I'll admit it, I started off reading this and was like "wait this isn't like the MOVIE" and then I was like "calm down you read comics reboots all the time". It is a little odd, since the movie was so good and so popular, that this is an alternate origin story instead of building off the movie? But of course I'm sure she had to write this in isolation from the movie, and anyway this version of an origin story is much more appropriate for a YA novel than anything following up from the movie would be.

anywayyy enough about the movie

I fuckin loved this book, I cried like four times, it's so great at capturing the ~*Amazon spirit*~ while also incorporating cool modern teens (teens of color! queer teens of color! being besties with Diana! hell yeah!) and it's so funny also, and just, like, so good. leave me here to die. ana.

well bye

hell yeah

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-81-abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter/

I read all 3 of these in a week so now it's a little hard for me to differentiate between what happened in 2 & 3? This series definitely has that thing that makes it hard to stop reading? Like I definitely wanted to know what happened, so I was engaged on that level, but also I'm not convinced these are any good? It has kind of a fairy tale sensibility maybe, where no character really gets like...developed? At all?

I do really like the bi love triangle set up.

Spoiler

For awhile I thought that when Gabriel turned back into his witch form, he was going to be a girl witch and that's why everyone was calling him "Gabrielle"? But...I guess they were just being homophobic? Uhhhhhhh well anyway I'm glad he's a boy witch.

but like literally what tho

OK, this is for children, and it's very cute, and its intended audience will undoubtedly be into it.

I...kind of wanted more from it? Like the premise is cute and silly and I just wanted it to really lean into the cat puns and cuteness. 3/5 COULD BE CUTER

mmmm this is definitely a case of a book where I can see that it's good at doing what it set out to do, but I don't like that thing?? I...I like fun TGIF Sabrina! I never in my life needed to see

Spoiler

Sabrina and her aunts eating dead Harvey's flesh

. Yikes! So I dunno, if you're looking for a horror comic, it's great. If you're looking for like...Sabrina the Teenage Witch...it's not that. (And it's very clearly not trying to be that, or trying to be a dark gritty reboot of that anyway, and, like, why though.)

how is M.T. Anderson so good at writing every kind of book

is he a witch

I just don't know

this was beautiful and difficult and ultimately hopeful in just the best way

My 2nd time through I think I really truly appreciated the amazing campy glory of this book and no longer endorse the vitriol I felt for it in 2009, although I will leave the original 1-star review below for posterity. (I have upgraded it to 2 stars. Let's not get carried away.)

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-82-breaking-dawn/

----

I think my review of this can best be summarized by the series of text messages I sent to a friend while I was reading it. They really capture the depth of my emotions as I was entranced in this literary work.

1. CALL ME AS SOON AS YR CLASS IS OVER, YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE HOW RIDICULOUS THIS BOOK IS!!! :O

2. THIS BOOK IS SO BAD IT MAKES MY SOUL HURT THE WAY YOUR RECTUM WOULD IF EDWARD CULLEN ANALLY RAPED YOU :( * (This joke may seem in poor taste, and in fact IS in poor taste, but it does have its roots in a series of other inside jokes. If that helps. Don't judge me, I didn't write Breaking Dawn.)

3. ALSO NOW THERE IS A CHARACTER NAMED RENATA, I'M CHANGING MY NAME TO DISASSOCIATE MYSELF :(

4. Done with this garbage/Twilight is the new Secret/And both should be burned. (* The Secret is a self-help book that we're obsessed with making fun of. Also, I don't really advocate book burning. Not even for this book. I guess.)

OH NOOOOOOOOOO this isn't a standalone
OH YESSSSSSSSSS there will be another book in this beautiful world! <3

Laini Taylor is just #thebusiness and that's all I have to say about it