Least favourite of the Emily Henrys I've read so far, but by no means bad, just a little clunky at times and not quite my cup of tea 

I generally liked this! I've been a fan of Bob the Drag Queen for years, and I definitely recommend the audiobook; hearing her read it did enhance my experience. Ultimately though I think it was too short and too choppy in its writing to fully deliver? I think you can hear her admiration for Harriet Tubman and the experiences of Black people throughout history come through, there's a real sense of frustration at how little this history is taught (I say, as a Canadian who didn't get much education on this either). The weakest parts are the modern segments and the framing device, I think they were both pretty flimsy.

Hmm.

I do think at the end of the day I liked this, and the narration really enriched the experience, but I do have gripes with it I just can't get over. This has a very... Tumblr sheen that I didn't always enjoy, in the way that I felt like it was trying too hard to be beautiful and lyrical and it sometimes bogged down the experience. I sometimes heard, word for word, cliche lines that I read in aesthetic posts as a teenager.

Also felt like the Dracula connection was forced - there was so little connecting it to the original it's ostensibly based off, to the point where I felt like it was false advertising to even put it in the blurb, with some cursory call backs to remind you that oh yeah Dracula's wives. Could have been something completely original and nothing would have been lost.

Still, I was so struck by how insidious and slow the build-up the abusive relationship was. It's really the meat of the book, where the author was truly invested, and I did love it for that.

Oh and happy pride month, fellow bis!

Very hit or miss. Some of these essays really touched me and got me to think about queerness and horror more deeply, others just didn't land at all. 

Long time coming. I first started reading this series (and I mean the entire Camp Half Blood series) when I was 8 and it's taken this long to finally finish them 😭 Apollo my beloved shithead. He grows on you. Like mold.

Not five stars because it felt... anticlimactic? Like I'm not sure why, this had basically every hallmark of a grand finale and didn't quite reach it for me. I think my gripe is that the status quo essentially remained the same while Apollo himself developed a lot as a character. I get that not every abusive parental situation can be resolved neatly but... we're really going to set up Zeus as a tyrant and compare him to Nero and not really do anything about it huh

This is such a warm hug of a series. I want tea, fresh fish, and for the world to be as kind and gentle as this book thinks we can be. Not much really happens, but in a good way - I wasn't scared of anything bad happening to these characters, just happy to spend a little slice of my time with them. 

So gosh darn adorable and fun. Very fast read, but the art and designs are so creative and fun. Maybe not the most innovative story, but it's like a really quick and fun DnD oneshot with players who are really into it

Came for a cute romance, stayed for crying a lot over ADHD feelings

silly review:
I've read enough welcome back bluey season 2 episode 26 "sleepytime" (2020)

serious review:
This is a lot of plotless meandering. And I'm okay with plotless meandering! I enjoy plotless meandering! But sometimes it gets a little too much, and I wonder if *maybe* it could have used less words. And this is not a long book to begin with.

At least the writing is beautiful, but if you want more substance to your books this isn't for you. Me, I can subsist just fine on beautiful words, but I started to feel the drag 3/4 the way in. Some of the passages are truly lovely, but not as impactful as it could have been, lacking any strong emotional attachment to the characters or any stakes. Not all books need them, but I wish there was something more in this book for me to cling to.