awkward spirals made me literally have to cover my eyes from the book.

Spoiler

I really liked that it ended with Greg not keeping his deathbed promise to Rachel.

As a kid who grew up on Seinfeld, I can respect a cancer novel that openly rejects any kind of lesson-learning.

I thought Earl's character was interesting... the angry black kid with the gangbanger, broken home family is a cliche, but Earl himself seemed transcendent of that. I've also been thinking about the author's note at the end, about whether Earl is actually angry all the time or if Greg just perceives him that way? But we don't get a lot of Earl's direct POV so who knows.

I haven't seen the movie yet but I liked that this movie tie-in edition included some bonus material about the author's process in adapting it to a screenplay, including a few annotated pages of the screenplay. I suspect it would also be useful for any budding filmmakers :)

This was funny and had great character voices--I loved Stephen and Marco's friendship and squabbles. It's like a combination of [b:Winger|11861815|Winger (Winger, #1)|Andrew Smith|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1367927656s/11861815.jpg|16818567] and [b:The Great Greene Heist|17928557|The Great Greene Heist|Varian Johnson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1432313463s/17928557.jpg|25129212]?

Spoiler

Another way this reminded me of Winger is that I thought it was a Fun Guy Friendship story but SURPRISE IT'S ABOUT HATE CRIMES!

Ultimately it's nice to have another good, fun, realistic MG-appropriate story about a gay (multi-racial!) kid in my mental arsenal.

This was so perfectly funny and awkward and awesome! Riley's such a cool, but awkward teen in a way that felt very realistic, and I loved her friendships with Reid and Lucy and how those played out.

I'm gonna give it to teens asking for [b:An Abundance of Katherines|49750|An Abundance of Katherines|John Green|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360206426s/49750.jpg|48658] readalikes. And just teens looking for awesome contemporary books.

oh my god, this was SO funny. I had several legit LOL moments. (Not surprising, given how funny Nick Spencer's [b:The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, Vol. 1: Getting the Band Back Together|18359975|The Superior Foes of Spider-Man, Vol. 1 Getting the Band Back Together|Nick Spencer|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1415141350s/18359975.jpg|25959456] was, but notable.) It really reminds me of [b:Hawkeye, Vol. 1: My Life as a Weapon|16002136|Hawkeye, Vol. 1 My Life as a Weapon|Matt Fraction|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360413248s/16002136.jpg|21502266]--same sort of low-key, down on his luck, lower-tier superhero, with a similar comedic sensibility.

I've never read any other Ant-Man comics with Scott Lang, but I did enjoy the movie overall so I picked this up. I think if you liked the humor of the movie, you'd like the book. If you're protesting the movie due to lack of lady characters, I feel you, and this book isn't much better. Actually it's worse. But Cassie is great in it, and Scott and Cassie have some completely delightful moments.

I just looked to see if this is ongoing, because it seems to wrap up pretty neatly? But I just googled and it is ongoing! I will keep reading and keep my fingers crossed that some more ladies get involved ASAP. (I'm stalking Nick Spencer's Tumblr and some people have asked if Darla will be involved in future books and he's being coy about it, attn Caroline.)

Skottie Young's art is ADORBS obviously, and a great fit for cute, manic Rocket. The story is... whatever. Fine. I think Rocket probably works best with part of a team than by himself. I did really like the mini-story at the end of Rocket and Groot telling campfire stories to some kind of international scouts?

Dan Brown is a master at making me turn the page even as I'm aware that whatever is on the next page is probably gonna be pretty silly.

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-27-inferno/

Caroline told me I should read this series, and I was like, are there any talking cats in it, and she was like, no but there's a baby panda that acts like a cat, and I was like, SOLD.

And then she said, but the baby panda-cat doesn't appear in the first 5 or so volumes.

It actually takes EIGHT volumes for the baby panda-cat to appear but it's pretty great!!

also I'm moderately interested in this other land with its own alchemy or whatever.

but mainly: panda-cat!!!

I think this was my favorite of the trilogy, but I still didn't like it that much? In this one we see Ana calling Christian out on his bullshit way harder than the first two, which is good. Christian is seriously such a weird character. It makes much more sense for him to be a teenage psychic vampire than for him to be this deeply upsetting human adult. You heard me.

Also I'd like to add Ana to the list of "fictional characters who really should have considered an abortion." Whatever! Things happened in this book! There were some pretty good sex scenes! They all lived happily ever after probably!

This follows really closely on [b:Mermaid in Chelsea Creek|16129217|Mermaid in Chelsea Creek (Chelsea, #1)|Michelle Tea|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358992756s/16129217.jpg|21954157], which I LOVED but which I read over a year ago. I probably would have been well-served to re-read it before jumping into the sequel. That said, info started trickling back to me as I read it and I followed it well enough. I love Sophie, and I loved the way her relationship with Syrena grew as she learned more about herself and her magic. This reminded me a little of Inside Out, in that it's a beautiful story about understanding that it's good and important to feel sad sometimes!

Minus one star for Sophie having a BABY OCTOPUS LIVE ON HER HEAD, I CANNOT.