I was a little worried about a sequel to this book: I didn't want a whole book of Cas moping over his doubly-dead ghost girlfriend--I wanted adventures. Thankfully, though there is some dead-ghost-girlfriend moaning, this book answers a lot of questions I didn't realize I had from the first book. It was a satisfying conclusion to the duology.

This devastatingly depressing book demands to be read in a day, if not a single sitting. The chapters fly by as you search for answers to the hows and whys of Minnow's fraught decade in a cult that culminates in her jail sentence for assault. Though heartbreaking and difficult to read, Oakes has crafted a story that is as powerful as it is thought-provoking.

A fun way to get kids interested in learning new words.

Despite its modern publication date, this book feels like an inside joke for men living in New York in the seventies. It's emotionless and largely inaccessible. So many of the line breaks feel like attempts at being clever that end up being annoying, requiring a double read to get the full sentence. It lacks flow and anything interesting.

Hellworld starts off in the middle of a cave where a girl and her two friends think they are trapped forever -- and then immediately jumps back into the past where the decision to go into the cave began, and it continues to jump back and forth the rest of the novel. It's not my favorite technique, but it somehow adds suspense to hear of a scene and then to witness it in its full glory, like a movie trailer for each flashback scene. I loved the mix of mythology and science and the nature of man. This book will give you chills and set your imagination wandering.

It is not a romance when your main character almost gives up on the chance of finding her missing sister because the male lead is being a jerk.

It is not a romance when the mermaid main character is disgusted and ashamed of her mermaid form when in front of the non-mermaid male lead.

It is not a romance when neither character is willing to grow or change to be with the other.

This book was garbage.