Woah.

Mara and her twin brother, Owen, have always been close. So when Owen's girlfriend Hannah, one of Mara's best friends, says that Owen raped her, Mara doesn't know who to believe. She loves Hannah, but she doesn't want to believe her, because Owen is family, her other half. In this uncompromising, raw, and incredibly powerful novel, nothing is black and white—except when it is.

I'm so glad that this story exists to shine a light on such a fraught, difficult topic. It made me cry and I think you should read it.

Long Way Down is a novel in verse about a teenage boy's ghost-filled descent on an elevator with the ultimate goal of killing his brother's killer. As the elevator reaches each floor, a dead person from his past steps on and forces him to think about his life in a new way.

Reynolds plays with language in really smart and original ways- I love the anagrams and double meanings.

Still, I didn't connect with this novel as much as I had hoped to. I sped through it without developing an emotional stake in the events- maybe I should listen to it on audio?

Beautifully written and so socially important, but I had a hard time connecting with it for some reason? Maybe the magical realism element held me back?? Hard to put my finger on why I didn’t love this.

After the funniest and most gasp-inducing meet-cute, scandal-prone Charlotte and restrained Piers, Marquess of Granville, find themselves suddenly...engaged??

This book is so damn fun. I laughed, sighed, gasped, and smiled. The characters are believable and complementary and they have such great chemistry!

There's a little bit of cliché angst that I rolled my eyes at, but it didn't stop me from really enjoying this novel!

3.5 stars

I quite enjoyed this collection of stories about the bizarre escapades of the Mulliner family! The tales are not all equally funny, but they all have the same spirit of silliness. Good fun.

Not for me. The writing is amazing (as Neil Gaiman's always is), but I didn't love the art and the plot was just too dark and violent for me. I don't think I'll read more Sandman, but I do strongly recommend it for people who love this style of twisted, dark fantasy.

very very merry

Reading Kari Byron's Crash Test Girl is like having a conversation with a trusted friend. Warm, funny, and full of wisdom, this memoir/self-help guide uses the clever format of experimentation, a nod to Byron's time on the Discovery Channel show MythBusters.

Each chapter focuses on an aspect of Byron's life, ranging from love to money to creativity, and begins with a related anecdote, often from the MythBusters shop. Then Byron delves into her personal history, recounting episodes from her teenage years, 20s adventures, or love life and calling them "crash tests," "hypotheses," and "experiments." This structure could easily disrupt the narrative, but it does the opposite, keeping the theme of each chapter at the center of attention and reminding the reader of Byron's science-based perspective.

Despite this being her first outing into a written artistic form, Byron's voice is compelling and very personable. She writes like I imagine she talks—the language is accessible but full of insight. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that I didn't want to put this book down! I learned so much about Byron's life and feel inspired to go out into the world and experiment with life a little bit!

I loved:
- the idea of a refuge for women to be themselves largely out of the male gaze
- the way Susanna retains her sense of self and that Bram is on board with that
- the lamb
- the trope twist re: the eccentric inventor father toward the end

I was not a fan of:
- Bram, most of the time
- the fact that the women don't really do anything That interesting while out of the male gaze
- the emphasis on both Bram and Susanna needing romantic love as like a saving force
- the scene where Bram tells Susanna that she can hit him and SHE DOES IT

In general I think this novel is okay and has some valuable components but it definitely didn't make me fall in love.