I'm a sucker for a Disney villain! I was a little reluctant about this one just because [b:A Whole New World|24397040|A Whole New World (A Twisted Tale #1)|Liz Braswell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1433796054s/24397040.jpg|43981601] sucked so bad, but THIS one is by Melissa de la Cruz so I decided to give it a try.

And, it was really cute! A lot of kind of dumb word-play that I loved, like, Evie was "castle-schooled" (instead of "homeschooled"... because she lives in a castle).

I acknowledge that this was basically just an elaborate marketing ploy for the Disney Channel Original Movie Descendants, and... it worked, I totally want to watch it.

I'm not going to give this a strong endorsement or anything, but the basic concept is cute and it's fun and competent. And, unlike A Whole New World, which I really need to re-emphasize is HORRIBLE TERRIBLE GARBAGE... this book is not horrible terrible garbage. [applause emoji]

again: I genuinely thought I had read this already but I guess I just saw a billion panels of it on Tumblr? it has some very tumble-able panels.

anyway, it's so great and fun and whimsical, I'm so great I finally read it. THERE'S A MICRO-MACRO-TIGER IN IT.

Augh I stayed up too late reading this! I love Madeline's POV and her snarky book reviews. I love that it's a "sick kid book" with a biracial protagonist!

I want to booktalk this to junior high kids... I think they'll love the ~tragic illness~ and the use of texting/Tumblr/etc. I'm a little hesitant because of the very tasteful, fade to black sex scene... but I know that like 75% of those kids have already read Fault in Our Stars which has a comparable (if anything TFIOS is sexier) scene. IDK, PW rated it ages 12+, NoveList says grades 6-12 (!), but SLJ says grades 10+... any library friends have opinions? Sometimes I think I'm a little conservative in what I'll share with 7th & 8th graders given that I know a lot of them already ARE reading stuff that's much more explicit than this, but at the same time I don't want to share something that's going to make a kid/parent uncomfortable. But this is really so mild...

Spoiler

anyway, chaste sex scene aside, omg the TWIST though omg!! I did not see that coming! I mean I did but only slightly before it was actually revealed. AHHHH

I'm on record as not, like, HATING the first Fifty Shades book. But this one is soooo grossssss and it repeats a bunch of the boring stuff from the original one, without adding anything new of interest, and as a bonus, ruins a lot of the stuff I actually liked from the first one by putting Christian's weird sociopathic fingerprints all over it.

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-29-grey/

I've only read a few other Sarah Dessen books so I can't speak very much to how this compares to others of hers, but I really liked this one. I think she's so great at making clear how high the stakes can feel for relatively mundane things. I was really turning the pages to see how things would turn out! And all the major characters are so three dimensional--I love how sympathetic Sydney is to her parents, even as her parents are treating her unfairly.

Also like 20% of this book is just loving descriptions of pizza and French fries and garlic knots and I'm so hungryyy

Whew! A lot happens in this book! Like! So many things! I totally get why Ellen Hopkins is so popular... there's just so much drama and the verse makes it flow really fast.

For me it was just maybe... a little too much drama, and after awhile it felt like a bit of a slog even with the verse.

But if you're looking for a story with oppressive patriarchal religion, domestic violence, Vietnam PTSD, alcoholism, radiation poisoning, environmentalist protests, teen pregnancy, car accidents, and horseback riding... you are in luck.

anyway I have to sign off of GoodReads now so I can work on replacing all the Ellen Hopkins books that get stolen from the library because kids love them too much to bring them back now, bye.

First things first: the art on this is gorgeous and I'm in love (or lust) with all of these deities.



hello.

anyway. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing, this kind of mythical-pop-culture-retelling thing. I'm hella into this one and excited to see where it goes.

Hmm... I know a lot of people really loved this one, but I felt kind of like... I saw this when it was called Garden State?

The art is beautiful, and I enjoyed reading it, but it felt a little... melodramatic. Honestly, since so many people I know loved this one, I've kind of been overanalyzing it, like "is it supposed to be a satire of a manic pixie dream girl? Is it supposed to be a parody?" but I don't... think it is?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(read as single issues) haha, this was so weird and delightful??? a super nostalgia bomb for an avid fan of the 90s animated series. also, it made really fun use of the Guided View on Comixology--I'd be interested to see how that carries over into the print edition?

I enjoyed this more than I was expecting to! I'm often disappointed by standup comedian books (although I keep reading them) because I'm like, this is just your standup written down, and I already saw your standup act. This was something different--it did overlap a bit with his bits where he reads audience member standup comedy but in this case I felt like it built off of and enhanced the standup act, rather than just replicating it.

The pop-sociology about choice and dating wasn't totally new to me, but was presented in an entertaining and useful way, and one that mostly reinforced my own experiences with online dating.

Also there is a whole page of photoshopping Dwayne The Rock Johnson into someone's vacation photos, which is an excellent feature for a book to have.