The first section is very heavy on the science, and I have to admit my English major brain struggled with some of the information. But after that we get into more of what I expect from Dawkins -- a humorous, graceful, and bitingly clever dissection of humanity why religion is so terrible. I loved the parody of Wodehouse almost as much as the essay that describes religion as an addictive drug. Dawkins is a gem.

Boring, sexist, and utterly devoid of romance. Such a disappointment.

Feels like a bunch of Aesop's fables that had their morals cut out before they were fed through a Black Mirror episode.

DNF at 32%. Skipped to the end and was glad I didn't finish.

Sharp and spare in the way only a story narrated by a southern Presbyterian girl in the 1870's could be, True Grit is a top-notch adventure western and hilarious to boot.

A romance novel should not open with a rape scene. Period. And while we're at it, I would prefer mine without

Spoiler

the rape and murder of the main character's best friend, more terror than romance, and an ending where the two lovers break up because HIS EX AND THE MAIN CHARACTER ARE BOTH PREGNANT.

Beautiful and tender and scalpel-sharp, this whole novel feels like a poem.

I love Magnus Bane. He is one of my favorite characters in Clare's world so I was super excited to learn more about him and unravel some of the mysteries of his past. Unfortunately these stories were more of a brief spotlight on different moments in his life that were cute but did nothing to illuminate his character. It was fun but ultimately unsatisfying.

Mor is one of the most unlikable heroines I've ever encountered. She's supremely self-involved, cruel, potentially mentally ill (I don't actually believe she saw fairies), and feels more like a vehicle for Walton to list books she likes than a real character.

I also hate books that are set in the past for no real reason other than the author can't be bothered to handle technology and new book releases. It's the worst kind of nostalgia.

Even worse than this, this book is boring. Everything interesting that happens to Mor happens before the story starts, and though the general gist gets revealed in bits and pieces, you never learn the full story. Instead, you are treated to endless rants about books she likes which only make sense if you've read them.

Also, am I really supposed to believe that a book club would meet every single Tuesday and every attendee had time to read that author's entire catalogue in seven days? Even if the fairies were real, this was still the most unrealistic thing in the whole book.

This book pushed every one of my buttons. The main character was a navel gazer, it was set in the past for no reason other than that the author appears to not want to deal with technology (it's the 80's and the two teen main characters don't even watch tv on principle), the two main characters fall in love but there is no hint of romance for 80% of the book, there's family drama that never gets resolved, there is a serious lack of female characters except for two girls who only show up to be obnoxious and then disappear just as quickly as they appeared, and the two main characters, despite being 15 year old boys, speak like sixty year old philosophers.

I called a friend who loved this book and asked him to explain it to me when I was a third of the way through. He told me all of his feelings and I tried so hard to keep them in mind while listening, but this was just a dull mess from start to finish.