This was a lot of fun but mostly made me miss the podcast.

Yassss I love this series so much! I love the tone and the premise so much, and just the interrogation of the concept of portal fantasies and what they mean to individuals...so exactly my jam.

And then THIS one has a fat mermaid protagonist!!! Hell yeahhhhh, frosting on this delicious sugary confection

I feel like these movie preludes are usually pretty flimsy but I loved Thor Ragnarok so I picked this one up. It's dumb. Like 1/3 of it is a comic recap of the Ed Norton Hulk movie. Why. Is there anyone in the world who's like "Yes I'm going to see Thor Ragnarok but I need this quick prelude first because I have no idea what the Hulk is."

The random old Thor comics tacked on the end are fun though.

I was...skeptical/amused of the concept of this, but also intrigued, and also I've really enjoyed some of Tom Taylor's other books so I picked this up. It was really funny! I had some legit laughs out of it. I'd definitely recommend it if you're at all intrigued by the concept.

This book is interesting as a very fresh memoir--Tillie was 21 writing about her teen years. I think that'll make this very relatable to young readers--Tillie talks about looking at photos on her "childhood iPhone," a phrase that's not going to pop up in most memoirs for awhile. It's a lot of raw emotion and I see the value in that; the cost is that it didn't quite gel for me.

But I think it's a great book for teens, especially queer teens and/or teens who feel very pressured by extracurricular/academic pressures.

I know this was originally published serially on the author's website, and I wonder how much editing was done between website->book? It felt like...maybe not that much, and like maybe....there was some filler that could have gotten cut out.

I debated between 3 and 4 stars for this--I love the concept and this kind of wry portal fantasy; I didn't love the aformentioned lengthiness. Ultimately it had enough clever touches that I rounded up. I also think teens especially will enjoy the elf culture here--it's a matriarchy that basically has reverse gender roles of American society, where women need to protect emotional, fragile men. it's funny but also could definitely be a penny drop moment for some readers who maybe haven't thought about things in quite those terms before. Also bonus points for a bi character who IDs as bi.

dumb, damaging, gender essentialist nonsense

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-90-men-are-from-mars-women-are-from-venus/

I knew a bunch of people loved this book but I was really relucant to read it because (full disclosure I never bothered to look into it beyond the cover) I assumed it was old-timey sword&sorcery fantasy with a dude protagonist and I was like no thank you, but it turns out it's actually portal fantasy with a girl protag AND HER TALKING CAT-SPIRIT-BEING sooo

it's great!

full disclosure, I read this for a parent/teen book club and all the parents and kids liked it?! Or at least felt socially pressured to say they liked it?

It's dumb though, especially since it's supposedly a book about ~the power of words~ but it's full of little fat-shaming/body-shaming and racist microaggressions. like is this a book about white people who are obsessed with finding their ~tribe~, yes it is. is this a book where everyone's cellphones get banned because a sassy black girl sent a mean text message, yes it is. is this a book where the protagonist can't be bothered to learn how to pronounce his Indian friend's first name, and that's hilarious? yes it is.

is this a book where a schoolwide bullying problem is largely solved by a bicycle race?
you bet.

if you're looking for a message book about ~bullying~ you can do better. Even Wonder is better.

this book is extremely Holly Black and I loved it. also PS the main character's family's last name is Duarte!