Beartown is a hauntingly beautiful glimpse into the workings of a tight-knit community. This is what happens when a small town is splintered after trauma. Backman has deep insight into the minds of a relatively large cast of characters (we get peeks into many different perspectives). This book made me laugh, made me cry, and made me feel more human.

This book was ... hmm .. a little? more enjoyable than the first of the series, which I had to force myself to finish. It was still relatively slow and dragged quite a bit, but the set up towards the end was much more enticing and set up some interesting conflict for the remainder of the series. But the writing is so dreadful that I'm not sure I can push past that for a semi-interesting story. I would have loved deeper characterization - it felt like every male character was a slightly shifted version of the same thing. I’ll probably continue this series .. UPDATE: I don't think I can make it through book #3, sorry guys.

This is a chilling, fast-paced psychological thriller. Ashley Audrain explores the raw & darker sides of motherhood .. the impact of family history .. when women aren’t believed. While the story often feels like it’s gaslighting you as a reader, I couldn’t tear myself away from Blythe’s perspective. The ending did not feel like a “twist” to me, but instead a clear culmination of each thread. Highly recommend this one.

I was optimistic about this book due to my many fellow reviewers. That was my mistake. It was … slow. And the writing was, um .. painful? I forced my way through most of it, attempting to give the series an honest chance. I didn’t love any of the characters (I'd go so far as to say I DISLIKED most), and the world building was more or less nonexistent. Sarah J. Maas can't say anything once. It's sentence after sentence of dry, repetitive language. I laughed out loud .. a lot .. when I was definitely not meant to laugh. Things got a liiiittle exciting (but ridiculously so) in the final couple of chapters. The villain was so easily defeated (and didn’t even seem particularly powerful in the end…? A RIDDLE? Bahahahahaha.). I'm a good sport so sure, I'll try book #2. But I'm not expecting much.

Wow. This book was intense, twisted, and captivating. A fictional account (that feels like a memoir) of manipulation & grooming & power & victimhood & adult/minor relationships. Russell explores what it means to be a teenage girl and then a woman in our world. A powerful story with gripping language.

This book was a big ole disappointment. The blurb sounded interesting, and in theory the plot definitely was! But it read like a .. not fleshed out draft? Everything was just stated without depth or emotion. The MC could accomplish anything without much struggle. The romance was painful. It definitely read like an older-man-trying-to-write-a-teen-girl voice.

This book was a hard read for me. For most of the story, I had a hard pit in my stomach and a feeling of nausea. It was slow. It was painful. It was tough to look away as each aspect of this dysfunctional family dynamic unfolded. The ending was .. strangely neat. It’s hard to say if I liked this book or not, but I’ll be thinking about it for a long time.

WHAT a thriller! This book ripped me apart with anxiety and intense emotional responses. I can’t believe this is author Faridah’s debut. A tightly written YA dark academia thriller with heavy allegorical meaning.

This book left me feeling .. complicated. I liked the premise. I liked the spooky gothic feel. I liked the main character at the start. By the end .. it felt to me like the strength of the writing devolved. It was oddly slow-paced, and the pages dragged. The ending was intriguing, but I felt like Jane did not stay true to character and I was feeling antsy from the slow middle section.