I have such a weakness for Lovecraftian lore. This story is an adventure about a golem and a girl, but also a treatise on meaning; death; and large, interdimensional, tentacled monsters. It is also sparsely illustrated.

John Green won me over so much with Looking for Alaska that I would read anything he writes. And I am so glad of it. This, ostensibly a book about a girl struggling with obsessive thought, is not a subject that interests me. But Green writes such incredible characters that by the end I was half in love with all of them. I love the way he takes situations that could easily be tropes and character traits that could easily be shorthand for actual character development, and then spills their guts. This is a novel about people being people.

I love Robin Hood lore (I took a whole class on just Robin Hood in college) and I was pleased to see that this book held true to much of the mythos. I really liked the gender swap idea, and the characters were fun. Mild spoiler, there are two female characters who dress as men, but I didn't put this on my lgbtq shelf because both were dressing as men to survive not as an expression of themselves which made sense in the context of the historical setting but was still a little bit of a letdown. I love how sassy Robin is and I love that she is open about sex throughout the story. I loved the focus on female friendships and female empowerment. Overall it was a cute read.

The biggest thing that surprised me about this book was how legitimately funny it was. Gilbert has a marvelous ability to inspire and amuse at the same time. This book is hopeful and honest and turns so many commonly held beliefs about creativity on its head. It's the kind of book you should read every few years, just to remind yourself of its wisdom.

I love Silver's boundless enthusiasm for the universe and its magic. Her energy is so contagious, and I know next time I'm sitting in traffic or stressed at work I will reflect on her words and try to find my own inner peace. I wish this book had had fewer anecdotes and more information. There were tantalizing hints at all of the travel and research that Silver has done, but most of the book was anecdotes from other people who had used her method of focusing on accepting the future that the Divine had in store for you, and accepting the path you are on. Would recommend to anyone feeling like the world is against them.

I loved that this book jumps right in to the action: our heroine wakes up as a vampire and is immediately launched into the politics and intrigue of a supernatural-creature-filled world. It's a pretty typical take on urban fantasy, but it is definitely fun and I'm interested enough in the world to keep reading. And I'm totally in love with Morgan.

This is classic scifi in all its unruly glory: a wonderfully inventive idea, and a boring af execution. When Genly Ai (presumably of our very own earth, just far in the future) becomes an Envoy for a Star-Trek-style-Federation, he goes to a planet of genderless humans who only become gendered when they are ready to mate and afterwards return to their genderless state. It is an intricate study of gender and what it means for both people and society. Boring and intriguing, as I always seem to find classic scifi.

I'm giving this two stars because I loved the beginning. I was immediately sucked into the plot of dropping a bunch of important humans and one dumb teenage girl into cryogenic sleep and shipping them off to colonize a new planet, while their inert bodies lie watched over by a generation ship. It was scifi lite! I'm totally here for that.

Unfortunately, it quickly goes downhill. Both main characters (it's told in alternating POVs) are idiots, and I listened to the last third of the audiobook on 1.5x speed just to get it over with. I hated the unnecessary and overly graphic attempted rape scene (this marked the complete dropoff in my enjoyment; every scene after this just made me angrier and angrier) and I absolutely hated the ending. Will not be continuing with the series.

A fun and zany memoir about life, fashion, following your dreams, New York vs Paris, relationships, etc!

This was so boring. DNF at 11%.