Poorly edited, gratuitously violent, plotless, and disjointed.

This was so bad I gave up a third of the way through. I can only assume based on the text that Harold Robbins never met a woman. And if he did ever meet one, I can only offer them my condolences.

This book tried to be an insight into the authors' experience with the Sawtooth Pack that they essentially built and raised and let remain wild while also being a plea to protect wolves. Unfortunately, while both are worth learning about, the book itself feels disjointed and heavy and leans in to the pathos a little too hard. Almost every photo caption is pulled from the text, which makes reading this feel repetitive like a children's textbook. My edition also has a sentence that just ends mid-stream on page 64 and does not ever get finished in the book, which is extremely disappointing considering this was published by National Geographic.

I loved the photos and insights from the Dutchers on their experiences with the pack. And I completely understand why we should all care that the wolf population is allowed to return and thrive. And I find it incomprehensibly evil that in a budget bill, it was put forth and passed that wolves are no longer protected in the US by the Endangered Species Act. But the book itself is meh. It's too depressing to recommend to kids and not thought-provoking enough to recommend to adults.

<i>" 'Promise me, that no matter what happens, no matter what dumb thing we supposedly perpetrate on each other, we won't ever go six years without talking to each other. Promise me you'll always forgive me, and I promise I'll always forgive you.' These, of course, are the kinds of vows young people feel comfortable making when they have no idea what life has in store for them."</i>

I didn't enjoy reading this book. It was weighty and frustrating and every time Dov showed up again I wanted to throw the book into a lake. But it made me feel a lot of feels, and it made me tear up more than once. It's a book about growing up.

A fun adventure. I enjoyed the audiobook. It was refreshing to have an adventure story heroine be a tall, strong, middle-aged woman with lots of history.

Rowling had no idea what to do with this book and it shows. There is no consistent tone or theme throughout, and it's very dull and plodding. Don't even get me started on the pandering, miserable epilogue.


"Do not pity the dead. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love." Final words from Dumbledore.

Repeat after me: There is no such thing as a love potion. Those are rape potions. Yet this entire book acts like they are no big deal. Even Hermione says they aren't dark magic. What. The. Fuck.

It is wild to me that six books in we have so many classroom scenes and every teacher is like "here is a complicated task I haven't explained. Go do it." It's a wonder any of these kids have survived this school. None of the adults in this book should be allowed near children. (Especially Hagrid. It gets creepier every book the way they are always in his house. I'm sorry. I used to like him too. But it's creepy.)

I definitely had some nostalgia pangs reading this one. I remember going to the midnight release at Borders and having a sleepover at my friend Julie's house with two other friends who totally passed out, and she and I stayed up all night just so we could finish it, but I was so tired I barely remembered what I read and had to read it all again. Ah, to be newly fifteen again.

But once again the internal inconsistencies pull me out of the story (Hagrid would absolutely have known who Slughorn is because he was the potions teacher when Hagrid was at Hogwarts, Slughorn shows up on the first day of class with Felix Felicis only for it to be revealed later that it takes six months to make (and he was on the run so he definitely wasn't storing it in his house)) and the sheer volume of useless text is a drag. Rowling was so popular when this was published that they just let her write as much as she wanted, which failed for two reasons. One, she is absolutely shit at world-building, and two, half the scenes in this book are reiterations of previous books that do nothing for the plot (Draco is mean, we can't lose the Quidditch match, the trio are fighting with each other, detention, etc).

No lovely quote from Dumbledore to wrap up this review. You know why.

A heartfelt and tender story that I was entirely not sold on, but once Celie meets Shug, I was hooked. I loved their romance and how real the interactions and conversations felt between everyone. I did struggle with the timeline; I never knew how much time was passing or how old anyone was or anything, which was really frustrating, but the story was captivating.

This was published in 1987 and it shows. The casual bigotry, racism, and sexism are painful to read. For example,

the main character is cheating on his wife and it literally never occurs to him to use a condom. Someone asks him what method of birth control they used and he apologizes for not being a gentleman enough to concern himself with what she was doing. S I R. TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH.

. Insane.

If you can get past this, the mystery is solid and I enjoyed the reveal.

I knew his wife did it pretty early on because the clues were well-placed, but I loved it. I also liked at the end when he is talking it over with his friend and he really still isn't sure of all of her motivations for doing it.

I was crying before I even realized my heart was hurting.