I liked the Portland setting; I was able to follow along with the locations. This book was written well with interesting characters and a well-paced story. I found myself crying at times, welling up emotion for futility, judgement, family dynamics and trust.

I really like her work and her perspective.

This book wasn't the best horror ever but the things I was confused about in the movie, this cleared up. I prefer King's storytelling to Stanley Kubrick.

Heart Berries was recommended to me as a quick book, an audiobook, that held the listener's interest. It's about a 4hr audiobook and it is not read by the author. Something about most narrators bothers me, like they over pronounce words and lose emotion conveyed in the writing by mechanically sounding out the syllables with their method. Despite that, this book was still a god damn gut punch. Autobiographically written by an MFA writer endorsed by Sherman Alexie, Mailhot has a way with words that hurts in a way no so-so narrator can ruin. I only listen to books in the car, where I'm a captive audience. Picture a nondescript sedan cruising down an arterial with the driver wracked with sobs on a perfect spring day. The moonroof is open. The driver wears sunglasses and her chin quivers before crumbling. It's short and captivating but it's not an easy listen. I'd read more of her work for sure.

Overwrought. Too long. Kind of boring honestly. I had to return to the library at 80% and enjoyed it to that point. When I checked it out again the last 20% drug in a constipated strain. I also tried the extremely long book about trees by him, The Overstory. The characters in both are interesting, dimensional, and lifelike but the story here and there were so overdone, overstated, over-storied, "echo"-ing a good 200 pages more than needed. There's a double agent which is an unusual device in a novel about brain injuries and mental health. I learned that there are fewer than 100 whooping cranes left in the world, so, cheers mate. Close the cover on Richard for me. It isn't poorly written, but it's not my taste in the least.

What a dumb ending.

Boring! Interesting story, boring ending. Lots of buildup through this quick story. I got Evil Dead, True Detective, and idk, Jackie Brown(!?) vibes. If you like any or all, I think you'd like this. I liked the characters and the pacing, I wished for a more fulfilling plot. I got bored with the diary after awhile. I thought the rude, hated grandma would be the heiress to the tok toks or something kind of Pan's Labyrinth. If she was a husk left behind and her consciousness went to the stone land, that might explain why all her empathy and warmth left her body. . .But no. Roxy was a badass and I really liked knowing Bongo was gonna be okay. It kind of felt sci-fi fantasy by the end rather than horror. Meh.


Readharder2021
Beloved pet doesn't die ✅

I read Nickled And Dimed in the last year and I thought Ehrenrich was pretty annoying. At the conclusion of each 'experiment' she'd pop up all jack-in-the-box on people and be like, "SURPRISE I'M NOT REALLY POOR! DID I FOOL YOU? GOOD LUCK AND ALL". I like that this book is more authentic. A single mom needs to pay bills and hustles, breaks her body and gives everything she has to take care of her kid. I like that it was set in the beautiful NW but also didn't sugarcoat the area too much, speaking about mold and chronic breathing problems in crappy housing. I found this author and her book showed grit and determination and I wasn't ever annoyed with the author the way I was with Ole Barb in the former. Her writing wasn't too simple, nor too flowery. A look at family and poverty.