Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

I think Jackson's jump from YA to Adult fiction went pretty well, although his writing did skew a little more YA at times throughout the book. I really enjoyed the cast of characters, but it felt a little too... to the point. There weren't any background characters or unnecessary subplots, other than the romance plot, and very little background is given about anything that isn't necessary to the plot which made it feel a little less like a story and more like a series of plot points held together to make a story.  

I did wish that there was more character nuance but I did love how Jackson subverted who the villain was. I feel like this could've been fleshed out more in general. A lot of the character arcs and plot points felt surface level at best and I wish we, the readers, got to spend more time with Lewis, Edgar and the paintings, beyond just "I'm Black and queer from Baltimore" and "I'm doing evil things because I desperately want my sister back and these paintings are reflections of what I did."

There were several grammatical errors throughout, and the genre definitely errs more to fantasy than it does horror but I do want to see what Jackson comes up with next. I'm sure with more time and practice, Jackson can improve upon what he started in The Macabre, especially because the magic system was so unique and the premise so interesting. The open ending epilogue made it seem like we may be seeing more of this universe, and I will be waiting for Jackson to release more.

I hate when someone who is written to be smart as shit, i.e. an Ivy league educated lawyer acts like a fucking idiot. It was bad decision after bad decision and I couldn't suspend my belief long enough to believe I was reading the actions of a lawyer. At most, the pacing was a slow burn, the reveals weren't compelling and I was underwhelmed the whole time. The secrets Ellice were keeping weren't that interesting, in my opinion, and Ellice as a character was deeply unlikable. Compared to the rest of the book, the ending was too quick paced and all in all, I didn't enjoy the time I spent reading.

I think this may be the book that makes me give more classics a shot. I think this does a fantastic job of exploring themes of race, identity, nationalism and political reform. I loved that it felt like a stream of consciousness from the unnamed narrator and I enjoyed the use of being invisible as a metaphor for being marginalized. This was an interesting and impactful piece of prose, and I will have to reread it in the future.

This was a horrifying critique of the US prison system. I have just two or three issues, first of which is, the themes were extremely heavy-handed and it felt like getting whacked by the point over and over again. I also both loved and hated the footnotes. Some of them gave great info, but I think the low freed characters didn’t need their backstory or crimes told and it almost felt contrary to the point that the prisoners were people and not just their crimes. Also some of the POV‘s felt a little overwhelming due to the sheer number of them and some like the doctor’s or Wil’s POV felt a little bit unnecessary considering they were one and dones with only minor mentions later. 

Now, this was extremely graphic. The fight scenes were super vivid, and the casual violence is jarring. I loved Thurwar’s and Staxx’s characters. I loved how their love and their growth and their grief was showcased. The ending destroyed me, waiting until the final page to resolve the story was ridiculous (/pos). The prose was impactful and compelling, and I think Adjei-Brenyah masterfully weaved the stories of Staxx and Thurwar with multiple lenses, critiquing the prison system, capitalism, and the allowance of the 13th amendment for incarcerated slaves. I loved that evil people were still allowed to be evil and not everyone needed a sob story or character growth. I will definitely be recommending this in the future.

I’m so tired of romance novels that have badass, hot as fuck female main characters that act like a doormat for the male equivalent of oatmeal. Not only did the MMC break up with the FMC seven years earlier because she told him she loved him, he also started dating someone a week later. Then, in the present, he offers her a job that wasn’t his to give, and acts surprised when she’s upset about it. He doesn’t tell her that he broke up with his girlfriend, allowing her to feel awful about their heated moments and lets her think he’s emotionally cheating on his girlfriend and then gets mad at her when she’s upset and breaks up with him because her reputation gets tarnished. I hate hot and cold behavior so much, I think Kaliya deserved better and I hate that she gave Danny so many chances. I also hated the evil ex-girlfriend trope because if my boyfriend hired his ex that clearly still has feelings for him for a movie that I am bankrolling and he’s giving her heart eyes too,I’d also be pissed.

Book related things, the plot dragged on, I almost dnfed multiple times between 60-80%. I know it’s a romance but it felt very corny and it didn’t feel like Danny even liked Kaliya, he just liked having a woman looking up to him and being a doormat for him.

This is an incredible debut novel. Mottley’s prose is fantastic and I can’t believe she was just 17 when writing this. I picked this up on a whim and while not entertaining in the positive sense, Kiara’s life is too horrifying to be entertaining, it was attention catching and I was unable to put it down.

I remember living in the East Bay when the news story that inspired this book broke. I remember feeling heartbroken for the girls that were exploited by the police and Mottley captured those feelings and transferred them into this novel. It did feel at some points where it was too much pain at one time, because event after event was happening to Kiara, but the ending more than made up for it, balancing a hopeful ending with a realistic one. This was an immersive experience and Mottley did a great job balancing her beautiful prose with the dark subject matter.

This was a short, interesting, set of poems. Pardlo has a fantastic use of wordplay and use of language but the poems just did not hit me as hard as I was hoping they would. I think that some of the poems felt out of place or like they were forced to fit the organization of poems rather than the organization of poems to fit the poems themself. It was an enjoyable read overall.

I had such a hard time getting into this. The pacing felt extremely off. It felt like Adam’s wasn’t sure which genre she wanted to focus on so there was a bit of mystery, a bit of thriller, a bit of horror while simultaneously not hitting any of them beyond surface level. The romance subplot was extremely unnecessary and the themes were  very heavy handed. I think it could’ve gone without the supernatural aspect, in fact, I think the supernatural aspect detracted from the ending and bordered on cultural appropriation. 

I did love the atmosphere and I was kept guessing on who the killer was, which was a bit unusual for me. But overall this was a letdown with the very superficial character development and too far reaching plot.

I’m rating based solely on my personal enjoyment and not the story actually told.

I think it was such an interesting choice to write an autobiography in a fictional format. The first two thirds were deeply compelling and moving with a consistent pace, but I did feel like the last third was rushed and surface level in comparison to the first two thirds. However, Angelou’s prose is stunning and I loved the way she chose to convey her upbringing. I will most likely be picking up the rest of the books in her autobiographical series. She brings attention to so many topics in a deeply humanizing way (of course because they’re her experiences) and I feel like this is a deeply important autobiography to read.

I’ve never read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn so I went into this completely blind. I think the prose was fantastic. I loved the switches between “proper” English and the English that the slaves spoke when speaking to or within hearing distance of white people. I think Everett gave a master class in what subverting a classic looked like and I couldn’t put it down. I loved the conversations that James had with Voltaire and the various other philosophers. I also think a lot of the commentary is applicable to today and I’m sure that Everett was very intentional in doing so. A great shorter read that had me debating if I want to read Huck Finn.