This is maybe a 3.5 from me but I'm rounding up. It was a little slow to start and a little draggy throughout but some of that was kind of the charm of this look at the first year of college?

I think it's more NA than YA, but it's great to have more #ownvoices realistic contemporary stuff out there, and it confronts microaggressions and class-based struggles in an organic way that

I want to say also that I was confused by the premise/tagline because I was like "um this isn't how emergency contacts work" but it's more of a jokey thing and not like, literal emergency contacts on paperwork. FOR THE RECORD.

lol a lot of these GR reviews are like "Penny's such a judgmental bitch I hate her" and I'm like "Penny was really relatable" so uh...that's fine

hot take: ewwwwwwwwww

I'm super glad I never read this when I was a kid.

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-103-scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark/

This book was a little slow to grab me, but I definitely became very invested in these characters. There's such a mix of stakes at play here--will these teens win their battle of the bands? Will Maggi have sex for the first time with a shady older guy? will white people honor native treaties and respect native culture? And yet every level of conflict is ultimately so compelling.

This is such a good example of a YA historical fiction being grounded in a specific time and place--this isn't just set in 1980 because the author grew up then and didn't want to deal with cell phones, it's set in 1980 because of the political & pop culture context of specifically John Lennon's life and death, and Yoko Ono's life.

A great read, particularly for teens who are interested in music and/or social justice.

I... don't... know? I wanted to read this even though I don't general like huge high fantasy novels, but it's such a cultural zeitgeist and I maybe want to watch the show but I can't be snobby about it if I don't read the book first, duh.

So, like I said, high fantasy is not my thing and I got frustrated by how many characters there are. I also hate fictional books that come with fictional maps and fictional family trees. I much prefer books that hone in deep on a few characters and how fucked up they are. This has just, so many. I generally liked the characters? Except the ones I wasn't supposed to like, boohiss. I was pretty surprised by all the messed up sex stuff?? I mean, Daenerys, what even?! Yipes.

Also the ending was very unsatisfying. IDK. Ultimately I guess I didn't really think I would like this book, but I liked it more than I thought it would, but I still didn't like it very much.

this book....is dumb

it reads like fanfiction with the names filed off and then just so lazily replaced?? why would anyone read this instead of just reading fanfiction about like, actual superheroes

(actual like established, I know there aren't real life superheroes)
(except for the Fab 5 on Queer Eye)

anyway for real this was too dumb to be enjoyable on any level, like I know it's from Swoon Reads so it's meant to be a light romance but I don't care about these characters and their relationship at all? Like I could conceivably forgive just glossing completely over the superhero/villain shit if underneath it I cared about these characters and their relationship? (Which was kind of the case with Marissa Meyer's Renegades tbh) But...I don't.

This is a really strong anthology! Almost every story left me wanting more. It's also very inclusive--queer witches, trans witches, witches of color, etc. (In many cases by #OwnVoices authors. Not for the witch part, as far as I know, but for other marginalized identities.)

Shout outs to Tess Sharpe, Anna-Marie McLemore, and Emery Lord for having my favorite stories in this? But truly I enjoyed them all. Highly recommended for fans of witchy stuff.

I don't know much about the Inhumans in general and Black Bolt in particular, but I picked this one up because of all the buzz around it.

I can tell it was good and I'm sure it would be better if you were more familiar with these characters? It was a bit confusing and perhaps a bit grittier than I personally prefer my comics to be. Still--it was a pretty moving story arc despite me not being the ideal reader for this title.

(Read as single issues)
I loved seeing Kamala's friends team up and I know there were some ~issues~ to work out but also I missed Kamala :( Let's return to the super status quo pls

(read as single issues)
SINCERELY UNBEATABLE