shereadytoread's Reviews (806)

This is primarily a book about the fandom of One Direction disguised as a book about women’s history of online interaction. While this book does hit a lot of the basics of women’s contribution to internet culture, it misses many of the major websites, most of the major events and the large majority of fandoms are excluded, to make room for more stories about One Direction (many of them personal stories that don’t relate to the online concept much). It also relies primarily on direct anecdotes and some articles rather than actual research and statistics. If this book was honestly advertised as a 1D fandom book I likely would not have picked it up, which it seems the intention of the description/blurb was to bring in a wide audience by misrepresenting the premise. 

This book is basically a fantasy retelling of the end of Trujillo dictatorship and it is wonderfully written. The elements of Dominican folklore, a great adventure plot as well as a wonderful cast was fun to read. I think this is one of the few MG books where we see the effects of actual violence on the MC but it was very well done.  

This was an EXCELLENT execution of MG horror. Based in a childhood game, that feeds on the fears of its victims, it provides some chilling scenes based in a variety of real life issues like grief, isolation, phobias, miscommunication, and social anxieties. As the horrors are based in each character's individual fears, it manages to add depth to all the supporting characters in addition to the MC. This is a wonderful read!

This book was pretty good. Diana Urban sets up really hooking opening chapters and a great stakes. I think that the specifics of technology in this one will be a bit dating eventually, but it's all very current right now. I think this book suffers from one thing I have seen in her previous books, where there is a reveal to the reader earlier than the MC realizes it which brings the thrills/stakes down for a bit. However, this book has some excellent extra punches that bring it all back together. While it is a bit lengthy (there is filler of her going back and forth with normal friend stuff while waiting for the next action sequence), the plot is interesting and the story itself is well-paced. 

This is a book with a lot of overlapping plot lines, but once you figure it out, it becomes a bit predictable. I think it excels in setting up a good procedural, but the audience is always one step ahead of the cops, which is interesting to read. I think that one of the ... 6 main storylines was just to throw people off so it was disappointing filler at the end. I think it definitely could have been cut down a bit, but overall it's a very enjoyable story. 

Disclaimer: I received a free ALC from Netgalley.

This was an interesting time to read this book. One of the main tenants of this human/AI Cyborg friendship is that the AI creates art. The book also addresses that AI created by humans is unlikely to be objective and unbiased but would replicate the biases and prejudices of our society. 

Overall I enjoyed this book. The building of the friendship is well written. And although the story is not extremely long, there is a lot of subtext. 

I am withholding a review of this title in support of the Harper Collins Union until a fair contract is agreed upon. 

As someone who hasn't read any Lovecraft since high school (and absolutely will not), I wondered how much of the mythos of Lovecraftian horror was contained. Upon further research, this story (and the one it is based on) are not part of the full Cthulhu canon, so the mentions are rather minor and the story stands on its own. 

This book does play a lot on identity and transformation by power and circumstance. As it is a novella, the story is concise, but unfortunately this means that many meaningful scenes happen off-page and are discussed by the characters. I like this one a lot, and would have loved an expanded version where we get to see those happenings. 

I think something that is a slight draw back for me is the MC acceptance of the racist assumption that he is a monster. He is thought to be one, so he loses his humanity and turns into one. But it felt close to equalizing the violence of an oppressive system to the reactions to that system. I think that the author's note adds a lot of context, and as someone that does not read author's notes often, I read this one twice.