shidoburrito's Reviews (1.54k)

Requiem for a Dream had a threesome with J.K. Rowling and C.S. Lewis, with "The Magicians" as their resulting love-child. "The Magicians" takes everything that is wondrous about magic and adventures and turns it into the most depressing story ever. The Message: "Oh, you got accepted into a school of magic? Here, realize that life is sh*t no matter what powers you have."
I would like my star rating to say, "I didn't LIKE it, but it was good". Yes, this book is good. It's well written, it has strong characters, and an interesting plot. All these characters will never be happy and neither was I the entire time I read this book. I'll stick to my wondrous magic and fantasy books, thankyouverymuch.

I guess I'm just really into 90's vampire detectives. So this was totally the book for me. I really enjoyed the characters and it was a pretty quick and easy read. I'm waiting on the TV show from ILL, and can't wait to read the rest of the series!

Do you like Stranger Things? Do you normally enjoy Stephen King? Then I'm sure you'll love this book!

Holy crap! That was the PERFECT horror story! Everything I wanted: suspense, madness, creepy wooden figures that seem to move, the cat surviving, gothic horror! I can't recommend this book enough, and reading it during the Halloween season made it especially atmospheric.

When the reviewers below say this book is like "Titanic" mixed with "The Shining", believe them. It is exactly that. So there is romance (I mean, it's the driving force of this book) and reincarnation, no elevators of blood but definitely a malevolent hotel. It's a good, quick read, fun to read during the Halloween holiday, but nothing terribly spoopy and more romance than I've read in a while (but that's because I've been actively avoiding it).

Also, after reading the author credits I did realize this would be an appropriate book if any librarians are looking for Catholic school book clubs or any teen book club that can't include cursing or sex (there are instances of attempt-ish rape, and 1910's "dirty talk"), but I think this would work well as it's all pretty tame.

I honestly...don't know. I loved Fangirl and really enjoyed Carry On, but I don't remember either books being anything like this. Or as discombobulated. Or...I dunno. If I read this on A03? Cool! I'd love a road-trip fic with my fandom's favorite characters! Officially published in a book that will have another sequel after this? It's tiring to think about because I don't think I enjoyed this book enough to want a sequel.

I swear I've read a graphic novel like this before, but I couldn't find it in my GoodReads reviews... Well, it seems similar where a graphic novel artist creates a graphic novel biography about his life, which wasn't easy, growing up. In this one, Jarrett is raised by his grandparents and when he is in middle school he learns it's because his mom is addicted to drugs and has been in either jail or a halfway house recovering. Jarrett is good at art and draws comics for his school newspaper. This is his life. The art seems to be drawn with ink brushes and...watercolor? Colors are sparse and muddied by black tints, nothing is bright or pops out, lines are wobbly and thick, creating a unique style, but definitely not drawn to be "pretty" or impressed, more to get the gesture and the feeling of the panel down, but not polished up when finished, making it feel "gritty". If you're looking for a book for kids or teens about parents that are absent due to drugs, then this would be a good pick. It just wasn't very... exciting? Attention grabbing? But, that's life. If I were to turn my life into a comic it would be extremely boring (and that's how I like it, thankyouverymuch).

Need a book about racism? Stuck in a rural town and finding yourself surrounded by skinheads? Are your parents LITERALLY the worst? Then this book is for you!

Mock Printz contender #1. Notes:

Spoiler

This book took a while to get into with all the connections and people having nicknames and whatnot, but eventually, as the pieces started coming together, it became a much more interesting book. I knew The Freak was dead pretty quickly. I was reading this while getting my tattoo (don't worry, it wasn't a racist tattoo!) done and I was like, "Oh, I think this character is dead. She just kicked a garbage can and her parents, downstairs, said 'I hear noises from up there all the time'." Definitely was getting ghost vibes from that.
In the author notes she mentions how the whole scene where The Shoveler sees the White Power tattoo on Mike's forearm was something that happened to her in real life. She said something like,"You can't strip search your friends so always be aware." And that's true. She also said in her acknowledgements, "I promised my teens in the last book to flip off all the awful adults in their life. My finger is getting tired, how do you put up with this crap?" This is a good quote to lead me into my final analysis of this book:
Adults do suck. You are not set in your ways. It's not your genes that define you. You are responsible for you, but that also means making sure you don't pass on the suck or let another person get away with being awful. We all have a duty to stop inhumane and racist behavior by not spreading it ourselves and not putting up with it in others.
Is this going to be a Mock Printz winner? I don't know. It's got a great setting of an awful, racist, whitewashed, rural town in Pennsylvania. The characters are totally it's driving point, but there may be too much for some readers to keep track of. It took me a little while. It has a very relevant and great message for today's teens. I believe it was pretty well researched and the author used much of her own life's experiences to make the story truly believable.

Thank you, this book, for not being uselessly overly dramatic. Thank you for having wonderful characters and a main character that I adore in her strength. THANK YOU FOR SHOWING TEENS COMMUNICATING. I can't count how many times an author creates drama that isn't needed with weak-ass plot turns just because a character won't communicate their feelings or puts words in another person's mouth. Thank you for having a single, teen mom being an awesome mother and making really mature and wise decisions. Thank you for making a really wholesome page turner about family, future, and cooking and putting faith into all three.