I picked this up since it was so critically acclaimed and all, and I thought it was sort of a volume one/reboot or whatever. And I guess it was but whew it was confusing for someone who wasn't at all familiar with any of these characters! I did love the slice of life bits but...idk for me, it's no Hawkeye.

love this DESPITE the tentacles

really cool, love the way it developed on the worldbuilding begun in the first novella!

I'm interested in how this came to be 3 novellas instead of 1 longer novel. From the author's notes I gather that thought she was done and then came back to it? Which: I'm glad she did, because this was a really satisfying conclusion to Binti's story. And I guess I did like the effect of each one standing on its own, with a little room to breathe in the story? I can't imagine anyone only reading one of these, though.

Also I'm marking these as adult--which is how they were published/marketed--but I think they would also have definite teen appeal for an older/nerdier teen.

LOVVVVVVED THIS! The Little House books are such #problematicfaves of mine, I'm so thrilled to have the chance to keep scratching that bonnet itch in a way that expands the understanding of the pioneer mindset rather than limiting it. This is a great blend of a character to root for facing serious, realistic challenges without it being overwhelmingly bleak.

Uhh there are some interesting questions raised in here, and I think McEwan successfully made this character very hateable, but like...................why tho

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-145-machines-like-me/

Huh. I was excited to read this because it had been so hyped and so beloved by a lot of people I trust, so when my reaction to the first few chapter was "gross," I decided to keep pushing through, figuring that surely this was leading up to something. And...it was...but it also kind of kept being gross to me? And I get that that's the point of this, to some extent, that all of these people are messy and complicated and we should pay attention to who we're sympathizing with, etc. But it felt weird for this to be such a recent book, to be honest? To me it felt like, "Oh, I know readers will only care about a straight white man so I have to trick them into caring about these women with my Trojan horse!" But like.....there are plenty of books about women that don't put me through all of this.

I think my tepid response also has to do with the general current environment and also with [b:Machines Like Me|42086795|Machines Like Me|Ian McEwan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1552757135l/42086795._SY75_.jpg|65638827] using up all of my allotment for dealing with "unlikeable" characters but like.... :/

LMAO I'm just reading reviews from friends about how Ronan tries and fails to do accents in the audiobook?? Aww bud. I read the print edition and was really impressed with it. Very compelling, impressive research obviously...disgusting but slightly optimistic?

Probably a 4-star read but I'm giving it a bonus star because fuck Harvey Weinstein basically

I'm late coming to this but I'd loved Libba Bray's other books and figured I should check these out. (Also I read all 3 together in a week of quarantine without pausing to review between them, so they've blurred together in my mind.) Basically there is a lot to like but also...well...Libba Bray has deffo grown as an author. These are messy and draggy books, and the ~mystery~ is unnecessarily prolonged and I kind of just wanted to keep shaking Gemma to be like NO, ASK A FUCKING QUESTION AND GET AN ANSWER ALREADY!!!!

But I like Gemma and I like the realistically messy characters.

I'm late coming to this but I'd loved Libba Bray's other books and figured I should check these out. (Also I read all 3 together in a week of quarantine without pausing to review between them, so they've blurred together in my mind.) Basically there is a lot to like but also...well...Libba Bray has deffo grown as an author. These are messy and draggy books, and the ~mystery~ is unnecessarily prolonged and I kind of just wanted to keep shaking Gemma to be like NO, ASK A FUCKING QUESTION AND GET AN ANSWER ALREADY!!!!

But I like Gemma and I like the realistically messy characters.