"Gossip Girl meets Get Out" is the perfect comp for this. and if hearing the phrase "Gossip Girl meets Get Out" isn't enough to fully activate your desire to read this I simply don't know what else I can say to you.

A great fantasy that felt both like a fairy tale (it's not a strict retelling of any one fairy tale but it just has like, vibes) but also fresh and new?? Witchcraft???

lol Anna kept telling me to read this and I was like "IDK I guess" and then I started reading it and I was immediately like "you didn't tell me it's about a teen podcaster who loves the Bachelorette, that knowledge would have bumped it up on my TBR list". so anyway! It's about that. I LOVE Lee as a messy teen protagonist and I love that the narrative is very forgiving of her for not totally having her sexuality/life/goals all figured out but that it also doesn't let her off the hook for some of the privileged ignorance she had as a white teen in Memphis with a multiracial ex-boyfriend. The voice here is SO good, kinda gives me John Green vibes (COMPLIMENT) but a lil spicier than JG (also compliment).

btw earlier in this stack of reviews I said I'd listened to 3 audiobooks in the last week but actually it was 4. I mean middle grade audios are like 4 hours long so it's been breezy. Anyway this is why I haven't done anything in the past week except read. I'm very behind on television. I STRUGGLE.

ok enough about my PROBLEMS, I loved this book and I think it's great that the audiobook reader is OwnVoices for the character.

I love that this is a book that validates young trans people in a slightly different way than a lot of other youth media and in fact seems to be in conversation with some other media--reassuring readers that it's okay to be questioning and not to immediately always KNOW your gender identity and that that doesn't make it any less valid (but nor does it invalidate those who have had a more immediate understanding that they are trans).

Bug is just such a GOOD KID and also their haunted house is cool and ughhh just *chef's kiss*

I'm a fan of Mariah Carey's like...presence in the media landscape without necessarily being the biggest fan of her music, I guess? (I'm not a Lamb.) But I was honestly surprised by how much I liked this book and how moving I found it. Mariah writes really clearly about race and racism, as well as the multitude of trauma she's lived through. But she's also funny and weird. An upper tier celeb memoir for sure.

https://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-185-the-meaning-of-mariah-carey/

I might not have picked this up if it weren't for Anna's strong recommendation but WHEW it SLAPS, this is the feminist fury I needed! The smashing of love triangles! Exquisite!!!! Sequel when???

Every one of these stories was charming as hell, and the frame narrative was lovely. This is such a good, fun anthology! WOO!

this book fuckin GOT ME bc I thought it was going to be all JOKES and FUN and CHEESY PUBLIC ACCESS TELEVISION and then BAM I'm full-on sobbing in the gosh darn break room what the HECK Jeff Zentner?! I just loved these girls and their friendship and their adventureeeee and even their third wheel Lawson!! It is also REALLY funny until suddenly it isn't anymore. (Though I'd still call it a happy ending just EMOTIONS!)

re-read for book club...GOD DAMN BEVERLY CLEARY WENT SO FUCKING HARD, EXPOSING THE RAWEST PUREST EMOTIONS...NO GRITTY PRESTIGE DRAMA COULD DARE TO TOP THE EXQUISITE TORMENT OF RAMONA DESTROYING HER OWN PAPER OWL TO PROTECT THE PURITY OF HER ARTISTIC VISION......A MILLION STARS.

I had never read this before because it came out in 1999, well after my peak Ramona days! I'm not sure if it was because I had no specific nostalgia attached to this one, or that Ramona is older, or that Cleary herself maybeee wasn't at the peak of her game, but this one didn't hit as hard as previous re-reads of earlier Ramona books. But it's still very good and has a lot of eternally relatable moments. Ramona foreverrr