I fell behind on Uncanny X-Men because, well, most of my fave characters ended up in All-New X-Men or other teams or dead? But they came in at the library & I figured I'd catch up. It's getting pretty interesting! I especially like the interplay between Magneto and everyone else. It's kind of what I wanted the Magneto solo book to be.

One complaint on the art--I had a hard time telling all the blonde characters apart. Like obviously the Stepford Sisters are supposed to look alike but Emma and Ilyana could maybe be...more different? Even Dazzler. I mean I get that Dazzler works for SHIELD (OR DOES SHE) but she should probably look cooler than the other blonde ladies.

mmm argh this is the kind of thing I don't generally love in comics? Honestly thinking about the ethics of time travel* and superpowered mutants just gives me so much anxiety. Ahhhh

but it was a good payoff to something that had been building up the last few arcs.

* I like All-New X-Men because that book seems to have a much more whimsical approach to time travel so I feel less stressed about it.

OBV I love the music of Hamilton and this is such a great collection of annotations and essays. A lot of this stuff has been seen elsewhere online like in RapGenius annotations or just similar interviews etc but there's still a lot of fun new content for Hamilton fans and it's lovely to have it all together. It would have been easy to put out something much less elaborate than this and still make bank but that is NOT what Alexander Hamilton would do and it's not what Lin-Manuel Miranda would do.

SLIGHT MINUS POINTS for deckled edges but whatever, it's very fancy

Argh, I hate to say it because I loved [b:The Crossover|18263725|The Crossover|Kwame Alexander|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390427593s/18263725.jpg|25723388] soo much and I know it would be hard for another book to live up to that, but for me this one didn't. For one thing--in The Crossover I loved how organic and natural the novel in verse format felt. In this one it felt like a lot of conversations were being written down with weird line breaks and being called poems? But some of them do work really well, it just didn't seem as consistently amazing as The Crossover.

Also it felt like it was like...trying to hard to have a message that books are cool and librarians are cool? Which of course, they are and we are ;) IDK I feel like it might be a bit of a turn-off to some kids.

STILL: I enjoyed reading it and certainly some kids, esp fans of soccer and/or novels in verse, should also appreciate it.

This was a pretty quick read. It kind of validated some stuff I already do and made me think about a few different techniques for Getting More Shit Done. It's kinda pop-psychology pep talks with a liberal sprinkling of dad jokes. It has an overall pretty reassuring tone, like--don't worry if you struggle with this! Everyone does, because science!

I mentioned to a few people that my book club was reading this and multiple people told me [b:The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business|12609433|The Power of Habit Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business|Charles Duhigg|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1366758683s/12609433.jpg|17624817] was better, but to be honest I'm probably not going to read that. I have also heard that you could just watch Kelly McGonigal's TED talk instead of reading this.

This is a super cool concept and very refreshing but also TERRIFYING

especially if you are afraid of sea creatures but also just IN GENERAL

anyway I'm given to understand that many people enjoy books that are terrifying so check this out if that's you

It also kind of reminded me of [b:American Gods|4407|American Gods|Neil Gaiman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1258417001s/4407.jpg|1970226] except, you know, African Gods. And also aliens??

ooh I think that this book has not aged well. It's shocking to me that it's from 2009 even, it seems older. These kids use variations on the word "retarded" at least once on every page--which yes, I know some teens still say, and definitely used to say more often back in the day--but it's like, a LOT of times.

also there is a plot point about Carter BUYING A VHS TAPE OF PORN. what? c'mon, we had the internet in 2009.

In general I'm not a huge fan of this flavor of YA books with a ~very realistic~ male narrator who ~has 100 boners a day~ but I assume they have their audience. This one felt extra gross to me though. The lesson that Carter finally "gets" is that girls are humans also. He spends so long in this book being mad that the Hot Girl he has a crush on isn't really into him, but her friend Chubby Abby is. (*Still called "Chubby Abby" even though she lost weight over the summer and is now actually almost as hot as her hot friend.) He keeps realizing that Chubby Abby actually likes the same stuff he likes and she's fun to talk to, but if only she were hotter........ anyway eventually, yeah, he gets it, and IDK I know teens are awkward and figuring out relationships and stuff but like, yikes.

Anyway, gross, not recommended for adult women. Maybe the target audience of teen boys might find this funnier? It's probably still gonna feel dated to them tbh.

I like the overall concept of this better than the execution, maybe? A wrongfully-incarcerated teen boy who has the ability to ghost himself out at night sounds awesome. The plotline is a little clunky and maybe would have gone smoother without the romance maybe? I dunno.

But it is a great concept and one that is sure to appeal to a lot of teens, especially mystery/thriller fans.

This is probably like a 3-star book but I'm awarding a bonus star because I like to feel pandered to, and I know my Drag Race-loving teens will also enjoy feeling pandered to by this.

It's a little cut-and-dried--the setback/solution formula of the roadtrip, the realizations that everyone has their insecurities and yet everyone is beautiful in their own way...but it's got some pretty good jokes and some A+ drag teen names.

Solid pick for teens looking for fun queer fiction where nobody dies!

These books are so funny to meeeeeee

I think they are probably best suited for like, a teacher to pair with the actual Shakespeare text or for the enjoyment of PARTICULARLY NERDY teens/adults.