This was great! I haven't read any of Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant's books even though I hear raves about them, since they generally sound like they are more horror-y than I prefer. But the concept of this--a boarding school for kids who have found doors/portals to other world and come back--sounded amazing, and it definitely delivered on the premise. And it's so exciting to see asexual and trans characters in fantasy! People who like to whine about diversity ruining fantasy should read this and consider how much it contributes to the world of the story. Because it's greattttttt

I'm a little unsure how to classify this... I think it's an adult novella but it def has teen crossover appeal. I kind of feel like... it could have been fleshed out a teensy bit more and been an excellent YA novel? I'm glad to have this story in any format--and I'd much rather have this than something that was too long and bloated--but I blew through this and it definitely left me wanting more.

maybe I'll have to suck it up and read some of her other books :O

hell yes!!!!!!! I was so excited to find an e-arc of this on Edelweiss. I loved [b:Every Heart a Doorway|25526296|Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1)|Seanan McGuire|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1431438555s/25526296.jpg|45313140] so much and reading this just fleshed out that world (and made me go re-read Every Heart bc I realized my memory of it was faded and re-reading it with this context in mind made me love it even more). This made me feel unsettled the entire time, but like, in a good way. Like even though this is a prequel, so I knew Jack and Jill would survive this book....at what cost?! Ahh, poor precious babiesss.

I'm already familiar with Lindy West from her online presence/NPR appearances/etc so I was pretty sure I'd like this book, and I loved it. It wasn't necessarily anything new or surprising to me, but I still loved it and definitely both LOL'd and cried at various essays in here. If you're already a fan of Lindy West it's nice just to dig in and read a bunch of her stuff at once. If you've never read anything from her at all...first of all are you sure, because if you have the internet I bet you have...but second of all it could serve as a decent feminism/fat acceptance primer if you're new here. Or it's just a nice validating read if you're already on board.

Were you aware: love cures Alzheimer's?

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-70-the-notebook-live-at-trident-booksellers/

This is a beautiful, sad ...emotional mystery? I guess is what I'd call it? I tore through it very quickly because I wanted to know what happened, but the writing is very deliberate and measured. It's contemplative and sad without exactly being a tearjerker?

his is like...at its core.........kind of a nice idea...poorly executed. But it doesn't seem...actively harmful...it's just very strange. More on the podcast...

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-71-the-shack/

This is a super sweet, fun teen romance! There's a lot of things intersecting here--race, class, and gender in the tech industry--plus cultural traditions and family dynamics--but it's ultimately a nice romantic comedy. A great summer read!

Update: upon a second reading I still think this book is pretty dumb, byeee

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-72-red-queen/

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This book was pretty dumb and felt like a slightly cynical mashup of a few other popular YA books, but like, it really made me appreciate [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447303603s/2767052.jpg|2792775] even more because Suzanne Collins made the world of Panem feel so real and you really understood the stakes for Katniss so deeply and so quickly, and here it was kind of like....oh they're poor I guess? some of them have super powers...apparently...

also they never talked about how cool the tampons must look for all the Silver blood ladies, so cool right?

anyway all that said, I was still invested enough to keep reading all the way to the end. I might even be invested enough to read the Wikipedia summary for the next one.

This one is already pretty popular at my library, it's finding its audience of fantasy-and-pretty-dress fans for sure.

This is such an unusual book. I'd like to re-read it at some point to see what I think of it--it took me a long time to figure out what was going on, if I even did? The prose is beautiful and I loved the characters! I think I'm still mentally chewing on this for now.

This was super cool and weird and I definitely want to read the next volume! I especially loved the way the art showed the weirdness of the Spill Zone...conveying the flat part as being flat, compared to everything else in the 2D drawing...super cool. Great for fans of Lost-style weirdness (but not quite as convoluted as Lost).