Tartt is one of the few writers who can include pages upon pages of dialogue and make it feel so real that you can practically smell the cigarette smoke breath, see the waving hands, gaze into the frantic eyes of these characters. She is a marvel. As is this book.

This was so much weaker than I anticipated. I was so hyped for the feminist, bad bitch adventure. What I got was a future ruled by men who can send women to a prison that is literally on another planet if they are "non compliant" (anything from mad at their husband for cheating to actual crimes like murder) that has no plot and no character development. People with story arcs are killed for no reason and feel like wasted pages, the art is mediocre at best, and the plot is nonexistent. By the fourth issue I felt like things were starting to pick up, but then by the fifth they flattened out again. The only things that made me feel fiery were the ads splattered between issues.

Waaay better than the first. You finally start getting some background on the characters, and a lot of plots are set in motion. I liked the introduction of trans characters, and the subtle mention that a woman had been in charge before whatever happened to make the men take over.

This book was a mystery and a thriller and young adult best friend drama all rolled into one. I loved that Jill didn't know what happened -- so much of the story was her trying to figure out what stories being told were true. It was such a teenage emotion, wondering if she was capable of the things people were claiming, or if she was not. As other characters pointed out, memories can be false (especially with head injury, but also just in general life) and anyone could be capable of murder given the right circumstances.

The first half of this book is unbearably puerile: two children whose first language is Russian are best friends but have a falling out, until the girl gets taken by child protective services when the boy's grandmother reports the girl's caregiver for neglect.

The second half of the book is also puerile, but with enough adult overtones that I really couldn't figure out the audience. The first half would bore a young adult reader to tears so that they wouldn't even get to the second half, and the second half is too adult to give it to a middle grade reader in good conscience (the second half includes everything from heroin to strippers pinching their own nipples to child sexual abuse).

This is a book that commits two unforgivable sins: it doesn't know its audience and it's incredibly boring.

Lucien is just one of many painters in Paris, and despite his friendships with Toulouse-Lautrec and other fantabulously famous painters his life is pretty dull until his former lover returns and demands he paint her. This sets off a wild ride with magical paint, lost time, art, muses, comedy, and a great number of brothel visits.

In the vein of Moo and Candide, Undermajordomo Minor is an outrageous comedic tale that follows a nonsensical path that nevertheless reveals truths about human nature and its fair share of witticisms. It is absurdist and fun and perfect for when you're in the mood to read something but you're not quite sure what.

The Lore podcast is great but Mahnke's voice is so godawful boring it was really nice to read this book and not hear him tell me the stories. My only complaint is that the breadth of this book is so much more than the depth, and I would have really liked to see him delve into the tales in a way that the podcast didn't give him the freedom to.

A collection of short stories based on Van Allsburg's magical The Chronicles of Harris Burdick. Maybe it was the fact that I love that original, or that in seventh grade my class wrote our own stories based on these photos, or that Van Allsburg's original introduction held so much promise, but the majority of these stories were boring. The only one that truly thrilled me was M. T. Anderson's creepy story. Kate DiCamillo always manages to tug at my heartstrings. But the rest fell flat for me.

I was expecting a very French novel about affairs and ennui. I was pleasantly surprised to find a philosophical study of what happens to the mental health of two people who are in love -- right up until they murder the man keeping them apart.

It was a lot melodramatic, but given its age and French provenance I can forgive it this much. It's a very dark book, but I love that it never portrays Therese or Laurent as sympathetic. They are constantly referred to as murderers and they sink slowly but surely into the mire of Zola's disdain as they become worse and worse as the story goes on.

The ending was (you probably guessed) dark but mostly satisfying.