skudiklier's Reviews (647)

Oh my god this book. I have no idea what to say about it. I don't know how else to say this but reading it made me feel like I was going crazy. I'm so glad I was reading this well after it came out and I could look up just enough people talking about it online so that I could know I was actually having the intended experience and not wildly misunderstanding something. For a book that made me feel like I had no idea what was happening, I loved it. I definitely want to read the next one. It made me scream at the people who recommended it to me. It has such a good payoff after all the confusion and disorientation. I wish all books were this devastating and this satisfying and this funny.

mild spoilers

NONE HOUSES LEFT GRIEF???? what the fuck.

I keep wanting to say this is my favorite of Casey McQuiston's books, but I know that it's been a couple years since I've read their other ones, and I'm biased by the fact that this is the one currently making me feel A Lot of Things. But that said!! This book was amazing. McQuiston has done it again.

There are so many things about this book that I loved. The friendship. The heartbreak. The different kinds of love and relationships and sex and closeness. The queerness of it all. The way it shifted perspectives at the best times. The way it handles Theo's gender. The way even when I thought I could see a problem coming, it always managed to surprise me instead.

This book made me feel so many things. It made me tell my partner that he's my best friend. It made me want to go back and reread McQuiston's other books. It made me want to taste everything and see everything and experience everything (and it made me very excited for my upcoming trip to Europe haha). I don't know how to compare this to their other books, since again, it's been a couple years since I read those. But The Pairing exceeded my expectations and I can't wait for my friends to read it so I can talk about it with them.

(My only complaint that isn't a standard romance "why didn't you talk to each other ugh" is so minor I hesitate to include it, but I will here just to get it off my chest, and so people who know me don't read this and think I loved this part of the book too: oh my god the rich white people vibes of this book. Any time all their bougie LA nepo baby shit came up I was struggling not to roll my eyes. In some ways the book addresses and makes up for this, but in some ways it doesn't. But. Again. I'm still giving the book five stars, so. Take all that as lightly as possible!!)

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the chance to read and review this ARC. 

I don't really know what to say about this book. It's definitely a product of its time, and the racism is kind of wild. But other than that, idk. It was fun? I was reading it on a friend's recommendation and didn't know much going in. Personally I wasn't a big fan but I think (again, minus the racism) it would have been fun for kids. 

I loved this so much! The world was fascinating, the characters were so lovable and complex, and I was rooting for the relationships the whole time. The Wikipedia entries at the beginning were a super interesting start because in some ways it tells you how the book will end, but really it just leaves you slightly tense the whole book waiting for what you (kind of) know is coming.

I'd highly recommend this book, especially to fantasy and romance fans. I hadn't read Lava Red Feather Blue before this and now I'm excited to!

Thank you to Netgalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the chance to read and review this ARC. 

I'm not sure what to say about this book. It was good, but not really my style; if I weren't reading an ARC to review I probably would have DNF'd it. I am glad in the end that I finished it, as some of the later essays were the ones I liked the most. But it just feels like such a personal preference thing. The ones I related to were my favorite (especially the ones about fears of having children). In general I wouldn't recommend it broadly, but if you're interested in the description then go for it! The writing is good. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the chance to read and review this ARC. 

This was so so good!! I'd read another of Emily's books and that made me interested in this one, especially given the topic. I'd highly recommend reading this, especially if you deal with burnout or stress, and especially if you're a woman (or like, woman-adjacent lmao). 

My one critique is that there are definitely some feminist vibes that feel a little....idk how to describe it. Outdated? Cringey? But that's not too intense and I feel like overall I really agree with their politics generally so I was willing to forgive it. I really like how the book addresses systemic causes and things that a lot of self-help books don't address. 

I want a physical copy of this book to reference! The tl;drs at the end of each chapter are super helpful. This book will genuinely change how I live my life. 

To be honest I have no idea how to review this! It was really good but also the audiobook was clearly very different from the print book. She was never reading the actual lines, and she added so much so it was way longer. But it was really good, honestly hilarious, and I loved getting to know so much about her life. Also as a HUGE Ghostbusters (2016) fan it was devastating to hear they filmed so much that wasn't in the movie and that the studio basically ruined it 😭 I want the director's cut of that movie soooo badly.

If you're okay with a very unusual audiobook and you're interested in Leslie and her work then I'd definitely recommend this!! But if you want a more traditional memoir experience you'd probably need better off reading the print book. 

Kaveh Akbar is one of my favorite poets, so I had high expectations for this book. I'm happy to say it didn't disappoint in the slightest. It actually made me realize that I think novels written by poets is one of my favorite genres of books, because I love them so much.

The writing is phenomenal, as expected. But I was also so drawn in by the characters and the story? And I don't want to give anything away because I think it's probably better if you don't see it coming, but WOW did I not see the plot twist coming. I read most of this book all in one day because I couldn't put it down. It'll stay with me for a long time. 

I still don't know how I feel about this series as a whole or the author more generally, so I wouldn't really recommend this book or the series probably. But that said, this was my favorite book in the series so far. It starts out slow and some of the pacing is weird, but the last section of the book really makes up for all that and the ending is incredible. I actually cried. 

It's been a week since I read this and I still have no idea how to review it. I really liked it. I had no idea what was going on for the first third of it. I found the main character really enjoyable. I thought so much of it was fucked up and graphic and dark. (vague spoilers ahead)

I was surprised and devastated by the ending. I was really hoping/expecting it to turn into enemies to lovers and I still can't tell if that might happen in a future

 

I'm definitely going to read the next one, and I convinced my sister to read this one so I could have someone to talk about it with. But like. Wow. What a book.